Lori's Blog

Sunday Afternoons at my House ...

2012-01-16T06:01:00.002-06:00

An EXCEPTIONALLY wonderful Sunday afternoon with Jessie. Started out with a few necessary 'beauty' treatments, then on to dinner that Dad had cooked, next Disney.com on my laptop - set up next to my desk on a small table ... Two gals just surfin the web .... all the while chatting and having a delightful time.

We start getting ready for her to go back to her Group Home since she likes to throw fits about leaving ... even though she ADORES the place, her Day Hab and her friends. It is just something she does (and SO, SO hard ....).

Got her goody bag packed, the Group Home aide came to get her (this had stopped her fits, she will happily skip off to THEIR CAR ...) hugs all round and the door closes.

I breathe a sigh of relief to have dodged "The Monster Tantrum" yet another week. They really bother me and the sadness, frustration and depression that is generated by them seems to stick to me like a second skin that only time will eventually slough off ...

Minutes later we hear her very, very loud high pitched banshee wail coming from the vicinity of the aides car. I want to run and hide in my closet ... anywhere, where I don't have to hear the "I don't want to go back"s, the manipulative crying ... 10 volumes too loud, but I open the door and step outside - determined to not let her in the house. That's one point for me ... one thing she will not win just by screaming at the top of her lungs.

She is strong and trying to barrel past me, the aide standing there wondering what to do. Her kind, brown, gentle eyes are wide and frightened ... she has never seen Jessie act in any way but happy and bursting with enthusiasm and joy .... she clearly does not recognize this young woman in front of her - pushing, and screaming, and hitting - this is a private show - for parents only ...

And it is most definitely a "show" she can turn it off whenever she feels like it. Happens all the time. If I weren't in the process of rejoicing that the ordeal is over, I would probably be much more angry about how she does it so easily ...

Gary arrives just in time to help me with the "not going back in the house" stance. She moves on to " Act 2" sitting on the ground, removing her shoes and kicking me if I get too close.

Our mode of operation during these 'tantrums' is to calmly talk to her - ask her questions "Why don't you want to go back?" She doesn't know. "Why are you acting like this?" She doesn't know. The screaming follows a wave pattern - at it's lowest, neighbors a block away can hear her ... At its highest - those same neighbors can hear her from inside their house, windows closed, air running and a football game on the Telly ... up loud.

It's running a typical course, the logical part of my brain saying "Just ride it out" while the "Mother" part of my brain ... that part with a direct, non-stop path to the heart ... is off in a dark corner somewhere weeping quietly ...

Things apparently are not going in a manner that would most keep her amused, so she decides to head on to "Act 3" - a very common act ...during the last months she lived at home you could count on this skit played out almost daily ... sometime with multiple encores ....

I see it in her eyes a second too late. I involuntarily yelp out "Jess!" the WORST thing I can do ... react. In fact, this is how she has perfected her show - by seeing what gets the biggest reaction ...

We try not to react at all, but much easier as a theory of "How not to hand your daughter ammunition to break your heart, freak you out, make your blood boil in anger, etc, etc, etc" than it is to accomplish in actual reality ...

She balls her fist and hits herself in the nose as hard as she can. My hand and lung mere milliseconds too late. She has won this round ... but not entirely. True ... she now has blood POURING from her nose, and true ... she is letting it drip from her face onto her hands and arms and clothes and the ground. But the ground in this episode happens to be the front porch, not the light cream colored carpet inside that she loved to defile ....

A small victory, but you haven't lived until you get to ... daily ... clean hundreds of blood drops from your carpet ... And in later years - wipe down the walls after she discovers the joys of finger painting and discovers what happens if you get close to the wall and just blow out, hard, of your nose ...

(just an inappropriate side note: the blood? SO MUCH NICER than during the stint where we tried to get her to sleep in her own room and locked the door from the outside - giving her MULTIPLE times where we got her a drink, she used the toilet, etc. But every night the screaming continued ... and every night, be it one, two, three or four hours since we had put her down for the night - she decided it would be fun to fingerpaint the walls, herself, the carpet, her bed ... with her feces.

Every.

Single.

Night.

Discovered our breaking point was 3 months ... gave up trying ...

My motto?

Since around 1988?

"It can always be worse ...".

See?

Now the blood doesn't sound all that bad, does it?)

But as for her latest trick - the blood flowed freely and often ... If you, for fun, decided to Luminol our house? You would have me down at the "Station" in Interrogation asking me where I hid the body ....

Her arms are dripping blood, half her face is covered. The pretty dress she was wearing was beginning to look like a crime scene photo. I sigh and go inside for a washcloth. Old, familiar territory.

The logical part of my brain is starting to panic. I call the woman in charge of the group home ... Jessie ADORES her. She talks to Jess, she tells me she is coming to pick her up herself ... we hang up. I small ray of hope enters my psyche - Jessie loves Iffy, she will go with her, no question about it.

The Group Home aide leaves.

Gary says he will take Jess to the backyard and wait with her until Iffy arrives, cleans her up a bit.

I return inside. When Jessie is like this - I seem to fan the flames and make everything worse, so usually my actual self can be found approximately in the same type of spot as my "Mother" brain .... hiding in a remote corner ... trying to keep that 'weeping' part bottled up ... Generally depends on the day whether or not I succeed.

As I am standing in the office looking at my computer monitors, but not really seeing them ... overwhelmed yet again by my emotions. I marvel that it really, truly - after hundreds of 'productions' - NEVER, EVER stops feeling as if someone has drop-kicked me ... then ripped my heart to shreds just for good measure.

There is no hardening here ... no "getting used to" not even a smidgen of 'learning to cope' ... just me

Staring at nothing ....

Shaking. ...

Thoughts all a jumble ...

Tears dripping from my chin ...

Heart in tatters ...

Wondering -

How long?

How long this time?

How long will it take to put all my pieces back together again?

And as I wonder how long, this time, will it be before I gain some sense of emotional control, I hear Gary and Jessie laughing in the backyard ...

Finally! My Final Day in Norway ...

2012-01-12T17:21:00.034-06:00

Gary and I had one day to drive around and go visit whatever we wanted on Thursday after a quick meeting Gary had - so we made sure to make wise choices on where we wanted to go.

First stop, of course was 'My Mountain' - where our house was. We wanted to see the house but also - the ski jump - Holmenkollen Ski Jump - that we drove by every time we came off the mountain had since been torn down and a new one put up. It was not within code and they wanted to be able to host international ski jump competitions - so Oslo was building something new and up to code. We wanted to see if 'we approved'.

The old ski jump on a beautiful day when I was above the clouds that covered Oslo Fjord:

And the new ski jump:

We decided that we approved ...

Drove by Holmenkollen Hotel - our home for the last week we lived in Norway while we supervised the packing and move out of the house:

Tried to find that 'perfect spot' to take a photo of the ski jump. I think this is it. Gary thinks not since he did not remember a fence - but there was a fence on both sides of the road that looked new. I am sure we will never know ...

A quick photo of the church next to the ski jump. I cannot remember the name and Google is being a butt right now and not letting me see a map of the area so I can find the name. It is where all the royals are baptized and such ... (OK - Google is back and it is surprisingly called "Holmenkollen Chapel")

We drove by the house, but it was high enough that it was in the clouds - thus no great photos. We were also chickens and didn't go knock on the door and see if Hans lived there or if he had rented it out again. His plan was to move back in and it would have been good to see him - but ... chickens ...

Then off to Holmenkollen Restaurant since it has a bitchin' view of the Oslo Fjord. This sculpture of a speed skater is new since we lived there - I like her:

And the beautiful Oslo Fjord:

The sun does not get very high in the winter - just skims the hills - but it is beautiful in its own way ...

Sigh ... I LOVE this view ...

I looked down from the deck I was standing on to see THE CUTEST LITTLE ROUND HOUSE EVER!!! I sort of remember that something yellow was down there, but had never really looked - isn't it ADORABLE?

One final photo, a quiet goodbye, and back to the car ...

And on to Bærums Verk!!! My favorite place to shop - all hand made crafts made the old fashioned way in an old iron works factory (I think ... I have forgotten SO MUCH ...)

There are a ton of statues and sculptures there - this one is new. It is concave but seems to look convex:

Beautiful river flowing through it. Can you see the (new) blue scuba divers?

And a shot of the inside of my FAVORITE STORE!!! They sold hand made wooden containers called Tine's and I was addicted to buying them - they are all over my house now holding treasures of all sorts ...

One of the cute buildings on the complex (sold chocolate if I remember right ...)

Then on the road again and on our way to our final destination: THE NORTH POLE! Yes, we were heading to where Jule Nissen (Santa) lives. A total town dedicated to Christmas. You know you are in Drøbak when you see the yeild sign with the silhouette of Santa and his bag running across the road ... (you can see the yeild sign in the very next to last photo hanging on the cash register).

On our way - the sun began to set - it was 3:00 in the afternoon. If there is one thing that Norway knows how to do - and do well - is paint a beautiful sunset:

So by the time we hit Drøbak it was dark. I spent some time with my tripod taking HDR photos while Gary looked through the stores. This is the cutest little church just outside of the town square:

I saw this cool tree and decided it needed photos also:

And then a shot of the town center:

Then into the main store (the one where you can mail your letters to Santa:

An old fashioned cash register that I really liked and the 'Santa 'Watch out For' Sign':

I was beyond pooped (aka sick) and so Gary gallantly went to get the car while I waited on the porch of the main Christmas store. It was quiet, and peaceful, and beautifully lit. I had a minute or two to reflect that this was it, my final moments in Norway. We would be getting up in the morning and heading to the airport in the dark (of course) and a feeling of sadness washed over me.

Would I ever be back? Was it enough? Why was I so in love with this country? I don't have any of the answers to those questions ...

.... maybe in another chapter of my life I will figure them all out

.... or maybe not ...

Karl Johan's Gate ... in the daytime!

2012-01-02T18:15:00.007-06:00

I know that it has been almost forever since I was in Norway, but the holidays got in the way, then when I went to pick out what files I wanted to show y'all - there were 124 - which isn't so bad if some good music is playing and you are mindlessly downloading them to your blog. Can be done in no time at all ...

But, if you happen to be psychotic, have a severe case of OCD and want to show details in what you are displaying on the blog (mainly because the details are why I picked that particular photo in the first place ...) it involves no less than Photoshop editing, 3 plug ins and a wee bit of time. Plus a TON OF PATIENCE. Which I, of course, don't have. I would edit a few some days and just sit there and say to myself that if I had to edit one more ... I would put my fist through one of my very pretty monitors ... so I would (surprising, no?) stop.

Some days I got quite a few done and was having so much fun, I would take an hour on one photo! No good for a blog and a ton of photos - but ever so much fun for me. Those days I didn't stop ... well - until I decided that if I didn't get up and walk around - I might be crawling to my bed ...

There seemed to be no happy medium. Some days I liked using the 'Bleach Bypass' process to pull out the details - makes things look a wee bit like an overblown HDR photo - but shows detail. I used it more than I ought to have and would try to reduce the impact by lowering the opacity of the bleached processed layer - but you can still tell that this month I am infatuated with it.

One of the plug ins has a way of pulling out the detail also - and at high levels, it starts to look the same as a bleach bypass photo - so lots of funky photos this time around - they just look a bit ... off. But - if you look closely - you will find that you can ... look closely! That all the little tiny details of something are all right there just waiting for you to explore them!

OK, enough about the photos - I will pretty much just dump them on the screen and try to keep the nattering down to a minimum.

This first one (I will mention) is the first view of Oslo Cathedral we get as we walked from the Radisson to its location (I say we - since Gary and I walked the same path the night before - I was alone during this photo taking session. There are simply a TON of wires in the sky, along the buildings - part of a trolly system (? I can't remember) or just there to annoy photographers? This photo I tried taking all the wires out since it looks just divine without them - but since it took me hours and there were over 30 wires in this one photo alone - I told myself that y'all were going to have to see the wires and I had to stop wasting time taking them out - so most of the rest of the photos have wires in them unless they were quick to get rid of or bugging me more than usual ...

Beautiful arches into what look like stores in the annex portions of what looks like the Cathedral.

Two beautiful statues above the main door into the chapel - and the door:

Various views of the Cathedral as I walked around it and on to my destination:

One word:

CHICKENS!!!

SERIOUSLY?

WHY, WHY, OH WHY would you make a

STATUE OF CHICKENS???

It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma and all hard boiled ...

A photo that seemed to have wandered out of place ... I thought that I had them all in order. This, as we have mentioned before in earlier posts, is Stortinget - Norway's beautiful parliament building.

AND THIS - is the entry to "Oslo Sweater Shop". Yeah, beautiful, knit woolen Norwegian sweaters.

Let's just say that they really, really liked me there ...

Oh, and it is way before Stortinget - after the Cathedral, but on the way to Stortinget - thus the reason I said Stortinget is lost ... (Cute troll, yes? We have grundles of them at home and LOVE them! Though, ours are a wee bit smaller ...)

You know that part about me shutting up? It WILL HAPPEN - soon I think ...

THIS LOVELY LADY is MAGICAL. I took (no kidding) about 10 photos of her. With my big, sophisticated camera. Each time, I used the auto-focus and each time a tiny red light showed up on the screen - HITTING SOME PORTION OF HER - not the wall, not the sky, not the street - and beeped saying it was in focus. And so each time I snapped a photo. Got back and downloaded my photos AND NOT A SINGLE ONE WAS IN FOCUS. That is a very cool trick ... well, FOR HER, not so much for me. She was an absolutely breath taking sculpture attached to a wall and I really liked her. And I had no time to go back in the light and shoot her again.

So - I did basically the only thing you can do with an out of focus photo - posterized it to make it useable as a bit of 'abstract art' that is fooling no one. Just wanted you to see her.

Still wondering how she did that ...

I have included a lot of details that I find on the buildings. I could probably tell you which building it came from and the building probably has a name - but I don't care enough right now (I want to go lay down) to figure that all out for you - so I hope you can enjoy them anonymously ...

Apotek - A version of the word apothecary (I think) - which in Europe seemed to be the word for Pharmacy - in some sort of spelling of the word - everywhere we went ...

Stortinget IN ORDER (of appearance while I was walking):

And MY FAVORITE building along the walk - I think it is rather beautiful: (lots of photos of it to follow):

A Candle holder. Used everywhere and usually not three feet high like this one. I used them, I HAVE them. Sadly they are shoved in a closet somewhere ....

so pretty ...

"Time For Aftenposten" - the newspaper that I still read sporadically ...

And my second favorite building. This one just boggles my mind that they could add all that work to a building .... what? Just to make it pretty? I am no expert in architecture, but this seems rather inefficient ...

and very thankful for those that deem this beauty more important than efficiency!

Seriously my FAVORITE DUDE on the street (less one - but he can't be called a 'dude') there are a TON of these on the front of the building (you can see them in other photos) ... what are they? The welcoming committee?

Seriously creepy looking statue - only because his eyes look like they have been poked out ...

The ever present gaggle of children. I tend to not take photos of them, because I don't want to alarm the adults that I am taking photos of children - and have had some (humorous) run ins while doing so - so I took one from far away (this being at minimum the 10th group I had passed on my walk - and this is not a 'special' day - you will see this many children's school classes out and about every day). The children in Norway are taught school in a very different manner than the children in the States. They truly believe that every minute sitting at a desk is one more minute the children are NOT learning. They teach by doing, by seeing, by going places and learning about things. They have recess - just sheer play time for at least 3 hours of their day. It was interesting to learn about the school system in Norway - Jessie attended a special education Norwegian school and the teachers there loved to tell me the differences between our schools and theirs and why theirs were so superior ...

looked kinda fun ...

One of our favorite sights as a family when walking around downtown ...

Pretty, pretty lady ...

I cannot BEGIN to tell you how much fun I had with this 'fellow'!!

I kept TELLING HIM, AND TELLING HIM while taking his photo that

"THERE IS NOTHING OVER THERE, REALLY"

and

"I REALLY THINK YOU SHOULD CALM DOWN ... NOTHING THERE (in singsongy voice)"

I am unsure how the Norwegians took to me speaking with him, but he, well - seems so ...

ALARMED

I felt he needed a good talking to ...

Was impressed as I started looking closer at this building (belonging to "Pretty Lady" and "Freaked Out Guy" also) that each of the decorations were different, not just duplicates:

And,

NO

this guy WAS NOT TO THE LEFT OF "FREAKED OUT GUY" ...

In the winter, Norwegians hang out these bundles of straw for the birds to eat the seeds. I thought it was quaint and pretty and I was surprised when we drove up to our old house to see one tied on the entrance onto the property. Not surprised that it was odd that it was there - but it surprised me that we went through two winters there and not once did I think to buy one and hang it anywhere ... I must not have any Norwegian in me.

BUT!

I did have my bird feeder and rather enjoyed the birds COMING TO ME and letting me watch their antics as they ate birdseed outside my desk window ...

A Festival of sorts was set up around what in the summer is a big pond with fountains and in the winter is an ice skating rink.

Be VERY PROUD of me ...

I did not buy anything ...

Here are some of the lovely Nordic sweaters that I loved so much ...

While these fellows look like they are enjoying themselves in the summer - I worry about them freezing off their little naked butts in the winter ...

Again with the freezing naked butts ... (I don't mind the naked - been in Europe too many times and too long for naked to bother me - but the FREEZING ... BRRRRR)

Note the arrow pointing to the water - I GOT THAT CLOSE to the fjord and the Harbour - but my feet were getting sore ...

I know it might come as a shock after reading the big name on the building - but this is the National Theatre ...

See that taxi down there? I was all taking photos of these three matching buildings (I forget what they are - thus the lack of labels above), with the Palace right to my left and the National Theatre behind me and I was all ...

"Turn around and walk to the Harbour? Take more photos?"

or ...

"The Taxi?"

"Turn around and walk to the Harbour? More photos?"

or ...

"The Taxi?"

"The Harbour? More photos?"

or ...

"The Taxi?"

"The Harbour?"

or ...

"The Taxi?"

And as you can see by the imminent end to this post which one won out!!!

Walked into my hotel room to the prettiest light coming in the window ...

Because of this! It lasted for about 5 minutes ...

Five full minutes of sunshine!!!

Well, I am not promising when my last day of photos from Norway will be posted. Every time I make a promise - "The Fates" intervene and it takes at least 4 times as long as had I not made the promise in the first place (it is my theory ....)

So ...

Later ...

New Conversations

2011-12-26T05:21:00.005-06:00

Christmas was a bit different this year - with Norway right before it, me in and out of bed (mostly in) but the one constant that has not wavered is (since Jessie moved out to a group home) is having Jess here for 3 days. OK, really a half day - Christmas Dinner, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day ... survive, survive, survive, and then on to the day after Christmas when we take her home - sometimes in the morning - sometimes later than that - but it SEEMS like 3 whole days ....

This year was no different. I may go back and fill in the blanks from my beautiful evening on Karl Johan's Gate to sitting here on the day she is leaving the day after Christmas, or maybe not - we will see how the week goes.

But one thing I wanted to write about (enough to get me out of bed a 4:30am after finding my notes on the conversation) was my new conversations with Jessie. She seems a bit more mature in her conversations with me - this is an

INDESCRIBABLE,

IMMEASURABLE

joy to me.

To ACTUALLY have a conversation with my daughter! Not some back and forth .... whatever ... with someone with a three year old mentality.

There are still the "Thank you so much for the clothes, Mom", and "Thank you so much for Aladin, Mom", and "Can I have "x", "y" or "z" food item?" but we reached a new level in conversations and an understanding of sorts on Christmas Day ....

Jessie: "Mom, sometimes you get mad at me. You were mad at me last night."

Lori: "Yes, Jessie - sometimes I get mad at you. But I also get frustrated with you. Last night at 2:00am when you got up and wanted to see Daddy - I was frustrated with you - do you understand that? I was not mad right then."

Jessie: "But you get mad at me."

Lori: "Yes, Jessie, I do sometimes and I am sorry. But last night when I told you that you couldn't go see Daddy and you started with that screaming and fake crying (that you can totally turn off in a second) that woke everyone in the house and probably the neighbors houses? Yeah, I did get mad at you. Mommy does not like it that you just throw a huge ... very loud ... fit to get your way. And it makes me mad. Does it make you sad when I get mad at you?"

Jessie: "Yes"

Lori: "Then why do you throw fits when mommy says no?"

Jessie: "I don't know, I'm sorry Mom."

Lori: "How about this - I will try to not get mad at you if you will try not to do that screaming, head spinning 360 degrees thing where you wake the neighbors .... is it a deal?"

Jessie: "Deal"

Jessie walks away, stops and turns back around to me: "I love you Mom ..."

Lori: "I love you too Miss Jess" (whispering as she watches her beautiful, grown daughter walk away from her "oh, so, so much more than you will ever, ever know sweet baby girl ...")

Karl Johan's Gate

2011-12-13T22:31:00.001-06:00

To those of you who have never heard a Norwegian pronounce the most famous street in Oslo - it is pronounced: "Carl" "Yo-hans" "Ga-ta" (Gate = Street and they always put an "a" sound when the word ends with an 'e' - there you go - your trivia for the day ...)

I got up - rather leisurely and noticed that it was raining ... hard. So I went back to bed. Very tough day. But after I was actually up and had consumed my 2 croissants with approximately 1 cup of raspberry jam, and back down in the room - I was feeling a bit of 'cabin fever' and had wanted to walk Karl Johan's Gate today and take photographs of all of the marvelous old buildings - but ... ick. I could go out, get a bit wet - which I don't mind, but my camera would also get wet and the pictures would be crap ... so what would be the point?

Went downstairs (I had been thrown out of the room by Housekeeping) and shot the crap out of anything and everything that looked the least bit decorative in the lobby while Norwegians stared, spoke softer when I approached their comfort zone, and rather quickly wandered to another part of the lobby. Why? Me: a wild looking woman who had been thrown out of her room, not particularly dressed for that (but not buck naked either ...) hair uncombed in an unruly ponytail and a bit of a crazed look in her eye with a couple of cameras and shooting a TON of photos of basically nothing (I'm pretty sure some of them were convinced that I was mentally unstable bad / or mentally handicapped. Hmmmmm ... that talking to myself probably didn't help anything either ...) if I ran into myself I would saunter off quickly too.

So - I went back to the room, was laying around surfing the web when a good friend from here in Oslo called. We were going to meet up some time this week and she was calling me to tell me that she was stranded for a few days and this would have been the only day we could have met for her.

She lives about 45 mins out of Oslo (made driving in to church fun ...) and up more north where it was also raining - but, unfortunately turning to ice as it hit what ever it landed on since the temp was a degree below freezing. So no electricity yesterday to look up my phone number to call me or to write me a note, and today - sheets of ice on the roads so no toodling on down to Oslo to meet an old friend. So we spent a few hours on the phone catching up - which was about the same - so that was good.

It was getting dark when I hung up with Turid ("Turrrr" roll that 'r' "eed") it was about 3:00pm but with the rain and all ... I decided that I would play with the focus of my big camera and set it up on the tri-pod.

It never ceases to amaze me that I can shoot a photograph through a rain covered window, focusing on something in the distance and the raindrops almost disappear! So I thought I would set my focus on some fun spots and waste some time ...

This is a series that I shot at a street light down the road a bit. My 'infinity' setting was not infinit-eed enough to focus very well on the setting, but it had to work for my other shots and by this point I was not very picky ...

The other shots are just as the street lights and car lights start to blur and the raindrops come into focus - makes a funky bokeh circle!

The last shot is the raindrops with the lights behind them. I only moved the focus - not the lens or the tri-pod - so what is showing in each shot is exactly the same.

That took up an exciting half an hour!

Since it was dark and since it had gone to bed rather late the night before (which was about 2 hours ago as I type - I'm in trouble ...) I decided that a nap was in order! Lay down and fell asleep!

JUST LIKE THAT!

No muss, no fuss, just fell asleep!

DAMN!!!!

Why can't I do that at night ... oh, say EVERY NIGHT?

Oddly enough - it was still dark when Gary showed up after his meetings to find me asleep in bed. And ...

GUESS WHAT?

IT HAD STOPPED RAINING!!!

So off to dinner and to take night shots!

Pretty little church on our way to Mamma Rosa's - an Italian place off of Karl Johan's Gate and EXCELLENT:

The one above was taken with my smaller camera with a wide angle lens. The one below is an HDR composite I took with my big Canon:

A pretty building with the most wonderful snowflakes all over it ... they were huge!

Statue of some dude that wanted to be in all my photos so I let him have one of his own ... don't know who he is (didn't look).

We turned onto Karl Johan's Gate and I set up my camera and took this shot down the street (a pedestrian street for a bit right here):

Another shot down the street, just up the street a bit further:

A BEAUTIFUL building that this photo does not do justice (an aside: all my photos in this blog are CRAP! Just sayin' I don't have all my 'tools' just a scaled down version of Photoshop and Gary told me to go to bed even before I had finished choosing which photos to use, so I spent probably - no exaggeration - approximately 30 seconds on each - so .... yeah crap and throw aways. I will re-edit the originals when I get home). There are pretty little cherubs above the door - wonderful decorations. Hopefully it won't be raining tomorrow and I can go and get all my photos:

A building - not as pretty as the last. As we were walking towards it all the fairy lights were lined up 'just so' and they seemed to be one continual set - but from this angle they aren't that impressive. But I guess since I decided to take a photo of the building ... I would take a photo of the building ...

Pretty Christmas tree on the street (OK,a real tree PRETENDING to be a Christmas tree ...):

And - the street dead ends at the Palace where the King and Queen live. We were not going to walk down that far and night is not the best time to be taking photos of stuff a ways away - so ... crap:

An HDR one from my big camera ... also crap:

Here we have a ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL building - called "Stortinget" and is their Parliament building. Lovely, yes?

And off to the left of Stortinget is the lovely, old 'Grand Hotel' I have walked through it and it is simply divine:

ABSOLUTELY, without a doubt, the largest, most hideous sign on Karl Johan's Gate! It is HUGE! On top of a beautiful old building and is in every freaking photo you take of the area. A serious eye-sore - and EVERYONE hates it.

But they make REALLY, REALLY GOOD CHOCOLATE ...

We ate dinner and decided to take the subway back. We tried to buy subway tickets, but after purchasing one with coins, Gary tried (as did a helpful Norwegian) to feed in a Fifty Kroner bill for the other and it refused to take it. He only had 2 50's and then only 500's and it did not take such a large bill - so we were out of luck. It is basically on the honor system - with periodic checks by the 'subway police' and if you are caught without a ticket - it is a hefty fine.

So Gary decided to walk and I was to take the subway:

Gary had said to go one stop East - handed me some money should I suddenly become mentally dense and get lost for Taxi fare back to the hotel (I have no phone so we make sure we know EXACTLY what is going on since we cannot communicate). I also did not have a key to the room, having left with him I didn't take mine. I told him if I beat him there, I would wait in the lobby.

Went down into the subway (going East) and looked at the maps - and sure enough - all the lines would take me there so what ever showed up first, I could get on and take it back. The map showed where I was (the 'Stortinget' stop) and various other stops along the line heading east, but it bothered me that it did not label them - or show me where the central train station is - since THAT I knew was where I was to get off.

But Gary said one stop, so I didn't worry - hopped on the next train and took it one stop. Walked out of the subway tunnel and was staring at the Church we had been taking photos of! SO NOT THE NEXT STOP ...

Good thing the Radisson is tall and labeled! So I started trudging back and found that I could not cross a very busy street - there were no lights and it was fenced off. But the subway station was right there - and so was the mall that I was at the day before.

I decided to go into the mall and find where I had left the mall the day before to orient myself and (if you read my blog from yesterday ...) sure enough! There was the deli where I had bought my dinner the day before! Headed down to it and out the doors to run smak dab into a very concerned looking Gary!

He had been to the room and waited, and waited and got nervous - so assuming I would be coming out of that station - he headed down there ...

So A VERY GOOD THING that I couldn't cross the street and A VERY GOOD thing that I decided to go through the mall to find my way out ...

because if not,

I am pretty sure that we would still be wandering around looking for each other - passing one another on different floors, too dark to see ....

You name it - it would have happened - these things just like to follow me around so

VERY LUCKY TONIGHT!!!

Well, I had better get to bed before the sun comes up ...

Oh! Wait - that does not happen until 10:00!

I'm fine!

** Disclaimer - if you read this ... say sometime Tues evening - you will be reading it before I have even read it through - so probably some mistakes and rambling ... Yeah - like that's going to go away with me reading it again! But I WILL proof it in the morning ...

Night ....

Lazy Days and Mondays ...

2011-12-12T17:37:00.040-06:00

I was going to say that I woke to dreary, foggy, gray, rainy weather - but I never fell asleep, so that just won't do ...

But the weather really did look crappy. All the snow from last night had melted and it was just raining lightly.

I decided to head to the hotels breakfast. As I left my room I thought that the hallway looked cool - so I took the camera that lives in my pants pocket out and snapped some shots. Here are three of those photos - notice how they all are different looking ... partly because of the settings I used on my camera and partly due to some rigorous photoshopping!

Got to the room where you eat and this little beauty was there:
Norwegian 'buffet' type breakfasts are ... complicated! Everywhere we stayed in Norway = if they served breakfast at all had quite a large selection of things to eat.

Here we have the bread selection. My favorite choice since their bringebær jam is TO DIE FOR! (You would quickly notice that it is raspberry jam if you saw it ...). I grabbed a few rolls, stole a small coffee cup and filled it with some jam - some pats of smør (butter) and I was set!

There is the 'Cheese & Meats Area' which has a HUGE assortment of cheeses to choose from - with crackers. In addition to the cheeses there is a large assortment of things to top it with - sardines, other fish, some pasty looking stuff, and a lot of varieties of sliced meat.

They have the fruit area with a very large assortment of fruits to choose from:
In addition to all this, there was a section of cereals, granola's and yogurt. Granola with a soft yogurt poured over it is a common breakfast here. There was also the 'Traditional' American fare - eggs, bacon, but with that comes - a 'pork and beans' type of bean, mini hot dogs instead of sausage, and some other hot items I cannot remember ...

Absconded with my bread and jam (Norway had the MOST DELICIOUS 7 grain bread I have ever had. When my sisters (4 of them) and my mom came out for a 'Sibs Week' (minus the brother) I had bought a few loaves of this bread and went upstairs to change. I came down to find that they had gone through a loaf and a half! It really is wonderful! Headed to my hotel room.

Decided to take photos - it was nine O'Clock and still dark so I waited a bit, then broke out the tri-pod (finally) and started snapping away:

This is the overnight ferry to Copenhagen, Denmark that we used several times. You drove your car on - had a room with two sets of bunk beds and it had a couple of 'Cruise' type floors with movie theaters and dining rooms and such. It was a relaxing (as relaxing as you can be with Jessie on a boat ...) way to get to Denmark.

Here is part of Oslo Fjord:

An older section of town is out my window - and the central train station! It is not noisy at all so that is nice, but not much to photograph - I gave it my best shot!

I don't know if this is still their building but the Aftenposten is a newspaper which I read online all the time - now I only refer to it from time to time:

Cute something with a light house looking thingy on it:

I am not sure, but I do not believe they had these triple buses when we lived here!

This beautiful red building is right front and center out my window and is on one side of all the train rails. It might be a station type building, I cannot tell from here:

But look at the beautiful detail on this treasure:

The sun, having only been up a few hours was waning and the room was getting dark. That was my indicator that it was time to shower and head to the mall for some shopping!

Took this photo at about 2:00 in the afternoon. It is of part of our hotel room pointing towards the window - rather dark for 2:00 ...

Put on a coat, loaded my cameras and wallet in my backpack and off I went - to the mall! Right across the street ... EXHAUSTING!!!

Love that they have these fairy lights strung up all over everywhere:

Passed a brick building that had the most unusual artwork projects cemented right in with the brick - some were hideous, some ... not so much:

And I'm at the mall! Looking for a few things - soap and a TON of juice. I have been craving juices for the last few days and thought I might as well go for it ...

All dressed up for Christmas ...
A shot of the deli where I bought my dinner (Gary was eating out with the work people this evening). I SO KNOW YOU CARE ...

Then home to a very dark hotel room. I decided to practice my night shots. A ways in I decided to practice my HDR night shots. I think they are coming along rather well, but I think HDR is a matter of preference ...

This is a photo at night of the beautiful little building far away up the hill a bit (WITHOUT HDR):
Here is my HDR version using 3 bracketed photos and building it in Photoshops HDR feature since I don't have my other HDR software with me (boy - I am REALLY missing my photoshop plug-ins!):

I like the HDR one better - don't know if that is normal or not ... don't care ...

Again - a non-HDR shot:

And my HDR version:

And I saved the best for last - my favorite - the pretty red building. The non-HDR shot (it is pretty no matter what!):

And a two-fer! One of just the red building and one with the funky white bridge, the railroad tracks and other stuff with it. Both also made with three photos each, but the bracketing I used was spaced much further apart than I have been doing - I like it better like this: (if that didn't make sense and you want to know what I meant - since I am too lazy to write the explanation out, call me - I will explain ...)

And that's it!

All I did on this lazy, hazy, doozy of a Monday!

Off to bed rather late ... NOT good when I am under the weather - but doing SO MUCH BETTER THAN YESTERDAY!

Wonder if I will fall asleep?

I'm In Norway!!! (Finally ...)

2011-12-11T20:13:00.007-06:00

After:

Deciding that I was too sick to go Norway and mourning about it ...

Then deciding to go anyway, after Gary and my two best friends said that I would kick myself if I didn't go, knowing that was entirely true ...

Staying up half the night trying to pack with a wooly, fuzzy brain (sometimes happens when I am sick - I have a hard time making decisions and planning)

Hauling myself out of bed Saturday morning wondering what the heck I was doing ...

Sitting in the Houston airport still wondering what I was doing - but excited and knowing I had made the right decision. Tried to find my "Airport Zen" and just sat around ...

and Waited ... And Waited ... And Waited ...

Arriving in Newark, walking the half mile to our departing gate. Soooo proud of myself! I was having problems in Houston and a cart stopped by us and Gary made me get on it ... I got on and someone else got on also so Gary had walked a ways ahead of us. I was seated backwards and as I passed him I told him that it made me feel old ...

Then settling in for our 3 1/2 hour lay over in Newark. Sat down and AGAIN tried to find Nirvana - but really just sat there people watching ...

And Waiting ... And Waiting ... And Waiting ...

Now to board the plane! Got situated, putting all the stuff I would need to get to in a small bag since with at least Continental planes - in the space in front of you to store your baggage - in the aisle one (my seat of choice ...) there is a metal box blocking a lot of it and my backpack usually cannot fit. Sat down - fastened my seatbelt as my two travelling companions had arrived ...

And began to ...

Wait ... And To Wait ... And To Wait ...

Then, the Captain came on and told us the problem: in highly technical terms he said that the plane was "broken" and that the maintenance personnel were working on it even as he was making the announcement. He had no estimation for how long it was going to take ... he said maybe five minutes?

So we

Waited ... And we Waited ... And we Waited ...

Next, hearing the Captain come BACK on the PA system and tell us we all had to exit the aircraft since the repair was going to take hours. He gave us a new gate number to go to. So we all packed back up what we had taken out to get settled in for the long haul - and off the plane we went. Seemed sort of like a progressive dinner that had gone horribly wrong somehow ...

Walking BACK to exactly where we came in from our Houston flight to wait for the plane to arrive from London, be cleared off and cleaned. And the ...

Waiting ... Waiting ... Waiting ...

began. Only the chairs had changed shape and size and we had more legroom, everything else seemed the same ... (OK, and no 'chemical toilet smell')

We were all in the same boat - and we huddled together in one corner - even though due to the lateness of the hour, all four gates had tons of empty seats. I started to notice something. Some of us seemed oh! so much more lucky than others! The unluckiest of all fell into two camps, as I saw it - probably equally as unlucky and distributed pretty evenly between the two.

There was:

"Camp Scream "

This was where the parents were uselessly trying to quiet their wee little, tired, crying ones. The parents all seemed to have the same look: equal parts exhaustion, frustration, desperation and rage. But the little ones? Oh! No! There was a choir of yells and cries and screams. Sounding as different as circles, squares and triangles are different.

Some tired sounding cries.

Some hungry sounding cries.

And some desperate sounding cries.

And one little guy?

He was LIVID!

And had a lovely set of lungs on him too!

Between the looks on the parents faces and the children's cries - they pretty much summed up what we all were feeling ... us? just not so much.

the other camp was:

"Camp Drowsy"

This camp was rather quiet! These parents all seemed to have the same look too: equal parts exhaustion, frustration, desperation and more desperation as they tried every trick in the book to keep those little tykes awake in the hopes that they (and thus: themselves) would sleep longer on the actual flight still ahead of them ...

for a while we enjoyed conversing with members of our own camp:

"Camp Luckier" of course, Gary fell into *Camp LuckiEST* but we made him an honorary membership based on having a spouse in the group ...

A sort of camaraderie developed - probably by being all stuck in the same predicament with nary a dang thing we could do but ... wait. So ...

We waited ... And Talked ... And Waited some more ...

till we all seemed to run out of subjects to talk about and ended up silent again, waiting in our own little worlds as the cacophony of cries continued to swirl all around us ...

And then -

We boarded again!

Got situated again - put together my stuff-it-under-the-seat bag and broke the zipper.

Joy!!!

And, of course ...

More

Waiting ... And Waiting ... And Waiting ...

Finally!

Hearing the Captain start speaking! Until he began to explain that we were unfortunately delayed, NOW, on THIS plane. A catering worker, while restocking the food in the back, broke the handle off the door! We were currently waiting for the part to be delivered and then it would need to be installed ...

And so began the ...

Waiting ... And The Waiting ... and The Waiting ...

Some more.

Next, we heard the Captain come on the PA System and tell us that, while the door was just minutes from being fixed, there was going to be another delay due to a passenger getting ill on the flight and being taken off. That in and of itself wasn't so bad - didn't take long at all ...

Waiting while they HAULED OUT THE SOILED SEAT he had been sitting in - in a ginormous sealed bio-hazard bag (them all suited up ... and me wondering if we were all now fated for a horrible, gruesome death ...)

AND

Waiting while they installed a new seat!

NOW THAT

took some time.

THEN AND ONLY THEN did they tell us that it was going to be yet MORE time since they had to go in and take his bags off the flight - a VERY STANDARD PROCEDURE FOR ALL AIRLINES and they acted as if they had just started the process once the new seat was in place. Even I - and by this time my brain was waaaaay beyond fuzzy - knew that they would have to get his bags off the minute the Captain told us he had been taken off the plane. Why they didn't start then? Or why did they decide to word it as if they were just starting right at the moment he made the announcement totally eludes me ...

Because, you know, we needed SOMETHING ELSE TO BE FRUSTRATED ABOUT ...

Then the

Waiting ... And The Waiting ... And The Waiting ...

while

"The Hunt for the Greatest, Sneakiest, Most Elusive Bag of All Time"

began!

Apparently, it seemed, with only one man up for the job: the clever 98 pound wonder:

Karl from the "Mail Room"!!!

Apparently every spare baggage handler was needed for the OTHER competition being held (coincidentally) at the same time.

A competition called

"Keeps On Ticking" - a favorite among airline employees and well attended.

Competitors take 20 pieces of luggage each (ahhh, so THATS where all those little luggage trains were at the time...) and in Phase 1 tosses them off the top of the eighth floor parking structure.

They are judged on "beauty of the bag", "arc and fall", "most original attached identification doohickey", "number of items heard breaking" and "most changed" (before and after shots provided).

The points for Phase 1 are recorded and Phase 2 begins:

They all have a set amount of time to rush all the bags back to the aircraft identified on the luggage tag ... or, alternatively: any aircraft within 100 yards of the "Target" aircraft and no points would be deducted from the contenders final score. They could use two alternates to help during this phase (alternates MUST have their airline employee bona fides or they WILL be disqualified ... its all in the rule book). Anything further away than 100 yards ... give or take, or having a luggage tag missing and points are deducted. Phase 3 (the final phase) begins right after the end of the shift.

They meet (location to be texted to select team leaders no sooner than 30 minutes before the beginning bell is rung) and here the scores are totaled, appropriate awards given (mostly soft, unbreakable items from luggage that splits open (no points gained or lost on this type of toss, but since most awards come from these little treasure troves - yearly dues have been greatly reduced).

Party commences immediately after awards ceremony.

Always included but NOT LIMITED TO:

1) Large quantities of alcohol consumption from the "Duty Free" bags that *finger quote* fall off *finger quote* the carts.

2) A fashion show of clothing also from the treasure trove bags - with

3) Accompanying auction of said items, personal grooming supplies, and other miscellaneous items.

Monies from the auction funds the next parties food items. But I am off topic- google the rule book - I don't make this stuff up ...

Seriously ...

Well over an hour later, the luggage is found!

Things move quickly after that and soon we are flying the friendly skies! Unfortunately listening to the Captain and crew apologize way too many times that they are sorry for the fact that we departed FIVE AND ONE HALF HOURS late got tiresome. I mean, really, what is done is done - lets move on or I am going to get so mad I have an aneurysm burst in my head.

Fast forward through the next seven mind numbing, painful hours - cause I am pretty sure I have exceeded my bitching quota for the week ... BIG TIME (maybe nexts weeks too)!

After all that ...

Suddenly ...

With hardly any warning at all ...

We land in the middle of a lovely, beautiful, breath taking forest of snow covered pines!
(Gardermoen airport is a ways outside of Oslo)

We were in Norway!

We were in Norway!

We were in Norway!

After slip sliding our way to the rental car parking lot (walking through dirty, slushy, icy road & sidewalk snow sludge in Crocs is QUITE the experience - let me tell you ...), we loaded up the tiniest car you ever did see (poor Gary) and slip slided out of the airport parking lot - after accosting random strangers and asking them how the hell do you get out of the lot? Apparently the car rental lady forgot to give us a couple of VERY CRUCIAL steps on that subject.

And on our way to Oslo and to our hotel! We were 100% confident that the GPS system that we rented with the car would whisk us quickly away to our hotel and bliss ... My, my how quickly we forget ... bless our naive little souls!

Finding out that the GPS system was CRAP came in pieces as our 100% estimation dropped basically exponentially by the kilometer with the coup de grâce coming when she repeated "Exit ahead" about three times in a row without telling us:

a) a name for the exit (odd, since all the exits have a unique name)

Or

b) where to exit - as in how far up the freaking road?

And since we were entering the complicated tunnel system underneath downtown (with NUMEROUS uniquely named, and spaced apart exits) she promptly fell asleep!

Alas, she does not seem to work in tunnels which sucks big time since downtown Oslo is a tangle of tunnels full of exits, merges and splits ...

Found ourselves above ground once again and recognized some familiar landmarks and got ourselves oriented just as nice Norwegian lady yawned herself to an awake (sort of) stupor and semi-consciously sort of navigated us to a place kinda close to the hotel.

We have decided that in addition to her "Tunnel Narcolepsy", she is "Directionally Challenged" which seems to be a pretty bad personality flaw if you are trying to navigate someone to a hotel ... someone apparently did not read her resume all that closely ....

Arrived at the hotel! In spite of our Navigationally Challenged buddy ...

Checked in, schlepped our bags to our room which happens to be the cutest teensy weensy little Radisson hotel room you have ever seen!

I remember this now - the twin single beds, European sized rooms ... I had forgotten.

So, folks - door step to door step? Well, more accurately: back door to collapsing onto a soft, clean, down covered, fluffy single bed? Twenty three hours ...

And in honor of the twenty four hour mark (not really, I was just here doing the math and it somehow just worked out that way ...) I snapped this photo:

It was exactly Four O'Clock in the afternoon! Gotta love Norway in the winter!!!

Happy to be here!

Really!

I just would like to take my set of Vengeful Travel gods and ...

well ...

we won't go into that,

or issues like the state of my health - it will be all for the best if I end this now ...

Ha Det Bra!

It is Thanksgiving, And I am Grateful for ...

2011-11-24T07:10:00.002-06:00

(obviously NOT in the order of importance)

Adventures, Agatha Christie, Air, Air Conditioning, Airplanes, Amber, America, Angels, Answers, Apps, Arches National Monument, Architecture, Art

Babies, Believing, Best Friends, Birds in Flight, Blog Comments, Blogs, Blue Skies, Books, Broadway Shows, Brother, Bubble Baths,

Cairns, Calendars, Call Waiting, Cameras, Cars, Cathedrals, Cell Phones, Cellos, Chance, Charity, Charities, Cheering, Cheesecake, Choices, Church, Clean Air, Cleanliness, Clocks, Clothes, Clouds, Cold Days, College, Color of my Sons Eyes, Colors, Computers, Considerate People, Crocs, Cruise Ships, Curie, Cute Overload

Dancers, Daughters, Degas, Desires, Determination, Dictionaries, Dishwashers, Diversity, Doctors, Dogs, Dolphins, Dooce, Down Pillows, Dream Catchers, Dreams, Dynes (Norwegian Down Duvet)

Eagles, Ears, Earplugs, Education, Einstein, Electricity, Electronics, Elevators, Elves, E-Mail, Embraces, Emotions, Encyclopedias, Ends, Enduring, Energy, Engineering, Entertainment, Enthusiasm, Environment, Epiphanies, Equality, Eternity, Excursions, Examples, Exploring, Eyesight, Eyeglasses

Facebook, Faith, Fall Leaves, Fall, Family, Father, Firemen, Floating, Flowers, Flying, Forgiveness, Free WiFi, Freedom, Friends, Fun, Furniture (that my hubbie builds)

Garage Door Openers, Garden Tomatoes, Gentleness, Gifts, Goals, God, Good Friends, Good Times, Google, GPS Units, Grace, Grand Canyon, Grandparents, Graphics, Grass, Green

Happiness, Hard Times, Hardware, Harps, Headphones, Healing, Health, Helen Keller, Help, Helpfulness, History, Honesty, Hope, Hopes, How-To Manuals, Hubble Telescope, Huggers, Humor, Husband

Ice, Icicles, Idaho Russets, Ideals, Illumination, Imagination, Immunizations, Improving, Inclusion, Intuition, In-Laws, Inner Peace, Innocence, Insight, Inspiration, Integrity, Internet, Intimacy, iPads, iPods

Jesus Christ, Jewelry, Jobs, Jokes, Jolly People, Joseph Smith, Joy, Justice

Kangaroos, Keepsakes, Kidding Around, Kindhearted People, Kindness, Kisses, Kleenex, Knowledge, Knowing, Koalas

Lakes, Laptops, Laughter, Learning New Things, Leather, Leaves, Left Handed Scissors, Leonardo da Vinci, Letters, Libraries, Life, Light, Lightroom, Literacy, Living Abroad, Logic, Love

Maps, Massage, Math, Medicine, Memories, Mercy, Microwaves, Milk, Monet, Moon, Morphine, Mother, Mountains, Museums, Music, Musicals, Mute Button, My Blog, My Daughters Laugh, My House, My Husbands Talents

Napkins, Naps, National Pride, Nativities, Neatness, Nieces, Newborns, Nephews, News, New Year, Niceties, Nonconformists, Nondiscrimination, Nonsense, Normalcy, Norway, Notepads, Novels, Novocain, Now …

Obscure Ideas, Occasions, Occupations, Ocean, Oddities, Odorless Anything, Offers of Help, Old Barns, Olivewood, Open Hearted, Ordeals, Orderliness, Organization, Ordinary, Outdoors, Overcoming, One More Day …

Patience, Peace, Penguins, Pens, Pepperkaker, Perfect Moments, Pets, Photographs, Photoshop, Physics, Pianos, Picnics, Pioneers, Poetry, Policemen, Positive Outlook, Post Secret, Post-its, Prayer, Preikestolen, Presents, Pretty Fish, Primary Children’s Program,

Queues, Quests, Questions, Quicken, Quiet

Rain, Rainbows, Raspberries, Reading, Reflections, Reflections on Water, Relatives, Relaxation, Renoir, Rivers, Rolling Luggage

Satellite Radio, School, Science, Scriptures, Security, Sensitivity, Shelter, Shoes, Sight, Simple, Singing, Sisters, Sky, Small European Towns, Smell, Smiles, Smoke Free Environments, Snorkeling, Snow, Software, Soldiers, Son, Sound of Rain, Sound, Spellcheck, Spring, Stained Glass Windows, Stars, Steampunk, Stephen Hawking, Subways, Summer, Sunflowers, Sunlight, Sunrises, Sunsets, Support of Others, Swarovski Crystal, Sweaters, Swimming

Tactfulness, Taste, Taxis, Teachers, Technical Manual, Technology, Temples, Tender Mercies, Testimony, Texas Wildflowers, The American Flag, The Smell of a Spud Cellar, Theater, Tickling, Time, Tools, Touch, Trains, Travel, Treasures, Trees, Tripods, Trying

Understanding, Uniqueness, Universe

Vacations, Vermeer,

Watches, Water, Waterfalls, WiFi, Wikipedia, Wildlife, Wind, Window Seats, Windows, Winter, Wisdom, Wool, Work, Worship, Writing,

Yahoo, Yards, Yawning, Years End, Yesterday, You, Youthfulness (memory of), Youth

Zion, Zippers, Zoos,

But most of all, I am grateful for The Journey …

I MAY Have Been Just a Wee Bit Pessimistic Yesterday ...

2011-11-23T20:27:00.012-06:00

Well ...

Day 2 of "Project Whoville" has almost ended and I will admit ...

I may have been a wee bit hasty in my judgements of my husbands ability and/or sanity.

He got up and put another coat on his 'sled':

And has he not done a WONDERFUL job in matching the blues?

He then painted and put together his Whoville Fireplace:

Yes, there IS two plastic bags hanging in the 'hole' in the fireplace. This fireplace (if you recall from the movie) needs to have a tree stuffed up it, and a grundle of toys ... I forget if the grinch enters and exits via it, but I do remember the tree stuffing ...

Very clever, yes?

And, yet again - look how he matched the 'puke green' on the background! He could be the Sherwin Williams Paint-Color-Matcher-Computer-Thingie ...

And here is where his 'genius' really shines:

Its Whoville! He decided that it is complete.

What?

Can you not see it?

Hmmm ...

That could be because he realized something today and confessed to me today that when he told me that it would be basically as easy as a "Paint By Number" kit - he has ACTUALLY NEVER DONE a Paint By Number Kit ... And he decided that maybe, just maybe - he HAS hit the level of his limitations and on Saturday at the rehearsal, he is going to throw himself to the mercy of his committee and see if anyone is willing to paint it.

BUT! He has a backup plan - here is the genius part! OK, gotta mention that ONE of these IS MY IDEA ...

If they chew him up and spit him out at the rehearsal, he will either have it printed out poster size and just tape it on the board, or he will use our projector and just project the picture onto the board during the actual production.

Clever, yes?

So, he is in a win-win situation and it will basically look like this (minus the pretty silver frame):

And to show you how well that projection part would actually work - he is, as I type this, finishing up the sled tracing out in the garage.

I took out the brown (well, most the brown, he didn't care if it was sloppy, but NOW that I am posting it on my blog I am so ashamed ...) drew in some sloppy black lines so it would all be easier to see when he projected it onto the board to trace and stretched it a wee bit to fit the board better. Yes, yes - I KNOW! I am SO HELPFUL!!!

And here is my altered sled photo projected onto the board! Not bad, eh?

So he has his sled almost ready to paint and I am CONFIDENT that he WILL be able to paint brown paint between the black lines ...

Here are the lines - that I believe he is out there thickening even as I type this, because if he isn't doing that ...

I have no clue what the man is doing ...

But then again - me not knowing what the man is doing is the norm ...

Maybe ... Just Maybe ... He's Reached the Level of His Limitations ...

2011-11-22T20:30:00.012-06:00

Well, Gary moved his behemoth thingies around yesterday - with a wee bit of help from me and some hand made ramps to get his Chop Saw Stand up on those blocks (to be level with the table). All worked well and no one was harmed, maimed or seriously crushed under a ton of wood.

The other day, Gary was trying to explain how his clamps were going to be stored. His TRAJILLION clamps. He is a serious clamp addict and since there is no CAA (Clamp Addicts Anonymous) and he makes beautiful furniture, we all look the other way and just let him buy and buy and buy more clamps ...

But where to store them? Here is his clever idea - which makes a heck of a lot more sense than the description Gary gave me:

Where are the clamps? What are clamps? Here, let me get a little lower and you can see better ...

The clamps are on each end of a long steel pipe and, well ... they clamp things ...

An underneath shot of his lovely storage area:

So ... his table is done, the clamps have a home all is right with the world ... yes?

No.

While I was taking photos of his table he was looking at it and said:

"You know, there is room there for four more clamps ..." in a wondrous, wistful, far-away voice ...

He had to clean up and get serious about other things that he TOLD himself he had to start today. Today is the official start to PROJECT WHOVILLE.

Why do we have a 'Project Whoville?'

Because the man volunteered to do the Ward Christmas Party.

VOLUNTEERED.

TO. DO. THE. WARD. CHRISTMAS. PARTY.

VOLUNTEERED!!!

As in

no one coerced him,

he was not under threat of pain,

his family was not under threat of pain,

he was not under the threat of death,

his family was not under the threat of death,

no one was blackmailing him,

no one was threatening to take away all his clamps,

his family was not being held hostage with the threat of a hideous, horrible death if he did not volunteer,

he seemed sane when he left for Young Men's that night - with a meeting afterwards,

and he did not seem altered in any way, or disabled or drunk ...

apparently, though, he was under the influence of STUPID!!!

Why did he do this horrifying thing?

I will tell you.

A few years ago the Ward Christmas Party had a presentation of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and it was INCREDIBLY hilarious and wonderful. It was narrated, and they had props, there was a Grinch and someone hiding behind the sled using a sock puppet dog as the dog ... OK, so ... you might have had to be there to get the full impact of its incredible-ness and hilarity, but trust me - it was VERY good!

So ... in his infinite wisdom, he decided he wanted 'to see it again' as it were so he took charge.

When he told me this that evening when he came home ... then saw my face ... he quickly said "You don't have to do anything! I have it under control - I will get a committee. I PROMISE you don't have to do anything!"

I saw one Sunday that it was being advertised in the Ward Sunday Flyer (what ever that is you get in Sacrament Meeting - WHAT is it called?) as "Christmas in Whoville".

OK.

Hmmm.

Me: "Gary - who is making 'Whoville'?

Gary: "Me."

Me: "Are you serious?"

Gary: "Yes! How hard could it be? I need to buy some wood, get the book, project a page of it with our overhead projector on the wall, trace the lines and paint it."

Me: "Okaaaaayyyyy"

I ordered the book.

He bought the wood.

The book came and there are actually no pictures in it! Well, no REAL pictures per se - just some squiggly crap ... did you know that? We decided that all of our childhood memories of The Grinch must have come from the movie.

So ... I ordered the movie.

I figured out how to do a screen capture while the movie was playing on the computer. Then put it in Word. Then right click and save it as a .jpg file.

Gary said he would describe to me what he needed and faster than the speed of a quark - I said:

"I don't THINK so ... this is YOUR baby ..."

So he got on his computer and screen captured:

1) The sled

2) The fireplace

3) Whoville from the Grinch's perspective

I was KIND ENOUGH to fiddle around with them in Photoshop a bit, but really didn't help him much at all.

He printed out the pages and off to the craft store he went ...

to buy paint!

NOW:

Day one of PROJECT WHOVILLE has ended. I wandered outside to see how things were progressing and I was surprised at how much he had done!

He had painted the background for the sled:

He needs, now to take the above piece of wood and turn it into this:

I'm thinking it do-able. I photoshopped out the Grinch and the bag and filled in the spots with the appropriate color. Gary drew in some black lines. I made it into a .jpg file and put it on something portable for him and printed it out. It is not great, but should do the job. Now he just needs to figure out if he can actually project the .jpg file from his laptop onto the piece of wood using our projector and trace the lines.

Then paint it ...

He decided that after painting the sled background and the Whoville background (coming up later ...) he was sick and tired of painting and decided that it would be best if he BUILT a fireplace. So he laid out the pieces and asked me if it looked like a Whoville fireplace? I was surprised that the answer was 'Yes'. He is using a piece of garbage up there for the mantle and it looks sort of Whovilly ...

So he will just paint the whole thing and attach it to the board when he is done. Seems easy enough.

Somehow, everything under the line I drew there will not be showing, so just in case you are wondering ... no, it is not a freakishly tall and skinny fireplace ...

Not an exact match, but it will do:

And here is Whoville:

Yep! My husband is going to turn that piece of wood up there into this:

Let be clear -

THIS:

INTO THIS:

Oh, yeah ... it's gonna happen.

Have I mentioned that Gary and I both, put together possess EXACTLY -10% of artistic ability?

Yes, that is NEGATIVE TEN.

Between the two of us.

Seriously, I CANNOT impress enough to you the actual ineptitude we possess in this area. Stick figures are hard ...

So .....

THIS?

INTO THIS?

Dude ... you are one VERY TALENTED man ...

but I gotta tell you right now ...

seriously, start looking for a very nice, giving, artistically inclined person to make you a Whoville before it is too late ...

I'm just sayin' ....

A Sunday Afternoon With Jessie ...

2011-11-20T22:41:00.058-06:00

As per our usual - we got Jessie this afternoon.

Gary and Jess went for a walk last week and I had heard them discussing feeding the ducks and mentioned to Gary that I wanted to go and take photos of a duck feeding session - so we headed out (after Gary and Jessie watched Ariel and made Banana Nut Bread and I rested in bed).

Jessie would not get off the sidewalk and walk down to the ducks to feed them. I think this is a step backwards in her walking skills - or she has had a recent tumble - she kept saying she didn't want to fall, even when I told her I would hold her hand.

So Gary got to feed the ducks, Charlie was tied to a tree and I took photos!

If the photos look weird, or ... off to you - you are not imagining things! I was playing around with some Photoshop plug-ins and I liked the effect - feel free to not like it ...

She seemed to enjoy watching us from the sidewalk ...

Cute duckie!

And doesn't he look ever so hopeful?

This green-headed duck was a good catch - but I think he might have been beaten up by all the other angry looking ducks after we left ...

I know - blurry ...

But he was yelling at us! As the other ducks looked on with disapproval ...

TOTAL BREAD CATCH FAIL!

The brown ducks getting ready to pounce on him and beat him to death ...

Cute photo of Jessie.

Not so cute background - hence it is gone ...

Pretty brown duck ... with blue? A navy part on his beak and a tiny brilliant blue peeking out from under his / her (? I am not up to date on duck sex determination ...) wing:

The green-headed ducks are not my favorite - maybe it is that entitlement, superiority and "I'm prettier than you" look that we see here:

Awww! SO CUTE! And look at that humble face (and weirdly crossed white wing tips) ...

I believe he got this one:

Dude is yelling at us again ... all the others are like "Shut up! You are going to piss him off and then he will stop feeding all of us!" I really hope they beat him up after we left - Gary was totally spoiling him - or AT LEAST shun him for a while ...

"Anticipation":

Still a happy camper up on the sidewalk ...

Done with the bread and off for a walk ...

A Great White Egret - really wanted to get some photos, but NOT WITH HIS NECK LIKE THAT!!!

BENDY NECK!!! BENDY NECK!!!

The trees look pretty good for having gone through a drought all summer ...

Charlie off the leash! I think this is an adorable photo of her ...

One more shot of Charlie - soon after this she jumped in the lake. She is butt ugly when wet so no more photos of the dog ...

Trying to sneak up on the Egret - he was on to me and flew away ...

But went in for a landing pretty close - so maybe later ...

This is a series of shots I titled: "Telephoto Lens" (yes, I know - very CLEVER name ...):

More of the weird ...

A series of shots of my attempts to find "Fall" ...

*sigh* green, green leaves ...

More green ...

Still more ...

Awww! My very own FALL TREE! ONE tree - but doesn't it look .... seasonal?

Hah! He is back! I shall sneak up on him slowly ... *whispers* bend your neck!!!

*whispers* aw, man ... that doesn't count ... do it like you mean it ...

Lookin' like he is fixing to fly off ...

And there he goes!

Makes a turn and heads over to somewhere in front of us ...

And in for the landing ...

Touchdown!

And back to his dorky pose ...

One more flight away from us ...

One final landing ...

Lovely red and green ...

Gary walked the dog home while I drove Jessie (we had parked over by the pool). He ride came about a half hour after this and she was pretty good about going. Gary was out in the driveway bathing the dog and she didn't even get upset that she couldn't give him a goodbye hug - so a pretty good day for her!

Sorry about all the photos - couldn't decide which ones to put it and I had made these into a facebook album (sorry for the duplication all ye Facebookers ...) so I just dumped them in ...

Well - it's off to bed ...

to lie there and stare at the wall for hours and hours and hours ...

Just like the last four nights ...

*sigh*

I SO HATE going to bed ...

Pool Table

2011-11-19T21:31:00.006-06:00

Today's post is brought to you by the word

"Posterize"!!!

A lovely feature in Photoshop that does funky things to your photo (but WHAT in Photoshop isn't capable of doing funky things to your photo .... hmmmm?). It's special, secret ability is to take a blurry photo and salvage it. Makes it a generally good tool to have around!

My photos down there in this here post were neither out of focus or blurry ... I just felt like posterizing the crap out of some photos ... a condition that comes and goes ...

sort of like my sanity.

So .....

we see here that Gary has built a LOVELY cabinet to house his ... um ... chop saw?

I forget ...

UNFORGIVABLE!!!

He will only beat me a little bit ... (kidding - you do realize I am kidding, right?)

COMPLETE - no less - with a built in vacuum to whisk away the sawdust before it even sees the light of day. The fact it is better built, not to mention - BETTER LOOKING than my kitchen cabinetry ... as are ALL OF HIS CABINETS IN THE GARAGE ... has lead me to hold a wee bit of deep seated animosity towards his freaking palatial, pimped-out garage/shop ... but I digress ...

He moved on to his 'Finishing table'. He has one, but it is getting grungy and we can't have that in the castle, now can we? Actually, he is pretty desperate for projects - he can build whatever he would like to build! It is used to 'finish' projects on (you know ... put on the stain and stuff ...) and (again) I forget WHY - but it has to be completely FLAT.

This involved a complicated series of layers to this behemoth - each one weighing approximately 1000 lbs - making it ENORMOUSLY heavy. Gary would lay in bed at night and come up with methods to move, turn and manipulate it without the aid of his feeble wife. When Ryan was here for the weekend, we helped him and that is when he confessed how he had been moving it around and planning out each step in his mind as he drifted off to sleep.

He is:

One.

Scary.

Man.

It has a recessed area on the top where a piece of masonite drops in and (in theory) when it gets all icky and stuff - he can replace it. Today he was frustrated with it and was postulating routering the lip down and covering the entire top with a big 'ole slab of three quarter inch oak OAK!!! Yes - I said oak ... AS IF IT NEEDED A LITTLE BIT MORE WEIGHT ...

He said that these enormous stumps of wood looked 'stubby' for legs - so he 'slenderized' them - giving the table a more stylish look, and Gary one more notch on the 'crazy bar' when it comes to his garage and his 'little pretties' that live out there ...

Those legs? Yeah ...

Doesn't it just scream:

"Pool Table"!?!

It will be interesting to see what happens when we move. The thing seriously weighs a ton - unless he is completely attached to the guy - I'm thinking it is going to stay right where it's final living space in the garage is going to be and we will sneak off into the night without it ...

New York - Day 3 ...

2011-11-15T18:40:00.049-06:00

Yes, yes, yes - I am still alive ...

Thought that I had better finish up my New York trip before moving on to other trips. I also remembered that I TOTALLY FORGOT to do the last day of Yellowstone - THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY OF ALL! It is my goal to try to pick out the photos tonight and edit them tomorrow and finish up THAT trip also.

Enjoyed having Ryan home for the weekend - and he graciously let me take photos of him, so a Ryan post will be forthcoming also ...

I was doing well, neither wanting to live or die - good, neutral, solid ground when I realized today that I have a nephew getting married the day after we fly home from Norway, and that THANKSGIVING IS NEXT WEEK!!

WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?

So now I feel as if someone whacked me in the face with a 'Familial Responsibility' Two by Four ... repeatedly ...

So - when a wee bit panicked over stuff I have absolutely no control over and is pretty much under control any way ... I blog ...

Thus on to our final day in New York.

We were totally used to the transit system now and all trains running on the weekend ended at 33rd street - so we would take that - then transfer to another to get up to 50th or just walk and enjoy the scenery.

Saw this batch of monsters as we were ascending the subway ... SO wouldn't want that job ...

Headed down the street towards Times Square where we were going to enjoy some time before heading off to see Billy Elliot.

They were still rather perky with their replacements just moments behind us ...

Beautiful tall building everywhere:

I particularly liked the reflection and ad on this building:

A shot down Times Square - complete with nice Police Officer to keep everything safe:

More tall buildings ... Gary headed off to get us something to eat and I sat down at a table ...

... and do what I do ... "Photo Stalk" people ...

On the move again - I am not sure if this is the Paramount building or the Hard Rock Cafe?

Lots of police ...

More shots of Times Square:

Found a building across the street (if I remember right) from the theatre that we were headed to that had some beautiful detailing:

At the Imperial Theatre - BEAUTIFUL light and shadows:

Hawking Billy stuff:

A beautiful ceiling ...

Another beauty of a light:

More of the pretty neighboring building:

The Lincoln Center:

Should have gone to this, but had to make some choices ...

This town is not short on big signs ...

Or big characters ...

I have become enamored with a step I use to make some of my photos edges stand out. It is just one layer of many of which I eventually take out the color, inverse it and delete all the white before using a blend mode on it on top of another copy of the regular photo. Magically the lines all 'pop'! But I really like it as is - (it is just Filter -> Stylize -> Glowing Edges):

And two separate photos using this 'edge' technique each using a very different blending mode. On my screen they look very different - here and small - I am not so sure:

We headed back to the Times Square area of town after watching Billy Elliot, then sort of wandered trying to find a subway ... me taking photos all along the way ...

We wandered enough that it got dark on us - so many lights!

BEAUTIFUL horse:

And threw in a couple more - I especially like this one of the GIANT CANDY SIGN:

I apparently liked the candy sign A LOT! I didn't realize that I had put in two of them, and I didn't realize that I had put the Glowing Edges version in of almost the exact same photo ... guess I really, really do like the Glowing Edges version of this sign!

Well, that is it. I have a another folder labeled Monday - but all we did was get up and go home so I haven't even bothered to open it and see what is in it ...

My goals this week are to stay out of the emergency room, not kill the dog and try to stay out of curling into a fetal ball in bed and rocking back and forth ...

I just LOVE the holidays ...

Still up for that Walk?

2011-11-06T21:35:00.044-06:00

Got out of the ER last Monday - with I DON'T KNOW WHAT coursing through my veins. I KNOW for sure there was morphine and zofran (for nausea) but what else? Not so sure.

In the course of a few hours - I scheduled myself for a trip to Norway in December, chose all my photos for the previous blog and made myself a wee bit useful if I may be so bold!

Edited the photos, wrote my blog (COMPLETE WITH ME INVITING YOU TO TAKE A WALK WITH ME ON DAY 2 OF NEW YORK - THAT VERY NEXT DAY ...), birds chirping, children playing, all was right with the world! Headed for bed and 8 hours later I opened my eyes and realized that my "I-feel-fine-aren't-I-so-so-so-glad-that-is-over" was just a drug induced fake-out! Repeatedly for the next couple of days begged Gary to shoot me.

He wouldn't.

Got to my doctor who said if my white blood cell count was not under 20,000 she was throwing my butt in the hospital. So ... we had a goal!

Got a call that afternoon that it was down to 16,000 - GO ME!

But still flat out in bed riding wave over wave of nausea - not a whole lot of fun ...

I am starting to feel like I might MIGHT want to live again - so I would post Day 2 in New York - the one I stupidly said "See you tomorrow!" to about a week ago ...

So ..... here we go!

We did not go far as I was being a sick pain in the butt. Headed to the Empire State Building and then stood and waited ...

and waited ....

and waited ....

But well worth the wait. The only down side it I have a very hard time just standing so was getting more and more ill by the minutes and by the time we got to the top - I had lost the will to take photos.

Having said that - I was ON TOP OF THE FREAKING EMPIRE STATE BUILDING! You take photos whether you care if you do or not! I am sure there is even a law somewhere stating this ...

OK, it occurs to me AT THIS VERY SECOND that things just might have not been ... right? With me? I liked this pigeon - sitting up there so high! I remember wondering if birds were afraid of heights? Normal? Don't think so ...

When I take a panorama - I take one photo of the ground - lift my camera - twist to one side and hopefully holding it somewhat level - shoot off between 3 and 25 photos. I then lower my camera and take another photo of the ground. This way - I know where my panorama shots start and end.

Well, taking a photo of the 'ground' here was rather interesting:

And can you see the cars at your resolution? (You can click on the photo if you care) The ratio of cars and buses vs private cars is astounding!

I apparently stuffed all my panoramas at the beginning of the blog - didn't spread them out ... so enjoy!

What do you do with a crappy photo from a very, very long distance?

Right! MAKE IT CRAPPIER! No one will even know ....

A lot of the following photos are of tops of buildings (but not all). I noticed that there is a lot of monochromatic boring stuff going on here - so I 'posterized' a bunch of the photos - I like them much better! Might not be your style, though ...

OK! We are out! Now, all I remember that we did was walk to the subway and catch a ride back to our hotel - this could be true or I could be totally hallucinating the entire day .... not sure ....

Since part of this day seems .... well, sketchy .... I will say with a 90% chance of being right that after getting on the subway, and to our hotel - Gary SLEPT while I went through photos. OK - probably 100% there.

We then got up at some point and went out to take night shots:

And that was it for Day 2 ... all that is left is Day 3! I won't promise when that is going to arrive ....

MY New York ...

2011-11-01T04:41:00.203-05:00

Anyone that knows me is wondering about that headline ...

MY New York. Yes - MY New York. Not your New York, not a true blue New Yorker, not a brand new New Yorker.

After coming home discouraged with my photo taking abilities ... or more like inabilities, I put my photos in a folder and assumed that it was just one trip, one humongous photo shoot that I was not going to re-visit ...

ever.

Funny how barfing for seven days, being 'attacked' (repeatedly) by a Sadomasochistic Phlebotomist and pretty much being wonky from lack of nutrients and electrolytes will change your outlook on a silly file folder of photos!

Got in my folder last night and thought ... Damn! These aren't for everybody, they are not your "Typical" or "Artistic" or "Talented" or "Clever" New York Photos ...

.... but

they are MY PHOTOS.

And this just so happens to be MY BLOG.

Therefore - I have decided to celebrate one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen - in very different ways. Not like Norway - where if you pointed your camera SERIOUSLY ANYWHERE and took a photo - it would come out beautiful, idyllic, and all the cute little house color coordinated! Norway is just like that. The people are seriously Scandinavian Beautiful, their country matches.

Well, New York is NOT like Norway - but it is beautiful in its own way ... to me. I don't know why I am so fascinated with the city - maybe the beauty - maybe I was a New Yorker in another life, maybe I am just fixated on it because of the incredible history it holds, but whatever has drawn me to it - has me held tight.

My New York is somewhere I don't know well, but know that the people are survivors, and survivors TOGETHER in such a tight space - thus kind, courteous and wonderfully helpful if you even look like you are confused a bit about something. Well, at least that was my experience!

So - I was sick and up all night and made the most of it by picking my 'favorite' New York photos from Day One: Friday - A Walk through Lower Manhattan - and I will warn you right now - there are about 200 - I have a TERRIBLE time making decisions ...

and I just might be a bit wonky still ....

So! Come take a walk with how I SEE NEW YORK! I promise - your feet won't even get tired!

We started in New Jersey at the Marriott hotel, thus we took the NYNJ PATH transportation system under the Hudson to the World Trade Center. Do you get the impression that maybe I look like a tourist? I just might be all the camera gear ... or just the general excitement ...

On to the World Financial Center - where a second floor area had become an observatory into the World Trade Center area.

Skyscrapers out the ceiling of the World Financial Center:

A beautiful building only seen through a window:

A panorama of the new building going up. For all you 'real' New Yorkers - you are not loosing it - Photoshop filled in - aka make up shit for a piece that did not exist in the upper left hand corner - cool building! But just from the rather creepy imaginations of Photoshop ...

Exterior of the World Financial Center (do y'all have an abbreviation for the name of this building?):

The surrounds:

A very poor close up shot of some of the most beautiful decoration on a building out the window of the World Financial Center:

Another exterior:

World Financial Center and surrounds:

Somewhere over there is our Marriott hotel ...

Gotta be THE COOLEST corner of a building ANYWHERE. Not just stuff stuck on - it is the actual corner ... beautiful!

Another beautiful building - I love, love the green!

Who takes the time to come up with detail work like this these days?

Just a building reflected in the new tower going up (apparently I, right this minute have no idea what it is called ... just a sec .... Ahhh - the Freedom Tower ...)

Indescribably beautiful:

Mosiac work:

The Freedom Tower:

The Freedom Tower and surrounds. In front are those that were 'in the know' and got tickets to go in and visit the WTC grounds - something I did not know we had to do and thus regret enormously that we missed it ...

More across the way ...

New York Policeman's Memorial:

No clue - but beautiful, no?

Beauty, beauty, everywhere:

Another beauty of a building:

This? THIS IS AN ENTRY ...

I'm going to shut up for a while ... just enjoy yourself ...

Backside of Trinity Church with the Trinity Building on the left hand side of it - a MULTITUDE of photos of both to follow - one freaking beautiful place ...

I have decided - with more surety than I usually have - that this following photo is my most favorite shot of the day:

The Trinity Church is where Wall Street dead ends onto Broadway ... the most famous intersection anywhere ...

Leaving the church grounds and heading south on Broadway to Battery Park ...

I wonder just how many eagles there are in New York city?

Seriously does NOT seem impressed to be housing two pigeons! But isn't she (and the rest of them beauties?)

The detail work takes my breath away! I don't have A CLUE WHY ...

The sun hitting the Trinity Building and a SERIOUSLY OUT OF PLACE PHOTO. Sorry - with 3 cameras going with 3 numbering systems - I'm doing pretty good keeping them all together ...

Recognize this guy? He seriously looks pissed!

BEARS! The "Bear Rug Decor" was very new to me? Flattened bears above windows - but ever so much fun to photo (can you tell I didn't take anything even remotely resembling architecture in college?)

People! I'm BEGGING YOU! I am SURE I have the right building ... OK, Google Earth assures me I have the right building and by SHEER LUCK I remember it's name: The Standard Oil Building. In a book I read that ON THE TOP OF THE BUILDING IS A METAL REPLICA OF AN OIL LAMP. OK - how in everything that is, oh, I don't know what - can you GET AN OIL LAMP OUT OF THAT THINGY UP THERE! Please - send me a drawing! I am desperate!!!! And apparently obsessed about it ....

OK, now, I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but up until this very moment in time - uhhhh all the 'people' on buildings - WERE PRETTY! I seriously cannot tell if this is a really ugly woman or man in drag ... not that there is anything wrong with that ... ESPECIALLY in New York!!! "One Butt Ugly Dude Above A Window" - new title to my photo ...

Huff, huff - we are to Bowling Green - almost to Battery Park!

One of the most captivating memorials I have seen in a very long time ...

The Merchant Marine Memorial - and THANKFULLY I did not stand there and watch the tide slowly rise over the head of the man in the water , with only his hand - oh, so close but forever out of reach the only thing above the water ... and still stand there and hope that they save him. A daily sad show for the truly strong and the patient ...

The beautiful Ellis Island:

And the pretty Lady herself! Had I known this was going the only close up I was going to get of her - I might have spent a bit more time ... I SO HAVE TO GET BACK TO THIS CITY ....

Leaving Battery Park and heading up Broad Street ... and MORE MOOSHED BEARS!

Even their fire trucks are beautiful!

Heading down Wall Street to ... anyone? anyone?

Past the New York Stock Exchange and on to the Federal Hall National Monument - an ABSOLUTELY STUNNINGLY beautiful and historical building ...

WHO makes ... 'burgler bars'? like this? WHO? WHY? THEY ARE STUNNING!

The detail ALONE is unbelievable - and just think - this is ONE WINDOW IN ONE BUILDING IN THE ENTIRE BEAUTIFUL CITY OF NEW YORK!!!

A sneak peek back at the Trinity Church to say goodbye ...

OK, for ANY AND ALL New Yorkers that happen to cross these photos - um, sometimes? A GIRL JUST NEEDS HER SHOT! I KNOW that there is a huge black ugly building above the green 'shed like thing' and I KNOW there is a huge black tube that seems to run behind these three white windows on the top and I KNOW - TOTALLY FAKED the side of the green thing up there since it is mainly ugly black - but, well, sometimes - I just CANNOT STOP THE PHOTOSHOPING! Sorry - I will put the ugly stuff back in and post the REAL photo some other day (ahem ... and did you catch the *mutters* seven *mutters* other shots that I took out an ugly background building(s) and / or cranes and / or anything else I deemed to MUCK UP MY SHOT? Hmmmm? NO?! You just enjoyed the photo - so I will feel guilty for cheating, albeit beautifying your EVER SO LOVELY CITY even without my help, and you can just go find them yourself ...)

St. Pauls Chapel coming right up ...

*SIGH* OK, OK, Its a freaking Church! This is one I took out a construction project out of the upper left hand corner - SO ... SHOOT ME!!!

Beautiful!

Beautiful!

Beautiful!

Stunningly beautiful!

A beauty beyond words ...

OK - HAPPY NOW? Here is one I left alone .... (*ahem* only because I was too lazy to recreate the building behind it ....)

The EVER SO LOVELY City Hall Fountain: (in Steve Flanders Square)

New York City Hall peeking out of the trees while still enjoying the fountains ...

I do not believe this is my first photo of the Woolworth Building - but the first one I have identified it as such .... (I would kill to live in the pretty green castle on the top ...)

We have made it to the lovely Brooklyn Bridge!

Part of the LOVELY Tweed Courthouse:

Back on the Subway to go rest up before the Broadway production of Wicked tonight!!!

IT'S TIME! WICKED TIME! Sure I've seen it twice - but that JUST MAKES SEEING IT BETTER - you know when to appreciate the really good parts!

OK, um, heres the thing .... I KNOW there is NO PHOTOGRAPHY during a Broadway production (even posting them, I get an uneasy feeling the "Broadway Police" are going to hunt me down and arrest me ....). KIDS - don't do this - it is EVIL AND WRONG! I DID turn off all camera sound and lights, I DID never use a flash and always held it close to my chest so no one could see what I was up to ... So - if YOU know how to turn off all sound and all lights (OK, the back screen would light up - thus held on my chest with half of my shirt surrounding it ...) then give it a try - I am THRILLED I have these little gems! Unfortunately - they light up the main characters so much that you can either get them, or the stage - take your pick - I was going for stage and I WAS NOT GOING TO UP AND CHANGE MY F-STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PRODUCTION to take care of the problem ... what do you think I am?

I know, I know - crappy, crappy, extra double crappy shot - but IT GIVES ME CHILLS EVERY TIME I SEE IT! Defying Gravity and Elphaba rising into the air is my most favorite part of the entire show ...

Ah, NO ... not our ride back to the hotel ...

Ahhhhh, here we are ...

A LOVELY day filled with beauty and fun at every corner!

Feet hurt? No? Yes?

Come back tomorrow - I don't go as far! I mainly just go ... vertical ...

Home ... Again ...

2011-10-31T14:55:00.010-05:00

As per my usual 'back-from-a-trip-home-survival-remedy' - I immediately put myself to bed last Monday after we got home from New York to try and not ... what I call 'crash'. Very unpleasant - a visual: getting in a rickety, albeit FAST, go-cart (sans helmet) on a street in San Fransisco and steering straight towards a brick building oh, say right at the bottom of the steepest hill you can find - then HITTING IT - that's pretty much what crashing feels like ...

Hmmmm ....

Didn't work:

The room is DEFINITELY not as nice as the Marriott room we stayed in in New Jersey ... but what are you going to do?

After getting absolutely no fluids or food that didn't immediately come right back up (and with SUCH A GUSTO ...) from Wednesday to Sunday - my only output being the water retention that seems to have started building up in my feet and legs these days (*sigh* - yes, another doctor, another mystery to solve, probably another problem ... but for another day ...). As my feet and legs slimmed down ever so nicely, I realized that I was getting worse and not better and Gary said that it was time - that he should have hauled my barfing self into the ER days ago (true) so off for that fun, filled night full of needles, tests, and waiting -

Oh! the waiting!

Don't I remember that from all of Jessie and my own hospital stays - always, always, always waiting for the doctor to come in - in that fast way they have - give you a quick run down - ask if you have any questions and before you can say "Hell YES!" they are saying "Well, then, we're off" and out the door they breeze!

The IV ... Witch? Vampire? The phlebotomist I was ever so lucky to catch was a very quick, abrupt, unfeeling, non-verbal scary thing of a woman.

I ABHOR, HATE, LOATHE, DESPISE getting IV's.

Why? My veins suck and it is a very delicate, painful thing - which Gary - to this day, bless his soul - has to leave the room for until it is over ....

We got a clue this was the case back when they tried oh, soooo many times to insert a PIC (peripherally inserted catheter) in me when I had Lyme's Disease so that I could administer my antibiotics myself. After blowing vein after vein in my arms - a few days later - after about 5 visits from home care nurses - it was scheduled that a central line be inserted into my chest and I would administer the drugs via that catheter. Oh, so much better! AND I WAS UNCONSCIOUS THE ENTIRE TIME IT WAS INSERTED - HUGE PLUS! Unfortunately that turned out to be a bust also - but it was not the catheters fault! Just my body deciding that it was time to rebel and go into anaphylactic shock and decide not to play with the drugs any more. Big bummer and the reason I have that huge red 'Allergic to' tag hanging round my wrist down there ...

She decided to drill deep in the most tender spot of your inner forearm.

Me: "Ummmm, I'm a hard stick - are you sure there is even a vein there - I DON'T SEE ONE!"

Her:

Me: "Uh - could you wait just a sec and let me take a deep breath, center my... AAAAAGGGGGHHH! OH SHIT THAT HURT! AAAHHHGGGG - WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Her:

Me: Heavy breathing with intermittent sounds of retching ...

Her: "All done, now I need to draw some blood"

Me: "What? Why didn't you pull it out of the IV port before you started the fluid AAAAGGGGHHHH! Seriously WHAT SIZE NEEDLE ARE YOU USING? Is this TOTALLY NECESSARY?"

(More heavy breathing and retching on my part - more humming on her part - Dudes - seriously? I really, really, really think she was having the time of her life ... some people are scarier than I can even conjure up in my wildest imaginations ...)

Her: "All done" Walks out the door

Me: "Thanks .... for nothing you ..." Gary walks in and I SHUT MY MOUTH ...

(Note: Gotta admit - when my electrolytes are wonky, I am in a strange place that smells SUSPICIOUSLY LIKE A HOSPITAL and I am dry heaving into a tiny plastic tub that the phlebotomist keeps tossing her garbage in ... I my tend to get a wee bit ... hmmmm - foul mouthed? OK, to be honest there is a plethora of scenarios where I tend to get a wee bit foul mouthed, this just happens to be high on the list ...)

And - the night fun was just beginning!!! Poor Gary! Having put off letting him take me to the ER until 9:00pm on a Sunday night - thus very late with him having something to do with a grundle of Norwegians and some review that had been set up for months starting the next day up at his office in Greenspoint (far, far away ...) - he went out to try to catch some sleep in the truck - poor, poor guy - I told him I would take a taxi home.

EXACTLY WHAT I HAD DONE THE LAST TIME AN AMBULANCE HAD BROUGHT ME TO THIS VERY ER!!! Gary was living in Australia at the time, I had the unfortunate timing to pass out in a Kroger shopping store getting dog food for my dog to give to my most wonderful friend who was watching her while I flew to Austraila THE VERY NEXT DAY. By the time I woke up with a bevy of concerned faces surrounding me and a very managerial looking guy saying that 'An ambulance has been called, ma'am, just stay calm' and me most likely mumbling ... semi-audibly "Oh, shit ...", I was coherent enough to BEG, PLEAD, BRIBE AND CAJOLE to get out of the ride to the hospital - I WAS FREAKING FINE - just in my own 'special' way ..... No go - and off we went for me to tell them at the hospital in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS THAT I WAS FREAKING FINE! And that I was going home, and could somebody give me the number for a taxi service?

I am not without means! I have ways! I have friends! I am WOMAN hear me roar! OH, sorry that was while they were shoving needles in me. I digress. So - no convincing him to go home and get some real sleep.

While they were out the Fake Doctor? Nurse Practitioner? Got my blood results back and discovered that my white blood cell count was in their terms: "astronomically high" (looked it up - normal - 5000 - 10,000 - me: 21,000 - go me!). So even without any T-Cells to call my own or any sort of DECENT immune system - I CAN MAKE WHITE BLOOD CELLS - BY THE THRASHERS! WHO KNEW? Actually I did - I seem to remember my regular doc mentioning that my white blood cell count was really high last time I had my 3 month blood check with her - (*sigh* - another mystery, another doctor, another bunch of tests and yes, again - another day ... getting older ... and sicker .... sucks ....). So they decided that they needed:

a) More blood - OF COURSE! - so Vampyria the Phlebotomist comes back in with just a wee hint of a smile ...

b) A few more tests -

c) Oh, by the way - one is a test for gastroenteritis - a CT with contrast and you have to drink the crap in these two cups. See two stacked cups the arrow is pointing to? (OK - Waaaay down in the next photo - I tend to get a wee .... verbose ... on too little sleep and in the middle of a FULL ON RANT ...)

And WHO SAYS I CAN'T DO HARD THINGS?

I had taken in - in liquid form in the LAST FIVE DAYS - MAYBE - MAYBE - a half cup of water / gatoraide / slush - which all promptly came back up - and they want me to chug down TWO FREAKING FULL GLASSES OF RADIOACTIVE CRAP and keep it down for TWO FREAKING HOURS until it goes through me and they can take their photos? Seriously?

Took me 45 whole minutes, and a TON of anti-nausea medication - but I got those puppies down - and then waited the TWO HOURS I was supposed to wait before we could do the CT scan every minute working to make sure none of it came back up. A plus? It was so, so crappy going down? I was TERRIFIED of what it would be like coming back up - so VERY MOTIVATED to keep it down!

Success!!! By this point I have sent Gary home and hopefully he was getting some sleep. All he had done for days was listen to me wretch and go buy liquid this and liquid that to see if we could keep any medicine in me (the answer was a spectacular resounding: no).

Got down there and realized that it was a CT scan and not an MRI and that I was going to get that FUNKY contrast shoved in my veins. Eeeek! Dudes - if you've ever had it you know what I'm talking about - if you haven't - RUN FOR YOUR LIVES IF YOUR DOC EVER SUGGESTS IT! When it started spraying all over me - I sighed and had visions of Vampyria starting another IV in some other tender spot on me ... maybe deep in my ankle? My neck? When the sweetie with me told me that no - he had not 'blown the line' as we both had suspected - my IVs top port thingy was not fitting tightly and the (now I know) lovely smelling, sticky crap they pretty much have to shove in your veins at a very high pressure since it is so thick and syrupy was the first time I had that much pressure put on the port to see what would happen. I think I ALMOST have all that sticky crap off me now ....

I do make going to the ER sound fun, now don't I? It's why EVERYBODY is lined up at the doors just DYING to get in !!!!

OK, give me some credit - I have had 3 - count em - three solid hours of sleep since last Wednesday ....

And as a twoofer - this photo not only shows my cups of empty glug - it is my 'Traditional Foot Shot' (angels singing, music playing ...):

After having all the test results come back that were coming back today - the blood cultures take days - I was told that I was a mystery - go to my REAL doctor - tell her you have something seriously wrong with your white blood cells (have them call us if they would like to have us verify your freakishness in person ...) and go figure it out your own damn selves - now your are discharged .... go away.

OK.

Blink.

Blink.

I yank the IV - DANG!!!! She had hit a GUSHER!!! Right as her wee smiling self walked in to the room to do just what I did meeself ... Apparently she was not pleased with my performance, grunted a bit then grabbed some gauze and proceeded to hold it against the OH SO VERY SORE SPOT where she had shoved her oh, I don't know - 22 gauge needle? about 1/2 inch into that tender spot on my forearm and held it hard - glaring at me the whole time. I subserviently avoided eye contact all the while my lower extremity was getting number and bluer - but was I going to bring this up when I was THIS CLOSE to being out the door? Dudes - not that stupid ... I'll admit I'm pretty stupid - but somewhere in this idiot called 'me' is some sort of self preservation button that pops up when needed and takes control.

A few minutes later she takes off the gauze to show a bloody, bruised mass of tender forearm flesh declares "Good as new." turns and exits the room. I am now rather unsure what the prerequisites are actually to BECOME a phlebotomist .... And it's Halloween! Who knows what she is up to at this very minute!?! But - I don't care! NOT MY PROBLEM ANY MORE!

As the door swung shut behind her, I sighed, tenderly picked up my discharge papers (I am assuming that is what they were - have yet to look at them - she tossed them on the bed when she saw the gusher of blood spurting out of my forearm ...), my Grumpy sweatshirt (What? WHO WOULDN'T WEAR THEIR GRUMPY SWEATS FOR AN EXTENSIVE ER VISIT?), my purse and tip toed down the hallway.

Halfway out the VERY LAST door I hear a very stern - MISS! Assuming I had been nailed escaping the asylum, I turned.

Her: "Last Name?"

Me: "Hurst"

Her: "You are good to go - have a nice day ..."

Nine little words have NEVER sounded better in a very, very long time!

Walked outside into the brisk, dark early morning to sit on a bench while waiting for my most wonderful friend who I most likely got out of bed to come get me so that Gary would make his meeting on time (that AND she had threatened me with something painful if I EVER called a taxi to come get me and she was in town ... EVER again ...).

It was a FABULOUSLY, COOL, BEAUTIFUL morning and I took it all in - it is amazing what a cool morning, a cold hard bench and just a titch of a sense of freedom and control over your own life can do to your soul ....

~~~~~

And since coming home to a seriously ecstatic dog - I have downed 3 of these babies (OK, I'm counting this one and the first one was only half full - so I am lying ...) and ate a boiled egg!

WHOOO HOOOO!

Baby - I'm back! (as I fall into bed breathing heavily from carrying an EMPTY laundry basket to the laundry room!)

I just might live until my doctors appointment on Thursday ...

Home ...

2011-10-26T00:31:00.005-05:00

Well, we are all home and seem to be enjoying our own beds:

Our New York trip was ... different, to say the least. Quite the eye-opener for me. Learned a lot of new things (about me) while on this trip ...

It didn't turn out to be the 'Photography Extravaganza Trip' that I had designed, planned out and dreamed of. It turned into something altogether different. So ... not really any great photos to show. A dismal, paltry few - more like what an oriental speaking tourist would arrive home with and not what a 'real photographer' would.

Rather disappointed in myself as a photographer ... among other things.

Giving it a lot of thought. There is much room for improvement! Maybe too much ... or, looking at it another way - maybe it it time for me to find a more suitable hobby.

It seems as if the 'Joy of Photography' that suddenly sprung to life in Norway - fully formed and developed - and that I seemed to have a never ending supply of ...

somehow ...

overnight ...

ran out!

Who knew it could even happen?

But ... there is a whole world of opportunities and options out there.

So I am ...

Thinking ....

Thinking ....

Thinking ...

From the City That Never Sleeps ...

2011-10-23T02:43:00.019-05:00

Or at least across the Hudson from it! But a few of those apparent 'Never Sleepers' came to visit the Marriott hotel this evening and as luck would have it ... they ARE OUR NEIGHBORS!!

We had been out late shooting night shots (yeah! more on that later) and were WIPED having gone the wrong way for what seemed miles trying to get around construction, which never ended, thus we turned around in defeat. Stopped at the most wonderful Indian Restaurant and ate dinner, with Gary studying his maps on his iTouch phone.

After sheepishly saying: "Umm, Don't kill me but ..." he got out that had we gone in the other direction a few more yards - we would have seen that all was clear as far as the eye could see!

So, rested, we set off in the opposite direction - but also quite a walk and got our photos. I decided that they are just all that much more beloved when I was willing to 'settle' for a shot through the chain link fence with the skyscrapers of Midtown Manhattan surrounded by bulldozers and cranes! These most definitely do not look like that and we did not have to 'settle' at all!

Came back literally COUNTING THE STEPS it was going to take to get to the front door of the Marriott.

When we got to where we thought it was and realized that it was still a few blocks away, I told Gary that I was giving up - I was going to just lay down on the sidewalk and die. He asked me if he should post my photos as a final wish?

Hell, yeah! They're beautiful!

A block away I asked him if he would go get one of those hotel rolling luggage carts ... complete with the bar to hang your clothes off of. Thought I could just lie down and he could roll me back the rest of the way.

He said: "No"

Upstairs I collapsed in bed for about 15 minutes and then decided that I had better get up if I wanted to see the photos I had taken on my computer or my body was going to lock up and be immovable for the rest of the evening and well into tomorrow.

Gary opted for the 'locking up and never moving again' option but it kills me not to know if my photos are in focus or not - so I ever so joyfully, singing songs that snow white would sing, with a smile on my face - leapt from my bed and booted my laptop. (You just haven't seen Snow White joyfully singing and leaping about in MY world ... DON'T GET ME STARTED on the Seven Dwarfs ...).

About 1/2 hour into that Gary was fast asleep, I was deep into night shots and all of a sudden there is a bunch of yelling, laughing, screaming accompanied by someone trying to break in to our room through the connecting door. Weird ... hitting it HARD ... over, and over and over and over and over and over and over again ... doesn't magically make it pop right open ...

A few hours into the screaming (and some really, really disturbing sounds which sounded like very loud slaps - have only heard those in the movies and I don't know if someone really hauls off and hits someone and tapes that for movies or if they use something that sounds similar - so have no clue - it just sounded like very loud whaps across the face - and then yelling and more laughing.

To say I think they were drunk is an understatement ...

After that I called the front desk - something I have NEVER DONE. Never tattled on a neighbor before! But it was 2:30 in the morning and I was tired and had went to bed twice just to lay there and listen to them partying and apparently falling ... heavily ... into our wall many, many times. They said they would send up the security guard and he would take care of it.

I heard him over there - and miracles of miracles - it worked!!!

For about 10 whole minutes!

Then the partying, the falling, the banging the slapping continued and I was not going to call again, so I tried sleep again, but it was a no go. I guess the party was just way to fascinating to ignore and fall asleep to.

Suddenly I heard the guard again - a wee bit angry this time, but they only sounded amused. Mind you I didn't really hear anything - think 'adult-speak' on Charlie Brown - but it had become 'amused-adult-speak' by the hipster crowd and 'annoyed-adult-speak' by the guard.

FIFTEEN WHOLE MINUTES - sequential minutes! Total bliss!

They were then at it again, but their determination to awake the ENTIRE hotel seemed to have waned a bit, then they seemed only interested in racing up and down the hallway screaming - hey - they weren't body slamming someone against MY WALL - I was cool with it ...

And at about 4:30 they started settling down. It is now 10 to five and I SO WANT TO .. well not bang on their door - then they would know where I live ... hmmm? Does a hotel phone have a caller ID that shows what room the call is coming from? I so want to 'ring them up every 10 minutes, say - until about 8:00am' what?

I was in the middle of getting a post ready so I thought that I would just keep it up and finish.

~~~~~

I thought that I would summarize just a few points from the past two days - which have been wonderful, different, beautiful and frustrating all rolled into one big ball of vacation ...

I wanted us to have a hotel directly by a subway station so that we would be able to get around without having to take a taxi - so I got this Marriott. It is roomy, has wifi in the room, and we are comfortable here.

Got directions on how to get to New York since that was the direction we would be headed and they told us that 'all lines from Jersey lead to the WTC' (World Trade Center) so that was where we headed Friday morning.

It didn't take long at all to get the feeling that something had changed around this place.

Sitting down below the earth at our subway stop: Newport - I took a photo having long admired photos of the New York subway terminals - gritty, functional, cool! The next thing I know - I am told in very stern and direct language that no photos were allowed in the subway. I was flabbergasted! What? I see them every where?

Dooce - a blog I read - is often invited to New York for talk shows, her project with Christy Turlington and her episodes on some sort of decorating show on the home and garden station - or something that sounds like that. She IS ALWAYS - RIGHT NOW - taking photos of the subway stations!

Put my camera down and sulked a bit until the train arrived. Got on - and at the WTC we got off. We were surrounded by concrete - that and plywood sheets of wood lying about blocking sight of most of what was being worked on. We saw a sign that gary seemed to recognize from when he was here list year - so up the escalator we went (I might interject here - out of all the subways we have trudged through - we have been on a total of 3 - yes - count 'em THREE escalators! This is out of about 20 - 30 sets of stair ways - don't know what the wheel chair bound do ...

On that escalator, as we were going up - I noticed that we were next to a building that looked damaged - but must have been beautiful! So amongst the rubble - I found this:

The detail work on the buildings here is beyond description! I LOVE taking photos of it!

As we emerged from the building housing the PATH underground system (as apposed to the system that runs in NY - have to change trains and apparently stations at the WTC) we saw the new tower being built? More prograss than I thought they had made!

I was pretty sure we were lost - but there were signs to a building I wanted to go see. I forget the name presently and Gary is getting antsy that I am still up typing so I will let you know later. It had a beautiful atrium I wanted to photograph.

Gary had noticed a building where a bunch of people were on the second floor using it as an observatory to the WTC construction site - so off we went. And soon discovered that it was the building I wanted to see in the first place! Got my photos of the atrium:

Then off to take photos of the construction site at the impromptu observation deck ...

I was snapping away - steering clear of a guided tour when I started to pay attention to what three elderly couples were talking about - I believe it is called eavesdropping. Snippets had caught my attention: "She got a call from him and he had said that the second plane had just hit his building beneath his floor. And then she was cut off"; "He and Johan had been blown back when the first explosion hit, but they got up and ran through the flames to check on their co-workers when a second blast struck them. He didn't see Johan after that. He was in therapy for quite a long time, I remember"; "... and he just walked in the door covered in this white dust and didn't say anything. Just sat on the couch weeping. I didn't know how, when Nancy called what to tell her to do - I was so worried myself, you see ..."; "Yes, Nancy says the youngest is in therapy now since he feels guilty that he doesn't remember his father very well ...".

I was intruding on some very deep conversations and it was very surreal. One - I had only heard people talk like this on TV, not standing beside me (I just wanted to turn around, hug them all and tell them how sorry I was for all of them, but I don't thing that sort of thing is socially acceptable in New York:! Two - The way they spoke ... it was so ... odd ... so nonchalant, like they were swapping recipes for bundt cake. And I realized - this was just an every day part of their lives that they had lived through and processed and moved on from. I, on the other hand, have not moved on - since I have had no need to do so ... It was very difficult to listen to them (and very rude - but now I couldn't stop!) and they were speaking in a tone that did not imply they were trying to be discrete - they were just ... talking. Sad for them, I quickly finished my photos and left.

As I turned around for the first time to see them, they looked like 55 - 65 regular people - but somehow I knew that was not true - I cannot even fathom living in an area where my family and all my neighbors families had to go through that. I hope they kept their TV's off as the vultures played those devastating clips over and over and over again ...

Gary had gone down to get a drink, read and wait for me to finish up and so I went to find him - all depressed. I perked up when I saw him, we had lunch and as we were sitting there I noticed how beautiful the skyscrapers looked out the ceiling of the area we were in:

As we were eating I had to smile! A little girl was absolutely adoring a gentlemans dog that he was walking through the building.

It took me a second for the 'what is wrong with this picture' question starting buzzing my brain. In Norway and Europe this is a perfectly normal thing to see on a daily basis.

When I realized it was not Norway - I looked at him closed and he was wearing an ATF jacket. And a wave of sadness at the change again washed over me ... it was a bomb sniffing dog ...
We then headed outside - beautiful day!

And walked by a policeman's memorial:

There were a few people there and I stayed up to take photos while Gary went down by the pond.

I then headed down to where he was and took a photo of a picture. Probably a birthday present, or they do not live near enough to come often - just speculation on my part.

Gary said: It is not just a 9/11 memorial - it is for all policemen. There are names listed after 9/11 - way after 9/11. I told him that I was sure it still was - and the reason.

My answer was most likely correct as I read the pretty little card that said that he died due to the after effects of breathing in so much toxic dust (worded a bit differently - will change it if I can read the text when I get the time).

We then passed a group of people. We had been told back a ways before this that each morning at 9:00am sharp - 1500 tickets are given out for that day for people to tour the 9/11 site. And I realized, sadly that we were not going to be able to get there (unless we did a ton of rescheduling) myI am at a loss as to how to properly pay my respects ...

We followed a route that day that I had mapped out and then had a hard time finding our way to a connecting train to get back to the PATH station and back on to our hotel. We WERE going to go to Times Square or something and kill an hour before Wicket started, but my back was really having problems, so I opted for going back to the hotel to lay down for a half an hour. Also - I looked like a skank and thought maybe I should do something about that before we headed off to a Broadway production ...

Went back, rested, got back on the subway - on to Broadway and a SPECTACULAR performance of Wicked! I really enjoyed it! I also (ahem...) cheated and hid the light from my camera and took some non-flash photography! PHOTOS FROM A LIVE BROADWAY PRODUCTION!!!! So Cool! So not classy! So Evil! But still ... so cool!!!!

This morning we headed straight to the Empire State Building since I was clearly not doing well and the day had not barely begun! Yes, I know I am pathetic and I DO NOT KNOW why Gary still takes me anywhere ...

Got super ill waiting in lines so was not doing well at all when we got to the top, but I did the best I could and then we left. Took a few photos - I hope they turn out!

Went back - beat! And rested for a bit. Gary slept while I played in photoshop. He told me to wake him up when it was time to go - so that is what I did.

And as I mentioned, after a TON of searching ....

we got our Night Shots!!!!

Lower Manhattan:

Midtown Manhattan:

Well, it is now 6:00am - I better get some sleep and proof read this later - so

sorry y'all for all the mistakes that have to be in here!!!!

Later,

Night ...

TMI!!!

2011-10-20T00:52:00.038-05:00

Well, it is Wednesday afternoon (IN MY WORLD ... OK, it was Wednesday afternoon when I spiritually created this blog - but couldn't get to the nitty gritty typing it up until now ...) So ...

It is Wednesday afternoon and all my camera batteries are charging ...

The laundry is laundering ...

The dog has been taken care of - has a home lined up for while we will be gone ...

I've watered all the plants ...

The kitchen is clean ...

I have bulldozed the office into some form of organization ...

The living room is clean ...

Wha?!?!

Hey!!! Dude - I'm taking pictures here ... go away ...

Charlie seems to think that she is not taken care of!

Oh! Her pills! Totally forgot.

Again ... Charlie has been taken care of - her pills have been forced down her throat ...

So ... pretty cool, yes?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Help!!!!!

What HAVEN'T I DONE? Well, pretty much PLAN MY TRIP! I am so afraid this is going to turn into Prague all over again ...

Thing is? I have a TON of help - the book I bought is fabulous, excellent, wonderful, packed full of excellent information.

So ...

whats not to like?

What's the problem?

There IS TOO MUCH INFORMATION. WAAAAY TOO MUCH INFORMATION!!!

Got the book, started reading it. I was doing great! It takes New York City:

And breaks it down into zones. There are fifteen of them.

OK, that's quite a few - I will have to work out something for a three day trip.

It took me - seriously - a week of thinking about it but got it down to:

1) Lower Manhattan, SoHo & TriBeCa and if I have the energy Greenwich Village
2) Central Park, Upper East Side, Upper West Side
3) Midtown Manhattan

Looking good!

ONE. WHOLE. WEEK.

They all lie within this part of the map:

So - narrowing it down a bit!

So now it is THE ACTUAL DAY BEFORE WE FLY TO NEW YORK and I am working on #1.

Yep - NUMBER ONE.

Which basically keeps me below 14th street:

Figured out the subway system today, what we needed to do to just get over to New York from our hotel in Jersey City. Luckily it is a piece of cake! Get on the subway right by our hotel and it takes us across and dumps us out at the World Trade Center.

Hopefully that is a big hub since that is the ONLY place it dumps us!

So, I started working out from there:

Got into the book section on Lower Manhattan and the first three pages (ok 6 pages) had so much information in them that I basically stopped and started to take notes on all the places that it had mentioned and all the snippets of architectural information on this building or that building that I JUST HAD to put them on my list of things to photograph!

Seriously? I should have got a crappier book - one with no helpful information at all. Then I would be oh, so, blissfully ignorant when I have to cross off at least 75% of all the things that I want to take photos of ...

DANG BOOK! It's not like I can go and UNREAD that chapter - it has ruined me! How am I going to fit all this in?

*sigh*

I go back to Google Earth / Google Maps to try to map out a walking tour that will maximize my photo opportunities and minimize my walking.

In this clump of map alone (with the WTC showing in the upper left part of the screen - so just below where we get off the subway) there were too many places to even begin to map out anything that resembled something other than a police forensics grid search ...

So I decided to focus on the Trinity Church - A MUST. And work my way out from there ...

Zoomed in near it and started to itemize all the places around - that I wanted to photograph - and it was still overwhelming - too much! Too many wonderful things to take photos of and too much information for me to compute properly without my brain exploding!

In addition to all the information packed in that wee little 1 1/2 inch thick book and the 'Map' section of Google Earth or Google Maps - there's always PHOTOS!

You know, just in case you didn't have enough information to sort through as it was - add all the visuals - yeah - that is going to help me immensely ...

This was not going well, so I decided that I was 'just going to wander' ...

Literally! Took that little fellow down in the lower right and plonked him down smak dab in the center of the street in front of the Trinity Church - and started turning in a circle by dragging the 'N' on the circle in the upper right corner (I know MOST of you know all this - but my parents might not and it is so fantastically wonderful to be able to do this I thought I would add the "how to's" ... just in case):

Turning, turning ....

More turning ... and I see I am at the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street ...

A little bit more turning and HERE I AM! Right in front of (kinda) the Trinity Church!

Decided to take my mouse and click and drag to see up ....

And up some more!

This is SO COOL!

I am seriously having fun, so I decided to take a walk down Broadway and just see what I see ....

Hmmmm - it's the Wall Street Bull? Maybe I wasn't on Broadway? I notice here that EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY PERSONS face is blurred out! Later I notice the same thing about the license plates of the cars. How many photos do you think it takes TO COVER THE ENTIRE EARTH! A bazillion or two?

Blurring faces out! Fun, fun, fun ... and it looks like people are aware that the photo is being taken - so many are looking straight at the camera. And one guy with his hand raised in a fist ... or maybe it was something else to start with ...

WHAT A FUN JOB. I can envision it now - sitting on a plane, trapped next to a guy trying to make conversation, be polite ....

Me: "So, what do you do?"

Him: "I blur out the faces of everyone in the entire world in all the Google photos."

Me: "OH! How ... fun?"

Him: "It beats my old job."

Me: "Oh, really? What was that?"

Him: "I used to blur out the license plates of all the cars in all the Google photos for the entire planet. Roger does that now. In my job there is a little variety, plus I get to photoshop out all the guys flipping the camera the bird!"

Me: "Oh, well, it sounds really fun."

At this point in my musings I frantically try to find my iPod and headphones - because I can tell THAT HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED ...

Hmmmmm, sorry about that - I might be a little ... punchy ....

~~~

I continue my walk. Which is rather fun - you take your mouse and there is a flat oval that is depicting the cute little yellow man and move him up the road a bit and click the oval down on the road and ... ZOOM ... the photos blur by and we arrive!

Click.

Zoom!

Click.

Zoom!

Turn a corner - Click, zoom a teeny bit, click, zoom a teeny bit, click - then ...

Oh! I think I know where I am! I tell myself to hang a right - and see if I am where I think I am:

YES!!!!

I found the Brooklyn Bridge - all by myself!

So, so, so very cool ... and

weird

my feet don't hurt AT ALL!!!

i sigh, decide that I really need to get serious about things - this trip apparently is not going to plan itself.

I make an about face - just to see Manhattan one last time ...

And I can see in this photo about 10 shots that I would kill to take.

I guess I will find out soon enough ....