gettin some advertising

Checking stats again today, I noticed an unusually high visitor count and it turns out that not only did the adirondack almanack feature my black mountain post in the weekly adirondack blogging roundup, but so did huletts landing blog. Thanks blogger friends!

good stuff

This video was emailed to me by my father. Thanks for the heads up.
That is an Angel posing as a basketball coach.

flight tracker

Reagan was off to Florida today for a special trip with her Dad to see her Grandpa and Grandma. She was so excited when she found out she was going and counted down the days until their departure. Last night, after she was all packed and it was time to go to bed, she started getting nervous. Butterflies. Reagan wrote out each hour she had left before take off and crossed each hour as they ticked off the clock. She did finally get to sleep after about an hour of talking, tossing, turning and more talking. She reminded me of this commercial. Who wouldn't be excited. She is off an extra week of school because her Dad doesn't have enough seniority to get school vacation weeks off from his job. And She gets to go to Disneyworld. It should be noted that the first time I went to Disney it was with her grandfather and grandmother. My in-laws took me during my trip down to see their place after they first bought it 15 years ago. I think it is pretty appropriate that they are now taking her. Reagan was even more nervous (read: almost crying) this morning. She got dressed quickly and scanned her bedroom for any other momentos she might want to take on the plane. The whole carry on bag contained stuff to keep her busy and snacks. Before they left for the airport at 4:30 am, Reagan crossed off the last hour and wrote, "I am leaving" on the paper. It was pretty hard to see her go. I hugged her extra tight, as she did me. Thank goodness for Dan's brother in law, as he saved me the early morning trip to Albany. I managed to get back to sleep for a couple of hours, brought Greg to school and got back in front of the computer to watch take off.

It is somewhat nerve wracking to sit and watch the little green airplane move further south on the map after each refresh of the screen. Flight Tracker also tells you in the margin how fast the plane is going (over 400 miles per hour) and how high the plane is (mostly cruising at 40,000 feet). I had to leave for work when they were about halfway there. I have flown with Reagan the one other time she has flown. I must say it is different to have your baby 40,000 feet in the air and NOT be with her. Interestingly, toward the end of the flight, the tracker showed that they had 10 miles to go and then listed the flight as tentatively landed. Tentatively is a strange choice of wording. The plane has either landed or it hasn't. Right? At the next refresh it showed that they landed 7 minutes before. I began calling Dan's cell phone and actually was able to make contact about 15 minutes after they landed. Phewwwww.

She proceeded to call me 2 times in 4 hours. I am happy that she wants to keep me in the loop. I asked her to journal her activities each night and if she was lucky, maybe grandpa would let her do her blogging from his laptop. Sure enough, she already wrote her first post.

Greg and I are enjoying some peace and quiet here at home. No fighting over who gets the couch or the TV and he hasn't fought me for the computer (yet). We ate dinner at his (our) friend's house and laughed hysterically together. We are now pigging out on cake and doritos. So what if we are wearing fleece and reagan is wearing shorts and a tank top. 75 degrees in Venice Florida today.

the searchers

I am not usually interested in statistics. Although even after being really horrible at math in high school, I earned an A- in my college statistics course. I am however, interested in who reads my postings so I checked out the stats counter on the blog today just to see what type of searches lands random people at my site. Street and Nye are the entered search words in 5 of the last ten listed hits. Interestingly, someone from Lexington KY spent 1 minute and 42 seconds after searching for blackflies in the adirondacks- which was the main topic in the post about none other than Street and Nye mountains. Someone actually entered corins walk in the park blogspot for a search and someone else was looking for... like a walk in the park... searching for another meaning for easy? Random person looking for Tempanada and someone in the UK searching for Orijen Mountain found Orijen dog food. I curiously did a search for Orijen Mountain and found nothing..maybe that was a typo.

Why am I talking stats? Not much going on? Just a "laid back" day.

• haircuts for me and reagan
• a little shopping for her florida trip. Dan even got a couple things.
• Cool Beans Coffee Shop for Sandwiches
• which we brought to Jen and Mark's house
• returned books to the library
• dropped off money for dance recital costumes
• Home to make Mac and Cheese for dinner
• Packing and laundry for the lucky travelers

Now I can worry about the incoming snowstorm...I have one traveling back from the Empire Games in Lake Placid on Sunday and the others flying out on Monday morning.

I need my wonder woman underoos

This is me as a superhero, courtesy of renee. Real Superhero powers would have been extremely appreciated today. Helping to fight the evil of painful human emotions like LOSS and GRIEF would have been easier had I not been human myself. And had it not added salt to my own loss and grief wound. However, in the difficulties of the day I was presented with the gift of being front and center to something really special; the wonders of "letting go and letting god" take care of business. I witnessed him working in what appears to be a mysterious way but giving proof that there are no coincidences. People really are put in the right place at the right time for us. I am humbled and grateful to be reminded of this so blatently from time to time. There was a whole team activated today...not just the wondertwins.

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