New York City?! *People Notes*

New York City is a 'wicked cool' place to visit (as they say in the northeast), so off we went for a big city adventure, oh yea, and to celebrate our 15th anniversary! Of course, it was an immense help to have Erik & Katy there to act as our tour guides and generally to keep us out of trouble. This worked for the most part, with a few minor exceptions when left to our own devices... especially when it came to subway navigation. We only ended up in Queens once and Harlem once...OK, twice - but miraculously we always found our way back! Finding our hotel was relatively easy, as it was across the street from the Empire State Building!

First, let me just say that the food choices in NY are overwhelming, unlike the culinary wasteland we have here in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee. Coal fired pizza, 'street meat', Chinatown Chinese, Koreatown Korean, Little Italy Italian, gourmet everything...restaurants dedicated to one specialty i.e., Rice to Riches (nothing but rice pudding!), Empanada Mama (yup, all empanadas) and cupcake stores galore! It was pure heaven. We ate our way from the financial district all the way to the Upper East Side - more than once. Burp. Top honors go to the K&E Steakhouse on 71st Street with their melt-in-your mouth filets followed by Brooklyn Blackout fudge cake...fantastic!


There is simply too much to do in New York - and we did a lot! I cannot possibly begin to tell you all of the ground that we covered, so here are a few of our favorites from this trip:


* Museum of Natural History - incredible exhibits, huge, overwhelming...we could have spent weeks here but had to settle for a few hours of appreciation. Then our brains were full. Paul finally found the elusive moose he had spent the summer searching for in Colorado.

* Central Park - picnics with a few hundred thousand close friends, NFL kickoff concert with Kieth Urban, Duke softball tournament, and K&E frisbee freestyle olympics!

* NY Public Library - this should be one of the seven wonders of the world! My favorite place in all of New York, hands down.

* Brooklyn Bridge - the South Street Seaport on one side, Bodies exhibit (gross), a brisk walk across the bridge, and Grimaldi's Pizza on the other side. How can life get any better?

* Staten Island Ferry - mesmerizing views which encompass the Manhattan skyline, Brooklyn, Ellis Island and the powerful Statue of Liberty. Pictures don't do it justice.

* Hudson Boat Basin & Riverside Park - a uniquely designed area where we spent many hours walking, and walking, and walking... we sure were thirsty when we got to the restaurant!

* Financial District, Wall Street, NY Stock Exchange - who knew that this would become the center for world news for the past couple of weeks?! "We were there!" is what we say everyday when the news begins.

* Washington Square Park & Greenwich Village - or, if you live here, it is just 'the Village'. Very eclectic, cool, unique, trendy...just like us! (stop laughing)

* Chinatown & Little Italy - unique, fun neighborhoods to wander the streets. And eat. And eat some more. Burp. And wander the streets. And eat.

* Times Square & ABC Studios - Good Morning America - this was probably worth dragging my lazy self out of bed before dawn to stand in line to get in the studio audience to watch the early morning news to get a photo op with famous people ...probably.

* World Trade Center / Ground Zero - we visited this exact location three months after 9/11. Although the construction has begun and the area is undergoing development and rebirth, the feelings of sadness, loss and heartache are as strong now as they were 7 years ago.



*Erik's office building!! Somewhere waaaay up there is where he works. We don't know what he does. We don't have a clue. He has patiently explained it to us a dozen different ways...we still don't know what he does. But he met us for lunch several times, introduced us to 'street meat', Bryant Park, Margon (Cuban lunch counter) and Juniors! I think that is his job - finding great places for lunch. And something to do with investors.


Thank you New York!! Happy Trails.

NEW YORK CITY?!

My people went to New York City and did not take me. Therefore, I am once again protesting this unfair action by launching yet another dog writers strike. So there.

Farewell summer of '08 *People notes*

We managed to sneak in one last trip to the Simpson cabin with Grandma Simpson and spent a couple of days before our summer tour came to an end. The weather was spectacular and unusually warm. As it turned out, this was a good thing because the hot water heater decided that hot water was not going to be happening...Paul, a plumber, a lot of patience, sponge baths, some boiling water, spare parts, some long distance phone calls to Rich...it all worked out in the end!

We checked out the Grand Lake Golf Course, and it has been ravaged by the pine beetles as much of Grand County has been. Poked our heads into most of the little shops along the main street of Grand Lake and gorged ourselves on homemade ice cream cones. We ate a fantastic dinner in town (I have no idea what the name of the restaurant was, but it was good!) and sat at the bar and watched the olymic women's gymnastics with a beer and peach cobbler! It seemed appropriate at the time! Nice choice.

Grandma checked on the little pine tree that Erik planted some 20 years ago...seems either the tree has grown tremendously, or Grandma has shrunk!! Again, it was so wonderful to have access to the cabin all summer...thank you, thank you , thank you!

Seems we all get older...so when we attended a surprise 50th birthday party for a friend from high school...well, let's just say we may be older, but we look damn good!!! Seriously, has it been that long? Seriously? Holy crap! Anyhow, happy birthday Brian, and thanks to Cindy for pulling off a fantastic surprise party! So much fun - so many great memories! (Yes, I will continue to pay you to NOT repeat some of those stories from Douglas County High School class of ?! Seriousy?!) Happy Trails!

Farewell summer of '08

Well folks, I guess this is it. The end of a fun summer in Colorado. I spent a lot of time watching the olympics and now I cannot decide if I want to pursue a career in basketball, soccer or tennis. Any input from my loyal readers? I loved the Rocky Mountains and all the miles of hiking trails. I loved hanging out at the Simpson cabin in Grand Lake and hunting mice, prairie dogs and rabbits. I will definitely miss the gorgeous weather, blue sky, dry air and brilliant sunlight...my fur has never looked so straight and sun-bleached! I am saddened to leave my first and only backyard - in spite of the peach-catapulting squirrels. My people tell me that I will be staying here for a couple more weeks with Marcus (my favorite little person) while they head to New York City. I don't get to go to New York with them even tho I promised to be really quiet on the airplane. Damn.

Thar's gold in them thar hills!

As a dog, and a very cute dog I might add, I have no idea what this blog is about. My people went somewhere with some other people and left me in the backyard all day and into the evening. Holy crap! That is a very long time to dodge the peach-throwing squirrels that have descended upon my little piece of paradise. That's right, folks...peach-throwing squirrels. You see, there are a couple of enormous peach trees in the front yard of our little 100+ year old house which have produced enough peaches to feed the entire state of Colorado. Not being a big peach eater myself, most of the fruit is just hanging around (ha ha, get it??!! 'hanging around'!) waiting for someone or something to pick it. The squirrels that live in the neighborhood seem to like peaches for a bite or two, then they get bored with them. So here's the deal...the squirrels have a little peach party in the front yard, pick a bunch of peaches, take a bite or two out of each one, throw a few around the front yard for the rabbits (who really, really like the peaches), and carry the rest of them across the tree branches, jump on the roof of the house, scamper up and across the roof into the backyard, jump on another tree branch and then, yes... no kidding.. then, ...yes ...ready...aim...and fire!! Those little furry rodents throw the peaches at me! I could not make this up. I bark like a lunatic, but they just giggle and throw some more.

How embarassing. How humiliating. How can I ever explain to my people how all of these peaches ended up in the backyard? I tried to bury them, but just couldn't dig fast enough. To make matters even worse, there is a grape arbor (is that what they really call this thing?) in the backyard. It has tons of purple grapes on it, and don't you know the squirrels don't eat those either, no...they just throw them. At me. Then they run and get more peaches. Damn.

Thar's gold in them thar hills!! *People notes*

My sister Kathy and her husband Martin invited Paul and me to join them for a day of fun, food, beer and gambling. Who, in their right mind, can refuse and offer like that?!
(Christine refused our offer...her loss!!! But that's another story that I will let her tell someday!!)
We headed up the road toward Central City and Blackhawk. Now, if you grew up in Colorado as I did, Central City and Blackhawk were nothing more that little gold mining ghost towns somewhere near Denver. There was no reason to go there...if you have seen one mining ghost town, you've seen more than enough. Boring. However, things changed after I left the great state of Colorado many years ago.

Central City and Blackhawk (in 2ooo had a combined population of about 600) were former gold mining camps in the front range of the Rocky Mountains. They were instrumental in the Pike's Peak Gold Rush in 1859 and because of the rich veins of gold found there, the area became known as the 'richest square mile on earth' producing unheard of amounts of gold. Central City was the most populated city in the territory of Colorado at one time, but eventually lost out to Denver as the capital. Now they comprise a National Historic District...(yeah, yeah..whatever - get to the point) and in 1991 casino gambling was introduced. That's the point. We went gambling!

This was our second adventure to the casinos in Blackhawk and Central City - the first being nearly a year ago for my birthday. We discovered then that there was a tiny casino tucked away where the nickel slot machines seemed to have a higher than average payout. So that is where we (big spenders) headed with our rolls of nickels in hand. The Doc Holliday Casino. It wasn't more than five minutes into our gaming that my sister, Kathy sat staring at her nickel slot machine and, knowing even less about gambling that I do, she asked what the blinking lights meant! We're rich!!! Seven hundred and twenty nickels later...she was ready to play on!!!


Honestly, it couldn't have been more than a minute after that when my machine froze up...literally. Paul took notice and told me to hold on...wait...what?? Yes...my machine was showing EXACTLY the same pay line as Kathy's had just done. But there were no flashing lights, no bells, no whistles. Just a malfunctioning machine. We called for help and sure enough...yep! Seven hundred and twenty nickles later (which I politely asked for paper money as a payout) we were really rich!!!




Who says that lighning doesn't strike twice in the same spot?! Well, they were probably right. But after Paul walked away from a certain machine where he lost ALL of his nickels, I immediately walked up to it, plopped in my three nickels and WHAMMO! Bells, whistles and blinking lights!!! Hooray!!! This is a FUN game!


Paul eventually got in on the action, and we were all getting nickels like crazy!



Even Nurse Bob had a lucky streak going!



Woohoo!!
Kathy hit a couple more wins, I hit a couple small ones. Paul was at least staying even. Martin was not doing so great...but we gave him a few nickel loans just to keep him occupied.



We had a fantastic day - good food, good fun, good friends! I believe my grand winnings ended up somewhere around 2,600 (nickels!). Whenever I even thought about the quarter poker machines or (heaven forbid) the dollar slots...the earnings starting slipping quickly. We seriously considered staying over for beer and pancakes...but remembered Odie was stuck in the backyard!!


Martin was excited when our winnings paid for dinner!!



Happy trails!

Toto...we're not in Kansas anymore!!

(Yes, I realize that I am missing about 4 weeks of blog entries, and they will be coming soon. But because my life is rather chaotic and this particular blog entry did not require photos to be uploaded, you get this one early. Or on time. Or late.)

Toto...we're not in Kansas anymore!

I am not really Toto, but I do look a lot like Toto - except that I am a strawberry blond, not a brunette, and Toto lived like fify or seventy years ago and might have been a girl. I don't know. I'm just saying that we spent two days in the car driving from Denver to Dallas and it seemed like 95% of that time was spent in Kansas. Why would anybody want to go back there? And why did Dorothy keep saying 'There's no place like home...there's no place like home..." in reference to Kansas? Seriously?! The land of Oz was a whole lot more interesting that anything in Kansas. In an effort to be open minded about the whole Kansas thing I tried to humor myself as we slowly passed the miles. (I say slowly because we were in the car behind Paul & the trailer, and we all know that Paul is a very slow driver - reference Erik's blog regarding alpine slide)

After 2 days of exhaustive research I have learned that this is what Kansas has to offer - which is likely the reason Dorothy and Toto were so anxious to get 'home':

1. Home of a 5-legged steer
2. Home of the world's largest prairie dog
3. Home of a 2 headed quail
4. Home of the world's largest corn husk collection
5. Home of the Sorghum Museum (is that what is growing in all those tens of thousands of acres of cropland across the state? What the heck is sorghum? And who uses it? Maybe we should have stopped at the museum.)
6. Home of Bunker Hill - with actual bunkers. When did Kansas come under attack? And what were they defending? Sorghum?
7. Home of the Salinia Lighthouse. A huge lighthouse at the Salina exit...there is no water for about 1300 miles so it is important to have a lighthouse to warn all those ships of the pending danger of running aground in the sorghum fields.
8. Home of the "2nd Friendliest Yarn Store in the Universe". Would you advertise that?

Toto...we're not in Kansas anymore. Music to my ears - thank goodness!

As our roadtrip continued...

Holy crap - Oklahoma??? There is a Dairy Queen every 14 miles which is great news for those of you who are not lactose intolerant. I believe Oklahoma is also home to every known BB-Q restaurant with a logo that includes a pig caricature. Porky's, Bubba's, Piggy's, Oinker's, Fatsy's.... thankfully that leg of the drive went by rather quickly.

Now we are in Dallas bracing for hurricane Ike. Guess I will have to take my walks in the rain for the next couple of days. I hate rain. Damn. (but the good news is that we are NOT in Kansas anymore!!)