A Flip of the Finger to. . .

. . . the bagage handlers on my flight home. They must look like this:

Because the inside of my bag was covered with this:

>-P

Go Ahead, Drink the Water in Texas

I crashed for a night at the Westin in Dallas and it is a fairly swanky hotel. It is attached to a shopping center complete with an indoor ice rink. Nice, but
man the prices!

B-b-brrrr!

So one day my friend says to me, "I'm going to do a Polar Bear Plunge. Wanna come?"
"Are you nuts?!" I respond.
"I can't believe you won't do it," she charges.
"Oh, no," I counter. "I'll do it. I can't let you out-crazy me!"

This was the site of the Polar Bear Plunge.

Festival workers were breaking up the ice and trying to float it away from the plunging area. It was cold (duh), but I'm glad that I did it. It wasn't as bad as I expected, but it sure does hurt the feet! If I ever do this again, I'm going to wear shoes, because running on ice with wet bare feet is just crazy.

Make that TWO ice packs, please!

OhHolyCrap! Tonight was my first snowboarding lesson and I don't think I've fallen this much since I was learning to walk! I'm afraid my knees are going to be black and blue by the morning. So we'll see. . .

In Bed. . .

This is the best fortune I've gotten in a really, really long time!

BEHOLD!

This is St. John Evangelical Roman Catholic Church.

I went here for Christmas Eve Mass (and I'm not even Catholic!)

It is the most beautiful church I've ever seen.

Absolutely gorgeous!

Two observations about Catholic services:

1. They are big fans of recitation. A line or two I get, it was the 5 minute speeches that stunned me.

2. For Communion they offered wafers, but no wine or grape juice. "Excuse me, where's the blood of Christ?"

And if anyone is wondering, no, I didn't wear a dress, but, yes, I did don my pearls and heels!

Really??

Am I the only one who reads this as "Travelin' Phoney"?

And the Magic Continues. . .

Well, what do you know. . . the photos were found in some obscure computer file. Maybe I uploaded them in my sleep.

So here are some of my images from the Shaolin Warriors performance at Proctor's. It is one of those gorgeous old buildings that I love. (sigh)

I know it is difficult to see, but let me clue you in on the happenings in the last picture. The monk on the floor is laying upon a bed of nails. There is a slab of concrete across his stomach which they will bust into pieces with a sledgehammer in just a moment. Ouch!

I Know What True Evil Is

What sane human being leaves this little bit of ice cream in the carton for others to find???
My roommate, that's who.

The tease.

Whoa. . . magic!

Well, I had a photo to post here. A photo of the Shaolin Warriors taken at Proctor's Theatre (yes, I know you aren't allowed to photograph the performances there). I snuck a couple anyway, most of them sucked - too dark and those guys just move so fast! But as I sit to add this event to my list of 52 Firsts, all the pics have dissappeared from my camera - nothing else, just those.

Hmmmm. . .

I suppose my place isn't that difficult to break into. I mean, any ninja worth his salt could do it. Whatdyathink?

Can I Drive the Zamboni?

I'm not that used to taking photographs for anything other than art purposes. The idea of "Hey, look at me at such-and-such place" doesn't quite suit me. I don't like feeling like a tourist (even if I am one).

But I feel the slight need to have proof of my 52 Things. So here's a shot from the ice hockey game.

A curious thing. . . the fans had this overabundant and extreme hatred of one of the opposing team players (#24 Robitaille). I've never heard SO much profanity screamed at one person before. I have NO idea why the Albany fans hate him, but I kept thinking "poor kid!". He did, however, provide me with the most embarrassing display of cowardice I've ever seen. The players all seemed to be waiting for the right time to kick his ass and when the moment came and one of the Rats threw a punch, Robitaille dropped to the ice, face down in a protective fetal position.

WHAT?! Either fight back or take your beating, but don't do that! What kind of a hockey player are you?

My Big Fat (Yawn) Life

"So what have you done in your life?"

This is what I was thinking as I listed seemingly simple activities like riding go-carts on my future activities list. (Yes, I never did that as a kid). I can think of a few nifty things, but unfortunately they were, in most cases, a long time ago! SO. . . I have:

* Riden an elephant

* Traversed a corn maze (and somehow exited at the entrance, oops)

* Auditioned for a movie

* 'Surfed' the dunes in White Sands, New Mexico

* Experienced the Dragon's Wing - a distant cousin to bungee jumping, but close enough for me!

* Rappelled down both a tower and a cliff

* Helped break the record for most Volkswagens on a ferry.

Hmmm. . . still thinking. I'll update if anything else comes to mind.

And Mao said, "Let there be light."

The best asian food around here (that I've found so far) is at a place called Dragon Buffet. This is the wall right behind the cash register. I have to wonder about their electrician, though.

Keepin' Crisco in Business

Several, several months back my friend, Phil, stopped in town and we had a couple hours to drive around. Literally, that's all we did. I'm a terrible hostess. Anyway, he noticed right away one of the oddities of New York living that I had begun to take for granted. . . the omnipresence of Dunkin' Donuts. At the time, I just confirmed that "Yup, there's a LOT of them around". Since then I've checked out the company's website to discover that within a 10 mile radius of my zip code, there are 49 Dunkin' Donuts. FORTY NINE.

This all seems doubly amusing to me because the last place I lived had ONE. I'd drive by it about once a year (it was in an odd spot) and every time I'd remark, "Hey look it still exists!" Personally, I'd thought they had all gone the way of TG&Y! (Does anyone out there remember TG&Y?)

FYI: If there are any Krispy Kreme fans out there. . . the month I moved here the one and only Krispy Kreme in the area went out of business. I think I heard that it had been open just shy of a year. So now the closest one is 110 miles away in Connecticut!

Did I ever tell you. . .

. . . that Adirondack furniture is big here?

My Cheatin' Hea-uh. . . Brain

Alright, so anyone who knows me will know that I'm cheating a little on my Year of Firsts list. But only a little.

For example, I listed a costume party. Certainly I've been to costume parties before, however I can't remember being at a costume party during my adult life that wasn't thrown by me! I love theme parties. This was a Superheros and Villains party. I was Cruella deVil from the top of my head to the tip of my cigarette.

I also listed the Iron Pour at SAW and, again, I've seen 3 and been involved in 2 before. But my friend Sierra and I worked charging the furnace for most of the pour. I've never done that job before (and it is constant), so I felt I could list it just this once.

Later I hope to add a video from a pour in NC last month - it's a different pour, but iron nonetheless.

You Are What You Buy

A little honesty never hurt anyone.

Ausable is AWE-some

I took a "mental health day" with a friend of mine and we stumbled onto something cool - Ausable Chasm. Our original plan was simply to point the car north, look at the changing foliage and just wing it from there.

While exiting the interstate for a smaller highway, we spied a sign claiming that there was a chasm about a mile away. I exclaimed, "A chasm? Let's check that out! It might be cool" and then proceeded to make a right hand turn from the left lane. (No worries. . . no traffic).

Let's hear it for spontaneity, because it was a good day! You trek about a mile through the woods around the chasm and eventually along the sides of the walls. In places steps have been added for your convenience, but it is most certainly NOT for acrophobics. If you pay an additional fee, you can raft with a guide down part of the river. The bottom two pictures were taken from the raft. I'd recommend the trip to all my friends!

When Good Molds Go Bad

WOW!

I've heard about the possibility of this happening, but never seen it with my own eyes.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens to a resin-bonded sand mold when burned out at too high of a temperature. (The resin burns up and your mold is reduced back to sand). One poke at these and more sand just cascaded onto the floor. It was almost awesome in its total devastation. I mean, if you are going to screw up, do it big!

Actually, in this case no one screwed up, the kiln temp just isn't uniform throughout. We thought it could work for burn out molds, but it can't.

Oh, well. Live and learn.

"I go to airport."

I am happy to report that my Italian instructor is actually Italian. This may seem obvious, but I remember my high school Spanish teacher being French! English was his fourth language and it was sometimes difficult to understand him. I used to wonder if we'd all wind up in Mexico on spring break sounding like a bunch of French tourists.

So the good news is that my instruction this time around is coming from a woman who moved here from Italy 5 years ago. The bad thing is that since it only meets a few times, she isn't dwelling on "the little things". . . like articles. So if Rome is inundated with tourists this summer asking, "Where is bathroom?" and "Train leaves 4PM" you'll know why.