How to spend a cool rainy weekend afternoon

MAKE COOKIES!!!


So good!!

It rained all day Saturday, and it was chillier. Baking seemed like the obvious way to deal with such a day.

Though of course, I had nothing to do with the baking myself. It was all this guy here.

He is the master baker of the household.

But I helped, because I was always sampling them as soon as they came out of the oven, when they were still warm ...

How to spend a hot weekend afternoon

Swimming and ice cream!

And these days, our favorite ice cream stand is none other than ...


I know, right? But really, it has the best soft serve cones ever!

Photographer entertains himself by giving me antenna.

I usually go for the chocolate/vanilla twist, but creamsicle twist is awesome too. Tom has tried more flavors than I have but it seems that he likes the chocolate best of all.

It's very fun.

PS - Tom says I look like a superhero in my bathing suit.

High seas adventure!

... well maybe not high seas, exactly.

I went on a sailboat for the first time yesterday!

It was a 19-footer, just like these ones here.


This is my friend Rand. He's the one who took me out.

Hi Rand!

He's been sailing for awhile now. He'd been wanting to take me sailing with him sometime this summer (to make me stop bugging him about it), but weekends lately haven't always been perfect weather for it. But yesterday was sunny with a light breeze.

Everyone has to wear a life vest in these boats.

What do you mean, "Extra small"?!

Then there's all kinds of prep tasks to get the boat ready. I don't have any pictures of this part because the main sail kind of ended up in my lap for awhile. Anyway, Rand took care of everything there, though I think I unclipped the main sail from its bag (yay me!).

Actually, the wind near the docks was so light that we got towed out a ways so we could catch a breeze.


And once we caught a breeze, it was soooo nice and cool!



Rand taught me some sailing terminology. He had me pulling on jib sheets and cleating and uncleating in no time (a little clumsily I might add).

There is a lot of boat traffic in that harbor -- other sailboats, motorboats, cruise ships. It kept Rand busy.

Hmm, is that boat gonna move or do I have to?

But during some calm moments, Rand showed real courage ...


... and gave ME the tiller! Hah!

I gave it back to him when we noticed a freighter coming in behind us (!!).

It was a really great afternoon!

Advice yelled out a car window

I was walking up the street on my way to work this morning, and as I got to a bus stop, I stopped and looked behind me to see if a bus was coming (a typical maneuver).

A guy sitting in his truck saw me do that and yelled out to me, "Ya better wait, or it'll come whipping right past you!"

It took me a second to get what he was saying, actually.

Then I was amused. It's true, that happens -- the bus sneaks up behind me and breezes on by when I'm right between stops. Sometimes it's kind of annoying. But mostly it beats standing around waiting.

The gentleman who dispensed the advice clearly did not have the bus-walker attitude. Then again, he was the one sitting in traffic in a truck and I was the one walking up the street, so I guess it all worked out.

Actually though, the timing of his advice was pretty spot-on, because a bit before I got to the very next stop, I looked behind me and saw the bus coming, and had to jog to make it.

It was nice of him to be so concerned!

Like he owned the place or something

While we were out for a walk the other day, this hawk came swooping out of nowhere.

This was in a small but very public park, with traffic and buses and everything, so people were surprised and stopped to watch him. Not that this guy cared -- he just parked himself on top of this lamp post and checked stuff out. He acted totally unimpressed by humans, but come on, he knew I was checking him out. Look at that pose!

He made a couple dives for a squirrel, missed, and then went off somewhere else.

Think he knows he's so pretty? I say he does.

My kind of Saturday

We walked around one of our favorite nature preserves this past Saturday.

It was a beautiful day out and everything looked very green and healthy. I'd never seen this many lilies on the pond before (the white flowers ... you can kinda see them here).


We like to walk along the edge of the pond, looking for critters.

Well hi there!

I see you back there!

I hadn't been there at a time of year that had quite so many flowers, it was really colorful.


We saw a couple frogs leap away, but didn't see any up close.

And after that we had ice cream!

Snakes, flowers, turtles, and ice cream -- what more can you ask of a Saturday afternoon?

Fun dining in New York

When we were in New York, we had our dinner at this place.


We'd read about it on another blog as having the world's best burgers (or something like that). Tom was intrigued, and we were both up for an adventure.

It's a cool little place, actually. Tom got and very much enjoyed a cheeseburger; my meal did not involve hamburger but it was very tasty as well.

But what really struck me about the place was how this little brick building was completely surrounded by skyscrapers and shiny office buildings. It really looked out of place, this two-story, hundred-year-old building minding its own business when all these alien obelisks fell out of the sky and slammed down next to it.

I love crazy contrasts like that. Plus it was a friendly place that served me Coke in a little glass bottle.

It was fun.

Wicked fun day

Last Saturday, Tom and I drove down to New York for the day. Friday it had poured, and apparently Sunday it poured, but Saturday it was perfect.

We walked all around.

Just in case it wasn't clear exactly where we were ...


At Rockefeller Center, the street was blocked off to traffic because there was some filming going on. That's what everyone's staring after here ...


Tom knows his way around MUCH better than I do, so I'm not exactly sure of the route we walked. But it seemed like just about everywhere we went, I saw something that I at least recognized.


But this was our real destination ...


We'd been wanting to see "Wicked" for awhile, and neither of us had ever seen a Broadway musical before.

AND IT WAS AWESOME!!

Seriously. I knew it would be fantastic, but really, this was ... !! It was breathtaking and brilliant and utterly worth it.

No one's allowed to take pictures while inside the auditorium, even when the show isn't actually going on -- which I guess makes sense, but it was too bad because some of the set decorations they had were really cool to look at.

But there was a miniature version of some of the set pieces in the lobby, which people were allowed to photograph.


We drove back home after the show, which means we got home around 4am.

It was a very long day but it was all fantastic!