summer roadtrip

Nina and I left Princeton on Thursday to start a road trip. On Thursday we drove from New Jerset to spend the night in Madison, Connecticut and had a fabulous time there with some friends. Then on Friday we drove to Harrison, ME to spend two nights at Vacationland Campground with some friends I had in College.  There were almost 20 families and it was so fun to see everyone.  It's amazing how people look exactly the same. 

During the day Saturday we had spent most of our time on the sandy beach by the lake that the campground is on.  It is a truly gorgeous spot and the beach is very shallow so I didn't worry about Nina being in the water--she had a great time and probably was in there splashing around with her friends for at least 3 hours.  The water was warm and my skin and hair felt amazing, as they always do after swimming in lake water.  It had been too long. 

Saturday evening one of the husbands cooked up a whole bunch of chicken and ribs with his own special barbecue sauce and everyone else brought side dishes and desserts.  It was a fantastic feast!

On Saturday night there was a DJ'd toga party and of course everyone (except a few of us) dressed up in a toga and completely embarrassed their children.  One of the highlights of the evening was when one of my friends did the hammer dance to "can't touch this." AMAZING.  The other was when Nina got taken in by a couple of tween girls who danced with her all night and taught her how to do some of the dances.  It was so sweet that my cheeks hurt from smiling.  I finally took Nina to bed at 10 and it was clear that it was one of the best nights of her life, well worth keeping her up way past her bedtime.

Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast, and packed up--I hadn't slept well for the two nights that we camped.  It was much colder than I had thought it would be and we hadn't brought enough blankets.  Nina was warm enough but I was super cold all night both nights.  Add that to my general dislike of camping and I was ready to move on.(Nina wanted to stay, however).
Our destination was our friend Shyla's new house with her lovely man Nik; they live in Belfast. After a lovely afternoon (some other old friends who live in Seattle dropped in for a visit) and delicious dinner of caldo verde cooked by Nik, I slept like a baby.  Nina and I walked around Belfast all day and got back to the house in time to rest before dinner.



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be serious...

Not sure what the context was, but I just overheard this conversation:
Larry: That can't be true.
Nina: It's totally true, Larry, don't goof around.

convergence

When we were at the top of the Empire State Building last weekend I saw this building and was entranced by it.  It's right on the edge of Bryant Park and nobody seemed to know what it was.  I resolved to find out but was too tired when we got home.  The next night Larry and I went to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice and...there is was again, one of the characters lives in the very same building.  Now I had to get the story!  It turns out that it's the Radiator Building, also known as the American Standard Building and now The Bryant Park Hotel, I believe.  I would post a link to the hotel website, but it's super loud and flash driven and says absolutely nothing about the history of the building...stupid.  Anyway, it's interesting how little things in life come together like that.

olives

I love them, the two other people I live with don't.  I really love them on pizza, so when I was making pizza tonight Nina asked me if I was putting Olivers on my personal pizza.  It took me a minute to figure out what she meant.

ya-yas

I was woken the other morning by a stark naked little girl with wild child bed head hair.  Said child was jumping on my bed singing "all my ya-yas are coming out" over and over again.  It was so funny that I didn't mind being woken up.