daylight

ok, first of all...i don't know how i did a list of things i like that start with the letter C and did not include Chick-fil-a!  second, today's song title is by better than ezra, because i know reina likes them as much as i do!

D...this one has taken a while.  but, i think i have enough to do a list!

Duncan and Durant...as i've mentioned before, i hear a lot of smack talk about my choice of basketball teams.  i don't care.  my favorite team for a long time has been the san antonio spurs, mostly because of tim duncan.  because i think his days in the nba are numbered, i've been looking for a new player to watch.  my pick is kevin durant from the oklahoma city thunder.  and more importantly, he played for the texas longhorns.

 Dressin' Gaudy...love this store, love the people that work there, love my peacock feather sandals i bought yesterday.  i have been shopping here since middle school.  about 90% of the time when someone asks where my jewelry is from, it's from here.  the other times it's either from canton or etsy. 

Digital camera...yeah, my brother-in-law will tell you i don't know how to work it right, and yeah, he's right.  i don't care.  i love my camera.  i have a canon powershot s5.  i know nothing about speed and aperture, and all that stuff.  but, i do pretty well on auto and i like switching colors around!  without our digital cameras, my mom and i wouldn't have THOUSANDS of pictures of scout!

Dramamine...i get motion sickness very easily!  without this stuff, i don't know how i would've made it to tokyo, la, nyc, or mexico.  it definitely came in handy on a 3 night trip to colorado in a suburban with my mom, sister, cousin, and my mom's parents!  slept most of the way there and managed to tick off my mom's dad...score!

Dad...this is my dad.  i believe his name has been changed to poppaboppa by my son, but he's ok with that.  i didn't even try to find a picture of him without scout because i'd have to go back to before scout was born.  scout likes most people.  scout loves his momma, daddy, and gram. scout goes absolutely crazy bonkers when he sees his poppa!  my dad is the absolute best man on earth.  period.  no debate or contest.  so, if scout wants to hang out with him, follow him around, absorb his taste in music, he's not going to hear a no from me.

Disney...yeah, it has its critics.  sure, they have made some stinkers.  it doesn't matter.  i love disney!  we went to the disney store in times square and got scout patch from 101 dalmatians.  he loves it.  he wears shirts with tigger and patch.  i'm not real big into the disney princesses, thankfully, i have a boy!  my absolute favorite disney movie is peter pan.  i really like jungle book, aladdin, fox and the hound, and finding nemo.  except for princess jasmine in aladdin...those aren't really girly movies!  my favorite characters are usually the little sidekicks.  i've never been to disney world or land.  hopefully, we'll get to take scout when he's older. 


i'm sure i left something important off, oh well!

circle

today is brought to you by the letter C...

Converse...i wore them in 3rd grade.  i got more in 7th grade.  the black pair i got in 7th grade is the pair i still wear!  i have had turquoise, yellow, black, purple, color block, orange, and black, red, and white plaid.  but, the ones in the picture are my all time favorites.  they belong to my son, Scout.  he's already outgrown this pair, but as soon as it's cool enough for him to wear shoes again, we'll get him another pair.  we tried a pair of vans, my second favorite shoe brand, but his foot is too fat!  the pair you see here will soon be getting a display box...right along with a certain pair of striped pajamas!

Coca-cola...i switch back and forth from coca-cola and dr. pepper every few years.  but the more i travel, the easier it is to stick with coke...they're worldwide! this can is in russian because it was a special edition can for the olympics a few years ago.  Scout loves coca-cola, too.  he has no idea what it tastes like...but he can stare at a red coke can for hours!

California...no way would i ever live there.  but the weather is much nicer, there's lots of stuff to take pictures of, and my sister lives there.

Christmas...always my favorite holiday, but SOMEONE made Christmas a little different this year...wonder who that could've been???  Scout was born December 4.  He was a big baby when he was born, but then he lost too much weight and went back in the hospital less than 2 weeks before Christmas.  we also had to take lots of trips to the doctors' office for weight checks.  between that stress, the lack of sleep, and recovering from having Scout, i barely remember anything.  this Christmas will be SO much more fun, i can't wait!  and Scout should get his auntie for Christmas this year...they're supposed to be here!

Cookie Monster...i'm a bigger fan of oscar the grouch and had a big bird doll when i was little.  but scout loves the cookie monster his great aunt gave him!  i spent many mornings this past spring making cookie monster sing and dance for him while we were getting ready for school.  and he loves cookies...how can you not like him?!?!  at least the cookie monster i grew up with did.  i hear he's all about the veggies now!

i have no idea how Scout took over my whole list of things with C...but it does make my blog much cuter!

bad

so, onto the letter B...and yes, i did use a michael jackson song as my title again.  it won't happen all the time!

Bean...my sister...and I forgot  i actually have a picture where you can see her tattoo!  it's a butterfly, so that definitely works for this post, too.

balloons...we have the balloon races near here every year.  i think i've actually only been once when i was really little and then a few years ago with k-dogg and a friend.  it's at the end of july, so it's always really hot and they have country bands play every year, so i don't like that.  but the balloons are awesome when they are lit up.  one year, i was driving to the church to leave for mexico early in the morning, and we got to see a lot of them in the air during the early morning race!  i can't wait to take scout in a few years. we'll just leave before the music starts!  

blues music...love it, love it, love it!  kenny wayne shepherd is my favorite!  and blue on black is one of my favorite songs.

baseball...more specifically, the texas rangers.  but, i spent a lot of time at the ball park when i was younger for someone who didn't have any brothers! 

blankets...yep, i make fleece blankets.  at last count it was somewhere between 50-60.  i like making them for babies, but i try to make them a little different.  not all pastel blue and pink!

bears...yes, i may work at a different school district now, and have to wear shirts that say bulldogs.  but, i grew up a bear, i taught bears, i will always be a bear!

abc...

now that i'm done blogging about my trip, i need to start something new so i don't quit blogging again.  so, i am kinda copying a meme my mom has been doing...but instead of doing a certain letter each day this month, i'm just starting with a and i'll do it when i feel like it.  so A...

Audio Adrenaline...one of my favorite bands since i was about 14 or 15.  love them...even though they aren't really together anymore, actually wearing one of their concert shirts right now

that's from one of their really old albums...but it's still my favorite!


asparagus green...that's the name of the color we used on the wall in Scout's room, so cool

Austin, TX...home of the Texas Longhorns

A Time to Kill...probably the best John Grisham book, and a really good movie, too

anyway, the perfect word for SO many situations

wow, that was actually kinda hard.  probably should do that when i slept well the night before and haven't been busy playing with Scout, doing laundry, going to rescue my mom from being locked out of her house, and trying to redecorate/repurpose my living room while Scout is learning to crawl and rolling around everywhere!

summer in the city

ok, last day and then i will be done with the nyc posts!  wednesday was so hot!  we thought we would be ready for it, the temp still wasn't as high as it was at home...but it was so humid and we don't walk around outside all day at home!  i don't even know how we woke up wednesday morning after everything we did on tuesday.  but, we did, and we went to chinatown.  i'm not talking about canal st., where you go buy the fake illegal purses.  i mean real chinatown.  where we were the only white and english speaking people around for a few blocks.  we started on canal st., you pretty much have to if you take the subway there.  those people got on my nerves.  you'd be walking down the street and this nice innocent looking lady would appear out of nowhere and whisper, "belts, sunglasses, purses.  fendi, coach, louis."  ummm, hello, i'm wearing a "hippie" skirt and my purse was on clearance for $15...do you think i want to follow you into some dark back room behind a wall in your dirty little shop to buy a bag that's still fake and illegal?  sorry.  and i have a real coach, thankyouverymuch.  anyway, i didn't really like chinatown.  after going to tokyo, it's like why bother.  but we did go to columbus park and see some serious cards and mahjong games.  that area is part of the five points neighborhood on which scorsese based gangs of new york...yeah, nice place!  we ate some pork buns and a coconut roll at tai pan bakery.  they were delicious and cheap!  2 buns, a roll, a coke, and 2 bottles of water for $8!  we walked under manhattan bridge.  and someone asked ME for directions!  probably because we were the only other people around he thought would speak english...not because he thought i was a local!  after chinatown, we went to lower manhattan to go on a tour of wall street.  i wasn't expecting much from this tour, but it was actually really fun and i learned a lot.  we saw the nyse and federal hall.  we also saw the new building they are working on at ground zero.  we also got to see trinity church while we were waiting for our tour.  george washington went to church there when he lived there and alexander hamilton is actually buried in the church cemetery.  after the tour, we made it back uptown and got ready for dinner.  k-dogg had made reservations a month earlier at wd-50.  it's owned by wylie dufresne.  if you watch top chef, especially the season they were in nyc, you should remember him.  so we got dressed up and rode in a taxi to the lower east side, passing the flat iron building.  the food was amazing...the duck was the best meat i have ever eaten.  we saw wylie!  yeah, he actually cooks at his own restaurant...take that, bobby flay!   it's definitely the most we have ever paid for a meal, but it was fun and something we'll never forget! 

mahjong

oh, wow!  these were great!

at columbus park

manhattan bridge

what the heck!

nyse

trinity church

federal hall, where george washington was inaugurated

bowling green park, one of the oldest parks in nyc

the famous bull

the new building

the flat iron building

k-dogg at wd-50

new york, new york

day two was crazy!  we got up early and went to top of the rock at rockefeller center.  it's the only place in new york where you can actually see the empire state building.  the views were absolutely amazing.  you can see the brooklyn bridge, the east river, the hudson river, the statue of liberty and ellis island.  i have already been to the empire state building, ellis island, and the statue of liberty...so we got to skip all of those places and it saved a lot of time!  after we had seen everything from 70 stories up, we made our way to east village.  we were signed up to meet a tour guide at the big black cube at astor place.  it ended up being me, k-dogg, and a couple from london.  the tour was awesome!  not only did we eat a lot of great food, but our guide, susan, showed us a lot of important places and told us a lot of history about east village.  i think my favorite things are the light posts covered in mosaics.  they are by a homeless man named jim power.  incredible artwork.  we went to gem spa for an egg cream.  a place i would never go on my own and a drink i would never have ordered...but i would now!  we had fresh salami and spicy mustard at the east village meat market.  wow!  new york pizza, a cookie and ice cream from milk bar, a hot dog from papaya dog, treats from veniero's, an italian bakery that's been open since 1894.  the weirdest thing we ate was borscht.  beet soup at a 24 hour ukrainian coffee shop, veselka.  it was so good, that as soon as we got home, i looked up their website to see if i could order their cookbook.  it's on it's way from amazon right now!  we saw a lot of cool things along the way.  st. mark's on the bowery is the oldest continual church in new york city and the second oldest church in manhattan.  webster hall , a farmers' market...in manhattan, cooper union, trash and vaudeville...i could probably go back to nyc and stay in east village the whole time!  but then, k-dogg had done his research and found out that the harry potter exhibition was in town...oh. my. word.  right down the street from our hotel...we saw tons of costumes and props from all of the movies...even the one that comes out this friday.  if you are a fan of the movies or the books, or both, and you are going to be in nyc before september...you must go!  it was awesome.  but we still weren't done for the day.  we went back to east village, to ippudo, for dinner.  k-dogg loves ramen and had seen this place on food network's the best thing i ever ate.  i had read that the wait to get seated was sometimes up to three hours...i was not excited.  but we walked in and got seated immediately.  k-dogg had ramen, i ordered a duck and eggplant appetizer.  my food was good...but the ramen was crazy good!  we went back uptown and ended up at central park.  i could spend a whole day or two there, but we just walked around the south end for a little while since we were exhausted.  we walked by the zoo...it was closed, found balto, the delacorte clock, and william shakespeare. for some reason, we decided to walk back to our hotel...all the way down 5th avenue.  it was a lot of walking, but it was so fun!  pictures to follow later today...scout is awake!   

wow, about 2 hours and scout is asleep again!  guess we wore him out this weekend...

top of the rock elevator

esb

statue of liberty and ellis island

k-dogg rotating the alamo cube in astor place

 

st mark's on the bowery

the clock at grand central terminal

delacorte clock

balto