My dog is ridiculous. 

Maybe I should pursue a degree in retail therapy?

Here are some dishes I saw at Home Goods that I really wanted, but I found dishes I loved just as much there and so my Mom got me similar ones that I have to keep in my house because they are a Christmas present. I wish I could put them out now. Which brings me to my next home obsession...

I was just flipping through the online 2012 IKEA catalog and realized I could rearrange a bunch of things in my house, through some paint up, buy new doors and feel like I am in a new house. So now my brain is all in HGTV mode and I stop to think if this is all a way to avoid homework. My weekends are pretty much booked with paper writing and readings that are due, and when those are not happening, I am traveling. In two weeks I am off to New Orleans for the second time this year; this time for a NACAC conference with my coworkers. Two months after that, the hubby and I jet off with his family to sunny Florida for the second time in my life to go to Disney and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. With all this happening before Christmas, the classes and the trips, you would think I wouldn't want to add more to my plate... but I love change and usually that change happens in the Fall. So I want it.. nay, I need it. I just received a small promotion at my job and now I want some more change! It's addictive. I don't understand why people fear change. Embrace it! Love it! Make it work for you! (Do I sound like a cheesy motivational speaker? Oh well... )

Maybe this is all me trying to avoid homework and papers and reading. Every time I catch up, a new week begins and I need to get back on the discussion board for my online class or work on my term paper for my on campus class. It's a lot and this is just the start of my program. I have two more years of this to look forward to. Uh oh.. this post is getting to real and scary for me. So here are some pictures of my dog. :)

Photo tour of my trip to my Mom's upstate

I am going to give you a photo tour of my trip upstate. These things are usually reserved for text messages between me and Ms. Pistachiopants (aka Lynne) . However, I decided to share these special moments with you, my readers. So my husband, friends, and Lynne.

Our journey starts on the car trip up where we watched the sunset in the mountains as we listened to Salem's Lot by Stephen King and I was grateful we didn't get to any super scary parts.


Then we got there and slept. Friday we went on an adventure to find a waterfall with a name my Mom couldn't remember and nor did she remember what town it was in. Turns out she also had the road wrong, but we happened to find it none the less. It was about a half a mile walk down a mountain to get to it, but it was a very pretty walk.


You could see the Upper Falls from a platform at the beginning of the walk, but we wanted the Lower Falls. And in case we wanted to walk back to LI, NYC was only 275 miles away according to this rustic sign.


Once we got to the bottom it was a sign to see. Very enclosed with a calm pool of water at the end of the Falls. It was called the Minekill Falls in case you are ever aimlessly driving along Rt. 30 in Upstate New York. There was a family there who went swimming there, which I am pretty sure is not allowed even thought there are no signs. What gave it away was when we walked back up, a Mountain Sheriff Police Dude was walking down to, I assume, tell the family they couldn't swim there.

We took a picture before we headed to our next adventure.

Our next adventure was a train ride from Arkville to Roxbury and back. It was pretty and at Roxbury we got to have ice cream cones before going back. Was it worth $12 per person? I don't know, but it was something to do and I have always wanted to breathe in diesel smoke for 2 hours. (There may be a bit of sarcasm there.) I did get this cool picture though. (There are COWS!!)
Then we headed back to the rustic house on the mountain that my Mom lives in. Actually it's not so much rustic as a house with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths they had built for them that overlooks the side of a mountain, but it gets bears occasionally and here is a chipmunk on the deck!


That was Friday. Saturday we went to a country fair type thing where we had hot dogs and some knick knacks. Then it rained so we went back to the house for some wine and beer and what my mother kept referring to as "house party time". Sunday when we drove back we expected rain the whole time, but somehow I think we drove behind the storm the entire time and took some sun back with us. That was pretty pleasant. I had ice cream about 4 times on that trip, so I will fondly remember it as Upstate Ice Cream Weekend.

Grad Student City

I just remembered today that we have to figure out how we are going to pay for the Fall semester for grad class. It's a good thing Gordon's program is free or else I don't know what we would do. Loan city I suppose. Payment plan city, maybe. Pretend college is free and forget about it.... city, perhaps. Classes start at the end of the month. I am scared and excited and dreading all the work. I will miss free time. Maybe I will just play Sims 3 for the rest of the Summer.

I think Disney and Harry Potter Wizarding World in December will help get me through this dark time.

PS Spotify is awesome.
PPS Summer is going by too fast.

Gay Cowboy

I love Jake Gyllenhaal.... That is all.

Defining Gender and the End of an Era

Today the Husband and I had an interesting chat that was sparked by an ABC Good Morning America article that questioned how really against pink the new generations of boys are. I plan on raising my kids not to think that colors are gendered and neither are toys or dress up clothes for the most part. The only thing we really differed on was whether, if we had a boy, our kid wanted to wear a dress to school or play dress up. G said he would basically insist that the boy wear pants because skirts and dresses are not okay for boys. I can understand this mentality because he doesn't want out kids to be teased if it can be avoided. I feel like if the child is young enough and they very desperately want to wear it they can, and if they get teased I could explain to them why it is probably better to wear pants to school and out. As far as colors or toys like kitchen sets and dolls or trucks and comic book toys, I will not try to influence their interests and allow them to play and pick colors as they wish. I do not want to have our children picked on and I will try to do everything I can as a parent to try to prevent it, but as someone who was picked on for no good reason other than I didn't speak up and stand up to the bullies, I at least want my kids to be happy and play and dress as they please.

In other completely unrelated news, Borders Books & Music, where my husband and I met, is closing its doors.... all its doors. This is sad. It is at Borders where I met G, an adorable cafe seller who loved comic references and lean proteins and vegetables. I was an annoying college students whose crush could not have been more obvious. It was here that our friendship bloomed, later (much later... like 5 years later) we began our romance. I am sad to see it go. I don't go there as often as I would like, but I also met my best friend Lynne there. I forced her to be my friend by talking incessantly and making her drive around with me while eating flipz and drinking slurpees and listening to music. Man, we wasted a lot of gas, but there wasn't too much else to do on LI at 1am.

Sugar Crash

Harry Potter inspires amazing treats.