Nephew love

More travels

Yesterday -- Tuesday -- I took an unplanned trip to New York City. Yep. Just hopped on a train and headed up to the Big Apple. You'd think I was tired of traveling after last week but this one was a personal trek. It was fun being on the train in jeans and walking around Manhattan and not lugging a laptop and other miscellaneous work stuff for a change. See, I was there to meet my nephew. Big smiles! :)

Nephew Tate arrived early Tuesday morning and this first-time aunt just HAD to be part of his welcoming committee. Want to see? Here is Mr. Tate Emerson:

Aw! What a cutie patootie! On his birthday, January 26, he weighed in at 7lbs 13oz and 21.5" long.  Tate's mom is doing well and getting much-needed rest in the hospital, while his dad (my bro) is exercizing his parental rights as a photographer. Case in point:

Apparently photographer dad has already exhausted one memory card with baby pictures and was making headway on a second while I was there. I helped stage a few shots -- the baby's fingers with dad's wedding ring on, lots of feet and hand shots, sleeping on a lap, that kind of thing. Tate's dad will hopefully post some of them soon (hint!) so I can repost here later, but here's what came home on my cheapo camera yesterday:

Check out those long toes! It's so cute how his toes stretch and curl and grip. I had forgotten how much fun it is to play with baby toes.

I had a good time with my brother and sister-in-law and baby Tate yesterday. We chatted for a few hours in the hospital before I headed out to grab dinner and catch a train home. The best part of the trip, though, was ... wait! Can you guess what the best part was? Cuddling with a new bambino? Um, super nice but not the best. Becoming an aunt? Totally groovy but not the best. Seeing my little brother as a dad? A little surreal but not the best. Out of guesses? The best part of the day was ...

... giving Tate lots of love, spoiling him rotten and then giving him back when I left! AWESOME! I think I'm really going to dig being an aunt. :-)

Hard traveling

Operation Meals on Wheels was a success! After 4 full days of hard traveling I am quite happy to be home. Happy HaPpY HAPPY!

What's that? You want to know what "hard traveling" means? Ah. Since I didn't divulge our travel plans in the earlier post here is the itinerary in a nutshell: Landed in West Palm Beach on Tuesday and drove up to Jupiter for dinner. The next day was Delray Beach and then down to Key Largo for dinner. After dinner we crossed Alligator Alley and stopped for the night in Naples. Naples for breakfast. Ft. Myers for lunch. Put boss on the plane and then I started driving north. Spent the night in Gainsville then headed to Destin for a lunch meeting. Wandered around Destin for a bit and then caught a flight home. And that, my turkeys, is the definition Hard Traveling. We were either in the car or in an eating meeting for FOUR DAYS! That and hotel rooms.

I had hoped to be able to document the trip in photos but after the first 24 hours I forgot the camera was along for the ride. Here's what I did get, though:

This was my mini suite in Delray Beach. I got this nice living room, large bathroom and comfy bedroom while my boss got a *cough!* closet.  Hee hee! All I can say is that it pays to be conversational with the front desk staff. :-)

Directly across the street from the hotel was the beach. The mangroves created a tunnel over the path that was way cool.

Pictures from the beach:

 

 

The sun was so bright I couldn't see the screen on the tiny digital camera so I just started clicking and hoping a couple pictures would turn out. You can see a few of the sandpipers in the last picture as well as the shells that washed up with the tide. It really was a lovely morning.

Turning around you could see our hotel peeking out above the dunes:

 

And downtown Delray Beach: 

After Delray Beach it was south to Key Largo through the Everglades. The boss lady had the camera for a few minutes and this is what she got:

 

It was nothing but mini islands, roads, water and sunshine as far as you could see. We lost track of the number of bridges we crossed but it was a lot. Once at our destination the landscape changed significantly.

 

Sunset in Key Largo. Mmmmmm.

Taking pictures of the marina from the back of a moving golf cart is never a good idea. Let's try again...

Much better! Next time I would like to try traversing the state in one of these uber comfortable modes of transportation. :-)

Speaking of traversing the state, here are the remaining shots from the trip:

I-75 somewhere north of Sarasota.  It was flat. And straight. And long. And flat. Did I mention it was flat?

 

About the same time as I was trying to capture the flatness (did I mention it was flat?), I looked west and realized there was a pretty sunset. Snap! And that was the last snap of the trip. By the last day I could have cared less about the camera and was just interested in sticking the toes in the sand and soaking up the last snitches of sunshine before heading back to the metropolis.

Next up is a massage to work out these traveling kinks. Toodles!

Meals on wheels

I am in Florida on a business trip. Shh! Don't tell anyone. This is our little secret. OK? (Well, as secret as a trip with your boss can be.)

We arrived yesterday, picked up a rental car and drove to our first meeting which happened to be dinner. Today we have a lunch meeting, drive to our next location, have a dinner meeting and drive again. Tomorrow we have a breakfast meeting, drive to our next location, have a ... wait! Can you fill in the blank yet? What's that? You think we might have a lunch meeting next? Yes! We have a winner!

This whole trip is eat, drive, eat, drive, eat, drive, sleep, eat, drive, eat, drive, eat drive, sleep. It's meals on wheels! :-)

This is how I roll

 You'll have no problems spotting this pink turkey in the airport!

Pizza update

After I was grumbling so much about pizza sales for the younger turkey's two clubs we hit upon a grand idea. See, the boy scouts are helping at a homeless shelter in February and they will need to provide two meals to the shelter folks. Wouldn't it be great if people just bought pizzas and/or other food stuffs that the boys could serve at the shelter? Ding ding! We have a winner! Six pizza kits were sold yesterday once we mentioned that the pizzas could be donated to the shelter. Six! People were thrilled to help the boy scouts (one of the pizza sale beneficiaries) AND the county shelter. Not only that, now the boy scouts only have to provide beverages for lunch that day because the pizzas will already be there. It is a total win-win situation.

Want to buy pizzas to benefit the boy scouts and help feed the homeless?

I did the macarena with a phone... ???

I did the macarena with a phone at the dinner table because I'm NOT crazy.

Really? What's not crazy about that? I mean, people haven't done the macarena in YEARS, much less at the dinner table. With a phone? Hello?

This was the crazy thing going around facebook today. The month you were born -- July for me -- relates to "I did the macarena with..."  But if you were born in, say, January, it would be "I kicked..." The day you were born is the next phrase, and so on. Thus, I did the macarena with a phone at the dinner table because I'm NOT crazy. Ta da!

But I really wanted to be born on November 16th:  I yelled at a pickle in line at the bank because I'm cool like that.

Who has the time to come up with these things anyway?