General

Sleepy
This morning was one of those mornings where it’s still dark when the alarm goes off, the outside air is quite chilly, and the bed is very warm and cozy. You know – the kind where you want nothing more in the world then to just stay in bed all day and sleep, and maybe read (I’m trying to read the Lord of the Rings before the movie comes out). Unfortunately, I had to go to work today. I think I need to rearrange my schedule so I can sleep in at least one day a week. I bet I’d be more productive that way…

Trekkie?
I’m not sure whether to be insulted or amused by Tina’s latest post. :D I don’t consider myself a Trekkie, although I might have been at one point in my life – like I’d ever admit it… But if it makes Tina feel any better, I took the quiz, and I too am apparently just a clone of Data. Which leads me to wonder whether that would be the answer every time, and who are the other robots? The only other one I can think of is the robot from Lost In Space…

Coming soon to a theater near you
Has anyone else noticed how all the events since September 11th have had movie titles? First it was “America Under Attack”, then “America’s New War”, and most recently “America Strikes Back”. In fact, I think I started hearing theme music on one of the news stations. It just struck me as very strange.

The weekend was almost too busy to write about, but here goes…

Monday
Vacation! Well, not really, we spent the whole day at the animal hospital at Cornell getting Molly’s hips checked out. The good news: no surgery until it’s absolutely necessary. The bad news: it will almost definitely be necessary – she’s only 18 months old and has terrible arthritis already. :( But she was pretty cute all afternoon – they’d sedated her for the x-rays, and she was extremely mellow! Then I met up with the EAT team to go shopping for spa day and our Halloween party. Going shopping is even more fun when you don’t have to pay for it all! And I think I might have set a world record for shoe-shopping. I needed shoes to go with the bridesmaid’s dress I have to wear in less than two weeks – I walked into a shoe store 5 minutes before they closed, tried on 8 pairs of shoes, and actually walked out with a pair. Denis didn’t believe me. :)

Sunday
We went to Ithaca to visit with my grandparents and be close to Cornell for Molly’s appointment Monday. The drive down was very pretty – leaves are changing all over – but we saw a few flakes of snow on a couple different occasions. Yikes! I think it’s the earliest I’ve seen snow in a long time… At least it didn’t stay on the ground! But it was very nice to be sitting in my grandparents’ log home in front of a nice roaring fire sipping hot cocoa. Ahhh.

Saturday
I spent the day trying to catch up on cleaning and laundry. I failed miserably, so instead I went shopping. Much better! I ran into Jenny and Aaron at Media Play (not Target!) and bought some bulbs at Home Depot – now I just have to find some time to plant them. My parents and I also went to my brother’s field band show. It was soooo cold – we ended up staying near the concession stand, buying every hot food and drink we could until it was time for his band to play, and we left immediately after they were done… Admission for three: $15. Hot food and drinks: $12. Freezing one’s nose off: priceless. :)

Friday
We went to the Victor homecoming game tonight. And I have to say, that was the best football I’ve seen all season. We creamed Newark, 34 to 6. I think the Bills should just sign all the Victor players up – they might have a chance at winning a game this season. However – and this is not a slam against cheerleaders in any way – is there a reason why there need to be 31 cheerleaders when there are only 32 football players on the team? And if you thought about that the way I think it came out, you have a dirty mind. :D

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
…except when it arrives too early…
<rant> I love Christmas. It’s my absolute favorite time of year – I love the music, the pretty decorations, the challenge of finding the perfect gifts for people, the snow… But the Christmas season starts after Thanksgiving. I can’t believe I’m walking into department stores in the first week of October and seeing Christmas trees up already! Just because they’re fake and will stay green all the way up until December 26th does not give people the right to start Christmas before Halloween even happens!!! Even craft stores are into it – all of the Christmas decorations and supplies are already on sale. By the time I get around to shopping for things, all of the Valentine’s day merchandise will be out and I won’t be able to find any Christmas things. It starts earlier every year – pretty soon, I’m going to have to start my Christmas shopping in March.</rant>

Home Sweet Home
So it was a fun weekend and all, but I think we spent about 18 hours in the car when all was said and done. Yuck! The only good part about spending time in the car was that Denis’ parents bought the first Harry Potter book on tape and let us borrow it for the ride up – I really like those books! And that I got a lot done on the totebag I’m knitting. Molly was very happy to see us last night. Every time we go away, I’m pretty sure she thinks we’re never coming back. I don’t think she can sense time in any increments other than “right now”, “very soon” and “never”. It’s pretty obvious what “right now” means. “Very soon” would be something like, “there’s a treat, and I’m being asked to sit, so I’ll get the treat very soon”. “Never” is everything that doesn’t fall into the other two categories. Although, I’m pretty sure she knows we’ll be back when we leave for work in the morning – that’s become such a routine by now – but I wonder if she realizes when we’re a little earlier or later than usual? Oh, well – I guess I’ll never really know.

OK, so I lied. It’s the weekend and I’m blogging anyway. :) The christening was lovely, the dresses fit perfectly, the party after was great, and I took about 90 pictures…some of which I’ll have to post eventually! The drive down last night was rather uneventful. But it was very strange – maybe it’s just because I didn’t grow up seeing the WTC towers on a somewhat daily basis, but as we were driving over the Tappanzee bridge, and later over the Whitestone bridge, I couldn’t visualize where they belonged. I never realized how out-of-place they were, but they really stood out among very short (relatively speaking) buildings. The Empire State building was the tallest building out there, and it didn’t even really seem that tall. I’m a little sad that I can’t remember what it looked like without seeing a picture – and that I never thought to take a picture as we crossed those bridges. On the other hand, I guess it might keep me from taking things for granted so much from now on. It must be late, I’m getting melancholy – time for bed!

NY, NY
Well, it’s going to be a strange journey this weekend. We won’t be anywhere where we have a direct view of “Ground Zero”, but we also won’t see the familiar skyline while we’re driving… But, it’s for a happy event, and I’m going to try to focus on that. We’ll find out tomorrow morning if those dresses fit. Gulp. I have seven rolls of film with me (all Kodak, of course) and my digital camera – those poor babies are going to have about a million pictures taken of them tomorrow. Especially if the other 99 guests take pictures too! This weekend I’ll have an even better excuse not to blog – I’ll be in the car most of the weekend, and I’m actually not bringing my laptop with me!

I think someone was trying to send a message today. Something like “Don’t go to work!” My drive in was rather eventful this morning – first I got stuck behind a slow-moving tractor. On a road with a double-yellow line. (I do live in the boonies after all). Then I ended up behind a van-style bus which needed to back into a driveway. When I got to the one-lane tunnel, several cars were coming through from the other direction. And just as I turned a corner, a herd of deer (ok, only three) jumped out barely 50 yards in front of me. And all that was before I got on the expressway and had to deal with rush-hour traffic, construction and an abandoned car in the middle of three lanes right about where the left lane ended. This is what happens when I drive myself to work instead of carpooling with Denis. No fahrvergnügen for me today.

Check out my new leaf banner in honor of fall! I made it myself, from a picture I took of a window cling. It only took three hours in photoshop – maybe I should keep my day job! :)