Thursday, June 17, 2004

Birthday Week - Day Three

I had big plans (as I always do) for Sunday morning. Lots of cleaning and errand running and all of that. You can imagine how well that went. I mean, the catbox is still gross and I'm writing this on Day Seven (ACK!!! It's almost over!) of Birthday Week.

Anyway, I did manage to get up and over to my mailbox place by 11AM so I could pick up my hammock and stand as well as my birthday box from Mum and a box of Camp Blood shirts I ordered to make Buzz happy, even though he won't put thongs in the store for me to buy for Mum and I. It was a miserable experience. The box with the stand stuff had opened and so that and the other box were just on the floor of the UPS Store. So I really had to go get them sooner rather than later. And they were long and awkward and no longer rectangular really. So I piled them on the loaner hand truck as best I could and attempted to make my way home. I had to stop every block or so to readjust. I was obviously having a hard time and only ONE person the whole time stopped and asked if I needed help. I was sweating and panting and wanting to cry when I finally got the damn things home. But I got them home and into my hallway and trotted the hand truck on back home to the UPS store. Good times. Then it was off to meet Charlotte at the Big Clock in the Grand Central Terminal (my father would like to make certain you all know it is Grand Central TERMINAL and not Grand Central STATION). I managed to make it in enough time to get our tickets and a bagel before hopping on the train.

The New York Botanical Gardens were lovely. And it was another gorgeous day. It felt a little hotter than the previous day and wasn't quite as sunny but there were nice breezes all day. And it was certainly sunny enough.

We hit the conservatory first. I've been to the gardens tons of times and at least two of those visits were with Charlotte so we could kind of pick and choose what we wanted to see. We were fairly laid back with this visit. I took some pretty flower shots and we made our way to my favorite section of the conservatory - the Carnivorous Plants. I love them. It's a big ole case of all kinds of bug eating plants. So awesome. Even Ed's Shirt made an appearance for those. Because they're so cool. Sadly none of them were digesting any bugs, making it a little less exciting than it could've been. Ah well.

After the conservatory we headed over to the Big Clock in the Garden to wander around the shop. We made fun of hideous $20 cloth flower rings, pondered whether we should purchase Venus Flytraps and sniffed lots of candles. Well, I sniffed them and Charlotte kinda looked at me askance. Then we hopped the tram to the Rose Garden. Which was in full June bloom and lovely. Lots of the orange/pink/yellow roses I love. I think I got more pretty flower pictures. Then it was back to the tram to drive down azalea way (most of the flowers had come and gone, sadly) and end up back at the Big Clock. We wandered around the Rock Garden for a bit with me taking pictures and Charlotte chatting with SABW on her cell. We're hoping Ed's Shirt can go visit her while she's still down in Virginia. Heh. That's funnier for those who know who SABW is; apologizes to the rest of you.

They've added a new visitor's center and snack bar and all since my last trip to the garden so we had to go and check that out. I went straight for an ice cream (it is Birthday Week) while Charlotte pondered a yogurt smoothie. She went for the Haagen-Dazs when she realized it had fewer calories and sugar than the smoothie. Heh. Smart girl. Then off to wait for our train back to town.

It was totally a mellow lazy visit and it was awesome.

I headed home for a nap, some TiVo clearing and net surfing and then back to bed. My lovely lovely bed.

So it was a fabulous kick off to birthday week and I want to thank Muppet, Mr. Muppet, JL, Muffy, Steph, Vader, PimpDaddy, Rock Star Fran and Charlotte for making it so. Y'all rock.

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