sad news from the museum

It seems that our young rooster friend, Marc Anthony the Second, has made his flight to the Great Chicken Coop in the Sky. I didn't see him all day Tuesday, which isn't all that unusual when we don't have groups. At about 4:00 I went out to see if he was roosting, which he usually is by then, but he wasn't there. That's when I knew something was wrong. I started looking for him in his usual hiding spots but couldn't find him. Then I looked in the little shed next to where he roosted at night. And there he was. At least, there was part of him. Seems something found Marc during the night and had itself a little meal. I was going to clean him up myself, but the closer I looked the more of him I realized was left, so I couldn't do it. Unfortunately, our maintenance guy wasn't able to come until the next afternoon. When I came in the next morning, something else had already been by. Nature took care of cleaning him up. All that was left the next morning was a wing and a bunch of feathers. So, no more chicken at the museum.

Thanksgiving reloaded

And we're back with more Thanksgiving pictures! First let's enjoy a picture of my mom and I eating wings. Alfred doesn't like the picture of him eating wings I put up yesterday, so this one of me looking like a goon should make up for it.

Next up, a picture of a car that was broken down in the middle of the bridge to Canada. Those flagpoles next to the car are the flags of the US and Canada, which means they broke down right at the border. Kind of cool, if your car has to break down.

We had some random guy take a picture of all of us at the falls. It didn't exactly turn out.

Alfred's standard arms out pose. We have lots and lots of pictures with him standing like this. Hell, I could do a whole post full of them. Maybe I will...

There were all these light displays set up on the Canadian side of the falls. Most of them were Disney movies, but they threw in the obligatory Jewish display too. So Ilya got in front of it and acted Jewish.

There was also a building with a light display set to music. So we danced.

Then of course comes power hour. Mike was cleaning a couple of guns while doing the shots, which is always a good idea.

And last but not least: Wii. Witness the many faces of Guitar Hero. I was pretty drunk when I was playing it, and kept varying between totally serious

and totally rocking out.

Some of us stayed cool

And others really, really enjoyed themselves

my big fat Thanksgiving post

Our drive up went well, we got to our hotel a little after midnight, got a decent night's sleep, and actually left on time the next morning. We got in a little after 7:30 Wednesday evening, giving us around 17 total travel hours. Pretty good.

The food: We did the whole turkey-and-pie thing, of course, and it was delicious. More importantly, we did a Wing Tour of Buffalo. We went to a total of 4 different places for wings to see where they were best. Our verdict: the Anchor Bar, where wings were invented. Well, where Buffalo style wings were invented. I guess wings were sort of invented by chickens. Anyway, Anchor Bar had the best regular wings, while the place right by my old high school has the best barbecue wings. We had some good pizza too.

We also hit up a local doughnut place, Tim Horton's. Those Canadians are pretty crazy, but they make some tasty doughnuts. We went through a total of 3 dozen over the weekend.

Sightseeing: We went up to Niagara Falls on Friday and went over to the Canadian side to get a better look. After sitting in a line of cars waiting to get over the bridge, we managed to do a bit of sightseeing.


It was really cold, especially with the mist falling on us. We were there right before 5:00, which is when they turn on the lights on the falls, so we killed a little time in a gift shop. Trying on funny hats, our specialty.

The drinking: we did a bunch of it. I'm not sure how many cases of beer we went through, but I'd guess 4 or 5. We did a casual power hour, intending to stop after 20 minutes, on Friday night, then went for the Century Club on Saturday. Most of us actually made it the full 2 hours. I'm being vague because honestly, I don't entirely remember. You know, cause of all the beer. And I was pretty wrapped up in Guitar Hero.

Mercedes did the first 15 minutes of the power hour with beer, and the rest with doughnuts, 1 bite per minute. I think she felt about the same as the rest of us when it was all over, though. After all, she let this picture be taken.

The drive back to FL sucked. It was rainy and foggy and miserable, plus we ended up stuck in traffic half a dozen times between Virginia and Florida. It ended up taking us 20 hours to get to Ilya and Mercedes' house. We got there about 1:15 am so we just spent the night up there rather than driving the extra hour to get to our house.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. I'll have to look through the pictures again tomorrow and post some more, I know there were more funny ones. Ones of me playing Guitar Hero, for example. Oh, the excitement!

I ran out of time

By the time Alfred got home with all the pictures on his memory stick, and we ate dinner, and I uploaded said pictures onto the computer, and I looked through them and picked out a bunch and ran them through photoshop, it was too late for me to do the kind of post that this past (long) weekend deserves. So, until tomorrow, this picture will have to suffice.

on the road again

If all goes according to plan, we should be leaving for NY right about when this posts. Cause we're crazy and are driving. But Ilya and Mercedes are driving with us too, so it should be fun. Well, maybe fun is stretching it, but hopefully it won't be as painful as when just the two of us drive. At least we can take turns with more people. Plus, we're leaving Tuesday night, driving for about 6 hours, then stopping for the night and driving the rest of the way Wednesday. Also, I was planning on photo shopping our 4 heads onto a picture of a clown car or something, but you know, I'm writing this Monday night and am tired. We just packed the car and I'm ready for bed. So just imagine how funny that picture would have been.

eyelid update

I think my eyelid issue is resolving. I woke up Saturday with eyelids so swollen I could only open my eyes about halfway. So I stopped using a bunch of different things for the weekend (like lotions, shampoo, stuff like that), and they've gotten much better. I'm going to slowly start re-using the things I stopped using and see if I can figure out what it was. So that's good news.

Saturday we also did something we very rarely do: we went shopping together! Not grocery shopping, we do that fairly regularly together, but clothes and other stuff shopping. And - the most unusual part - we bought Alfred a pair of jeans! The boy hates shopping for and trying on clothes, but he was bitten by the fashion bug so off we went. It was fun, actually. We looked at Christmas decorations too, Alfred wants to put up more lights this year. We thought about starting to put some up this weekend but decided to screw it. (I was going to put in a picture of our house decorated for Christmas in the past, but can't seem to find any. Too bad. Instead, here's a picture of tiny Ella feeding beer to a stuffed animal. It was taken at Christmas time. Good enough.)

I did manage to get over my cold this weekend, but have been stuffy all day today. It's getting a little ridiculous.

what's wrong with me?

First off, I'm forgetful. When I was little I once forgot to bring the present to my friend's birthday party, and the following year I forgot about her party entirely. Today after work when I got the mail I saw the recycling bin there, needing to be brought in, and by the time I got to the garage I forgot about it. I remember now, obviously, but I'm all comfy in my pj's and there's no way I'm going outside now. Also, I procrastinate. Although if I phrase it as I work well under pressure, it sounds more positive. I've gotten better about that over the last few years though, the museum has helped me. We get so busy that I can't put things off when we're not busy. I also used to be chronically late, by maybe 5 or 10 minutes, but I've gotten better about that too. Now I like to be a few minutes early, if possible. Now I just have to convert Alfred.

But I didn't actually intend to discuss my character traits. I meant what's wrong with me physically. Specifically, my eyelids. Lately I've been getting these weird patches of dry, red skin on my eyelids, and sometimes it itches. It always sucks. It's not a reaction to makeup or anything, because I never wear makeup at the museum. And I haven't changed any of my face wash or lotions or anything. Between my red eyelids, red nose from blowing it all day, and dry lips from the cold weather, I am not currently at my most attractive.

One last thing: I'm re-reading Gone With The Wind, and loving it. I wish I brought it home from work to read tonight. Guess I'll have to read the internets instead.