I love Glee, like REALLY love it. Like if Glee came up to me in a bar, it would get some lovin:) That was all that I really felt like saying about it. I guess the best part is that watching it makes me happy. Some of the cast is nice to look at and they all can really sing. Jayma Mays is love as always and Jane Lynch is just incredible. She's so deliciously despicable:) Oh, and I'm glad that Cory Monteith's career has taken off since Kyle XY.

 I'm having one of those days where I just know that I'm not going to be productive. I kinda feel in a Bastion stealing a book and hiding in a school attic mood. Maybe it was the lack of breakfast, which I just tried to bandaid with a protein shake. Summer is closing down and here comes fall all too soon. We are going to try to squeeze in one more trip to the beach tomorrow, but everyone seems more in the mood to just go on the boardwalk so we'll have to see how it goes. I think I'll try to get some work done but I'll more likely try to concentrate on processing pics that I took at two WWE shows at the end of June. Raw photos are great but it definitely takes me alot longer to play with them. I use Adobe Raw because I haven't been motivated to get CaptureNX yet. I wonder if it's that much better.

 So, where was I? Oh yeah, so we made our way over to Shakespeare's Garden. We were not amused...at all. I think it's just the wrong season for the pretty. After that we were pretty pooped so everyone else got a frozen fruit bar and we laid on a huge rock.

We decided to try to get to Union Square because I wanted to get some dessert in Max Brenners. Well, we ended up getting on the wrong subway downtown because Mike ran onto it, so we decided to go to Wall Street instead. Even though I had a map, I got confused and we ended up missing our stop and going a few into Brooklyn! If that wasn't bad enough, we had a confusing time getting on the subway back to Manhatten because there was more than one subway entrance. We eventually got the subway back and took pictures of various buildings and sculptures. Our favorite subject by far was Trinity Church. It looks so out of place yet so amazing at the same time. I wish that we could have gone inside. After that, we wound our way down to South Street Seaport. It had been so long since I had been there that I didn't realise that Unos took up a good chunk on the second floor and we got in trouble because he thought we could go through the restaurant to the mall area. We did eventually find our way in and I proceeded to get the biggest diet coke that I could find while everyone else had a beer. We got some great shots of the Brooklyn Bridge and of the ships. You bcan even see the Statue of Liberty in one way in the distance. I think maybe next time I'll take them to the Staten Island Ferry as that give you great panaramic shots of the city and the Statue of Liberty.

We were pretty tired after that point, so we took the subway back to Penn Station. We found this little place that had prepackaged salads, so we each got one and a soda. I also bought this awesome looking white chocolate macadamia nut cookie and a chocolate covered macaroon cookie, which I prompty threw into the big freezer to discover on another day. I'm back in the weight loss kick finally and actually haven't had any junk at all since that day.

 My brother's girlfriend invited me to go up to NYC with her, my brother and one of her friends. She always nvites me when they go up to NYC and are nice enough to pick me up along the way to the train station. It always makes me feel special when they want to involve me in their plans and NYC is one of my favorite places. The kinetic energy of the place won't allow me to move at any slow pace, much to the chagrin of anyone who accompanies me. Good stout walking shoes and a hearty disposition are a necessity for that kind of journey.

They wanted to take a more thorough tour of Central Park and I was more than happy to oblige. It's a necessary part of any visit to NYC as far as I'm concerned. I've been through it many times and it truly feels like another world. I think the contrast between it and the city is my favorite part of the visit. We started at Columbus Circle and wound our way over to the Gap Stow Bridge. I really love this bridge because it is the first place that I visited in the park with my friend Chara so many years ago when she went to NYU and let me sleep on the floor of her dorm so that I could explore the city for a few days at a time. There was actually a carnival going on in the wollman rink, which I had never seen before, but we had no time for that. We meandered north, passinng by the Dairy and the Carousel, past the baseball fields all the way to Strawberry Fields. It was crowded as always and my companioned didn't seem to be too interested, so I snapped a couple pictures of the Imagine mosaic and we were off. By then we were getting really hungry, so my brother pulled out his GPS to try to find us someplace to eat nearby. We found a couple promising places on Columbus Ave, but from the menues we felt thheyy were too pricey so we tried again. We ended up at Utopia on Amsterdam and 72nd. It is a your typical diner but it had beautiful wood trim throughout the dining room and was clean and well taken care f. we were squezzed in a little booth by the front door next to some pictures of celebrities who had eaten there and left little notes. One was from Mariah Carey, which I figured was a good sign because I don't think she'd eat crappy food. I ended up getting the chicken salad platter with cottage cheese, which was huge in typical diner fashionand pretty tasty. I'd definitely go here again if I'm in the area. After that, we walked back down 72nd, passed by the Imagine mosaic again which now had flower petals on it in the shape of a piece sign, and wound our way over to Bethesda Founntain. We spent a while here photographing all of the frescos and intricate stonework in the shape of animals and flowers. We then made our way to the Alice in Wonderland Statue where Amy had a great time posing with the various figures. We briefly stopped by Cleopatra's Needle. We then visited Turtle Pond which was very active with turles! We really couldn't get any great shots with all of the green film but we tried.

To be Continued....

 Just figured I'd write since I haven't done so in a loooooong time. this past weekend turned out to be eventful. I got pulled over by a state trooper for speeding and for following a car too close. Let's just forget about the fact that I'm on a crowded busy major road and going with the flow of traffic and the fact that the minivan in front of me saw the cop first and slowed down into me. fun times.

We tried to go to Ephreta, PA to go to this farmer's market called the Green Dragon. Three miles took us over an hour because apparantly it's the only thing around. Intead of waiting in even more traffic, my Dad had the brilliant idea that we should walk. What he didn't realise is that we were almost a mile away from it. we basically got to the crap hole, ate and walked back.

Oh ho, but there is a shiny lining in here somewhere. We visited this really cool town called Lititz, PA. They are home to the Wilbur chocolate factory and the Stergis Pretzel bakery. They are also a Moravian settlement so I spent most of my time exploring the historic houses and taking pictures of flowers and churches. We'll have to go back when the factory is open for a tour.

Gaining weight really sucks. You can't fit into any of your clothes and it's really hard to say no to junk much less refrain from eating it for long stretches. I mean, there's always an excuse: birthdays, halloween, stressful day, etc. Not to mention the fact that there are two wonderful places right across the street from work with quality junk. I decided today that I really want to get on track. Not just for the short term of fitting into some clothes or the million pairs of jeans in my closet that I can't bear to throw out because they are almost new and I used to fit into them 40 lbs ago.

I've decided to set two goals: one short term and one long term. Regarding the short term goal, I've learned today that Key West Night club in Center City, Philly has some hot muscular strippers every once in a while. If I lose 20 lbs, I'll check it out. For the long term goal, if I lose another 25 lbs, I'm buying a Nikon D90.

I've been wanting to jot down what I did this past weekend before I forget all about it. On saturday, I went to Fallsington Day with my parents. It's basically an annual event where people sell their arts and crafts and they have various forms of local entertainment including people in period garb and bake sales. Well, we drove into the town but we were stuck because they didn't close off the road and there was nowhere to go. So, we're waiting for people to turn around and just as we are about to go, this woman starts frantically beeping and waving at us. I assumed it's because she was in a hurry to get moving so I yelled out something that I'd rather not repeat and we went on our way. As we're driving along, I noticed that she was following us. When we parked, she parked right next to us and I finally realized that it is my brother in law's sister! I'm not very familiar with that side of the family, but I had recently seen her when I went to see my sister and her baby in the hospital. I'm sure that the rest of her siblings are very nice, but I like Gio the best. I get really leary around Jehovah's Witnesses since I used to be one and I feel there's alot of judgement there. Fortunately, not only did she marry outside of the religion but she was never baptised in it so alot of their rules don't apply to her. I think I could actually be friends with her with a little effort.

On Sunday, my parents, Lou, my brother and his girlfriend went to Peddler's Village to have Sunday Brunch at the Cock and Bull Restaurant. It's a full buffet and I must say that it was very good. Some of the highlights were omelettes cooked to order, bacon, sausage, a carving station with ham and beef, fresh fruits, lox, shrimp, and various other breakfast foods and desserts. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend it. So far for my birthday, I received a jansport bookbag, Jack's Mannaquin - The Glass Passenger, a new remote for my car, and a pair of jeans. I'm having a party with my friends this weekend at Charlie Browns Steakhouse. Lou ordered me a cake from one of my favorite bakeries, Clay's, up in Berwyn, PA. It should be a fun time :)

I know I'm not the first to say this and I know I won't be the last, but facebook is definitely the best time waster out there. This thing is even worse than MySpace! There is an especially addicting applicaton called My Heroes Ability that I play quite often...well to be honest just about every spare second at work. Between that and iLike, I'm hopelessly hooked. If you are ever bored out of your mind and need something to take up some time, sign up for an account. It's worse crack than the Twilight series:)