Determination



 



A pale predator waiting for the last late visitors to the sunflower. There in the morning before I left for work, there when I returned home at five. Patience is an eight-legged virtue.

 

 

Suburban Sunday

My sister surprised me with a hula hoop today! (Yes, I did want one, as a  matter of fact.) I find I need to practice, though. Apparently it's not like riding a bicycle, where it all comes back in sixty seconds. So, you won't be seeing any video of me just yet. Kenny, on the other hand...

Ken is a natural-born hooper. Some people just have the skill.

 

 

Nick Lowe at the Boulton Center

                                                                                   

 

Nick Lowe came to the YMCA Boulton Center in Bay Shore last night, the second stop in his latest tour after opening in Philadelphia. Traveling light, he was, with just the one guitar.  I'm not a musician, I don't even play one on TV, but he sounds great to me, especially for a guy who's been singing for five decades now.

The only unfamiliar tune he played was from his upcoming Christmas album (which might be the first Christmas album I ever buy, as it promises to be "The kind of record that gives vulgar, tawdry commercialism a good name!"  

At the end, with hundreds of his own songs left unsung, he borrowed his second encore (as it seems he borrowed his eyeglasses) from his pal Declan M., but his voice is the point, and it delivers.

Lake George Weekend

 

 

A few days of fun with our awesome nephews in Lake George, a place I haven't been since I was their age.

Featuring: singing in the car, circus amazement, sunshine and water slides, spectacular sunsets, mountainous clouds, an exciting windy thunderstorm we didn't get caught in (you could actually see the thunder), and a full moon sailing above on Sunday night.

 

The Big Apple Circus was our first stop after pulling in late on Friday afternoon.

Okay, first stop after checking into the hotel.

Okay, third stop after checking in and getting some dinner.

The point is, yay we saw the circus!

The next morning we got out on the lake in a boat (because why wouldn't you, given the chance?)

                                                                                                                                          

 

 

 

A crack view of the south end of the lake came with lunch on the patio at the Overlook Cafe...

 



A hotel pool is the very definition of paradise when you're eight and ten (and more.)

We got ice cream at the A&W Drive-In,

 

 

which I commend for having the nicest sign in the world:

Sunday we spent the whole day at Water Slide World. My first time at this kind of place; what I found is, it's the kind of thing you just have to give yourself up to. You're here, you're hot and carrying stuff, soon you're gonna be wet on top of it all. So be it. My first time in a wave pool, or on a giant water slide. Or, come to think of it, any water slide. Yes, we took eight- and ten-year-old boys to a water park, and it's all about me.

 

They had a blast, and look at these crowds! (I kid) We practically had the place to ourselves, so it was kind of a grown-up's paradise as well.

 

One thing you can't complain about in Lake George is a lack of high-quality miniature golf courses. The place we played (all 36 holes of it) featured a special decoration: Paul Bunyan from the World's Fair! Of 1939, if those geometric shapes on the sign are supposed to mean anything. I can't find any documentation for this. Also, I'm not sure Paul Bunyan is supposed to look this menacing:

 

We worked up an appetite playing golf around the world, and went to the Adirondack Brewery and Restaurant for dinner. Our waitress gave balloons to the kids as we left, which I ended up tying to my handbag during the walk home. We were ambling down the sidewalk together when suddenly, there was an English bulldog charging full speed (well as full as his stubby little legs could go) at our little group, followed by a man yelling, "Charlie, NO! NO balloons! No balloons!!" Charlie meant no harm - it's not like he could jump very high or anything - he just loooved balloons, apparently. I wish I'd gotten a picture of him. But here's one of the walk home, sans balloons.

 

The full moon was settled in before sunset was over.

 

 

 

Damselfly

 

Someone Panics Easily

 

      When this happened to me I just called it a "delivery".

Be It Ever So Humble...

...it's still unfrozen water, and everybody's happy to get some.

Had two new visitors to the feeder today, two tufted titmice! Very common at feeders in the northeast, apparently, but the first time I've seen them! Sadly, DH is at work. I'll hope they come back tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I got pictures:

 

And... We're Back In Business!

Yes, we're back without ever knowing why it was we suddenly couldn't upload an image from our computer. Then today, the little window and "browse" icon appear in the exact same place they had recently disappeared from, and... voila! Order is restored to the universe and I can go back to not posting on a semi-regular basis. As a reward for your patience please enjoy this photo of a faithful member of my breakfast club..

Oh Phooey.

So I wasn't paying attention, and all of a sudden I can't upload photos from my computer to Blogger? What is it now? What? But I can paste in a file from a URL, so here is an old photo from my Flickr account.
This must change.
 

 

 

Uh-oh. I have lost the ability to post still photos, so I can't show you the hawk that showed up this morning, but here are the indomitable blue jays who were back the minute after the big guy took off.:   

 

 

Now please excuse me while I try to figure out why I can't post files from my desktop...