Her Person

Marxo can't keep her hands off our new little kitty.  She is so happy to have a living thing to "mother"!  As soon as she comes home from school, she's looking for Spot.  She picks her up and cradles her and carries her around and generally smothers her with affection.

And apparently, Spot is perfectly fine with it!  I was worried that she would become resentful of this person who just won't leave her alone, but it's exactly the opposite.  Spot has determined that Marxo is her person.  She follows Marxo around and wants to sleep with her every night.  Marxo doesn't like that, though, because Spot keeps her awake by trying to play with her feet under the covers!  So cute.  :)

Marxo ended up being sick off and on over the last few weeks - she had a fever that kept coming and going.  After going to the doctor a couple of different times, he finally figured out she had a urinary tract infection!  Something so simple and easy to treat and it kept her out of school for 8 of the first 23 days of school.  Ugh!

Anyway, while Marxo was at home being sick, she had some very good company.

Loyal Kitty

Labor Day 2011

Yep, I'm a little late with this post, but if I don't do it now, I'll never get around to it.

We spent Labor Day weekend in New York City this year!  My pen-pal from third grade (with whom I've kept in touch all these years) is playing one of the lead roles in the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway right now and we just HAD to go see her. (and I got a text from her the other day saying she's just been offered a 6-month extension!  I'm so proud of her!!!)  Labor Day seemed to be the perfect time to go see her and get to spend time with her.  So, we sucked it up, bought 4 plane tickets, and vowed to have an excellent time.

And we did!  We arrived on Friday evening and had tickets to see the matinee on Saturday afternoon.  We traveled into the city (we were staying at my pen-pal and her husband's house in Newark), walked around a bit, left my pen-pal at the theater to get ready for the show, grabbed some lunch, and then went to the show.

I had never seen the Phantom of the Opera until that day and it was such a great experience.  I feel so lucky to have gotten to see it for the first time when one of my dear friends was playing one of the lead roles!  She was afraid that the kids were going to be freaked out by the Phantom's make-up during the show, so she talked to Hugh Panaro and he agreed to let us watch him put on his make-up.  That was cool!  (And, for the record, Hugh Panaro is a really, really nice guy.)  The kids thought it was neat to see him put on his make-up, but they especially liked meeting his dog, Soot (whose name is also on the dressing room door). :)

Before the show

After the show - on stage with the chandelier

This is one of her dresses - some of her dresses weigh up to 50 pounds!

After the show, my pen-pal gave us a back-stage tour and we all grabbed a bite to eat. She needed to get back to the theater for the evening show, so we headed off on our own to go to the top of the Empire State Building.

There were some guys outside the building telling us it was a 2.5 hour wait and that we could pay them for the "Express Tour".  We figured that was a scam, but it turned out to be pretty accurate!  It was around 10pm by the time we made it up to the observation deck!  :o

On Sunday, we all walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.  My husband and I had to read the book, The Great Bridge, in college so it was particularly interesting to us because we learned a lot about the building of the bridge.  It's amazing that this bridge is almost 130 years old!

The Great Bridge

It had gotten to be late in the day by the time we made it across the bridge, so we found a restaurant in Brooklyn to get some dinner.  Marxo was ready for a rest.

And after dinner, we took the ferry across the river to the Financial District, where we were able to get a shot of the new World Trade Center building.

Our flight didn't leave until late Monday afternoon, so we decided to make the most of it and head to Central Park for a carousel ride!

Hard to take a picture of a moving horse while also sitting on a moving horse...

Fellan is the King of Central Park!

And, on the way to the subway/train/plane that afternoon, my pen-pal informed us that you can't go past the pig in front of Rudy's without giving it a high-five!  :)

Interpretation

The other day, Fellan and I were headed to our Fantasy Football Draft.  Marxo was sick and the husband had to get some work done, so it was up to me to draft our team.  (neither the husband nor I know anything about football, but we like to keep a team each year, otherwise we'd never see our friends!)

Anyway, it was Saturday morning and "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me" was on the radio while we were driving.  Fellan is really good at listening to stories on the radio and remembering all kinds of facts about what their talking about, so he was enjoying the show.

After we'd been driving for about 15 minutes, the next show came on the radio.  It was "This American Life." This past Saturday, the show was about gossiping and how it's different in different cultures.  They didn't get too far into the show before they gave the warning: "This program contains descriptions of sex and birth control."

Upon hearing that, I looked in the rear view mirror to see if Fellan was paying attention.  He had a HUGE grin on his face.  So I asked him what he was laughing about.

F: "They're going to talk about sex and birth control!"
Me: "What does that mean? 'Sex and birth control'?"
F: "It means they're going to talk about sexy women and how they control their children!"

I didn't correct him.  :)