Little visitor

My littlest nephew came to visit me... oh yeah, and my sister and brother-in-law too :)

Here he is with one of his cousins.  

Out to dinner

Helping me do my laundry while his mom and dad were touring the city.

Leaving the Big Apple!  

I saw this online and it reminded me of my nephew.  He's so cute and sweet, that you can't help but hug him and kiss him all the time, but he he will let you know when he's not interested.  

Iceland day 3

On day three, we had booked an all day tour outside of the city.  This is basically what the countryside looked like -- kind of green and brown.  

First, we went to see a geysir.  I learned that geysir is an Icelandic word and we call ours geysers after them.  When I went to see Old Faithful last year, I wasn't that impressed, but for some reason, this one did impress me.  I think it was because you could see the water kind of bubbling, like in a pool, and then it would explode.

Next we drove an hour or so to a glacier to go snowmobiling.   We drove up in this crazy bus.

They gave us these cute clothes to wear.

The view from on top of the glacier.

Next we drove to "Golden falls"  They were beautiful, but it was starting to pour so I didn't get the best photos.

Dinner was meatballs and potatoes!  Yum...

Iceland day 2

The second day, we went to this geothermal spa, called Blue Lagoon (named after the 80's movie).  The water is about 100 degrees and is supposed to heal ailments like psoriasis and arthritis.  When we entered, they gave us a little bracelet that we wore all day.  It locked and unlocked our lockers and if we ordered something from the bar that we could swim/walk up to, they just scanned the bracelet. There was also a station where we could get a face mask, and they would scan your bracelet again.   At the end of the day, they scanned the bracelet again and told us what we owed.    

Photobomb

When we got back to the hotel, it was pouring rain, so we just had lunch in the hotel and took a nap. After the rain stopped, we went back into town and walked around a bit.  I told myself I wasn't allowed to get another sweater, but then I saw someone wearing a traditional Icelandic sweater and it looked so cute on her, I had to have one.  It's kind of like this one.  

Then we explored the other side of the city.

Here I am with one of my Norwegian sweaters.

I wasn't hungry because I had fish and chips at the hotel and it was super filling.  Kathy was ready for a little something, so she got a "traditional" Scandinavian dinner.

I did have dessert though -- Apple cake with Caramel sauce.  I've now been to four Scandinavian countries, and I have to say, Iceland's food was the worst of all.  But this cake was so good.

Iceland

Day one -- walking around Reykjavik.  Not sure what this building is because we were still trying to figure out the map, but I think this is a government building.

Details on a building in the shopping center.

"Downtown" Reykjavik

Statue of Leif Erikson

this statue is in front of Hallgrimskirkja.  It is the most famous church in Reykjavik and also quite ugly, if you ask me.  It was commissioned to honor a famous clergyman/poet from Iceland and has a statue of an explorer in front of it.

Inside of the church

view of the town from the tower.

More to come...

Fall TV

Lots of new shows start this week. This is what I'll be watching:

Most anticipated new show for me: "This is Us" on NBC Tuesdays. It's by the same writers and producers as "Parenthood" and "Friday Night Lights." 

"The Good Place" on Mondays on NBC -- Kristen Bell plays a bad person who accidentally gets into heaven and Ted Dansen is the architect for the neighborhood. Looks funny.  

"Speechless" on ABC Wednesdays -- a mom who has a kid with cerebral palsy and has to advocate for him in a new town. 

"Designated Survivor" on NBC Mondays. This is least likely to last more than a couple episodes for me, but you never know. 

"Pitch" on FOX Thursdays about The first female pro baseball player.  

"No Tomorrow" on The CW about some people checking things off their bucket list before the world supposedly ends. 

New on Netflix: "The Crown" about the British Royal family, each season covers one decade from the 1940s until modern times. Will it fill the void "Downton Abbey" left? We'll see. 

Also new, two shows on FX that already started two weeks ago. "Atlanta" about a 20 something kid who is trying to promote his cousin's rap career (starting and created by Donald Glover from "Community")and "Better Things" about a single mom raising three girls. Makes me want to apologize to my own mom, who raised four of us. 

Returning shows:

-- "Mindy Project" (last season was very disappointing, but I watched until the end and will likely continue because I'm dumb like that.)

-- "New Girl"(also a disappointing last season. We will see what happens with this one.  It may be my last.)

-- "The Walking Dead" can't wait!!!!! 

-- "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" love this one so much. If you missed season one, go back and watch it. 

I think that's pretty much it! What are you watching? 

My birthday + The Boss

For my birthday, I took the train to Giants Stadium to see my third Springsteen show of the year.  It was pretty easy to get tickets this time around because the Stadium is gigantic.  the downside of that is that almost none of the seats are very good (which is why I didn't get any pictures that were worth posting).  But it's okay.  The show was amazing anyway, and he broke his record for longest US show -- which was set two days earlier at just under 4 hours -- going four full hours without a break in there.  I got home after 2 am and I was exhausted.  I had planned to go into work late, but then forgot I was supposed to meet with my supervisor at noon.  At 12:30, I was on the subway into work and my friend called me to say my supervisor was looking for me.  OOOPS!!  Luckily, by the time I got to work, she was just waiting patiently in my office checking her email.  Before I had a chance to give her my sob story about being out all night for a four-hour Springsteen concert, she told me that she was also a big fan and had seen him perform in Boston.  Phew!

The whole tour was supposed to be The River, but I think he got sick of that by this point in the tour (as was I), so luckily he didn't do The River again from beginning to end, but did play a lot of songs from that album.  Once he got to the end, he did the usual Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark, Rosalita and Shout and I was so disappointed because I am kind of sick of some of those and I really hate Shout after hearing it at every Caldwell Stake dance through my youth.  But... then he topped the show off with Thunder Road (my fave) and Jersey Girl.  While he was playing Jersey Girl, he noticed something going on with the crowd and called out to them to find out what happened.  Turns out, a couple just got engaged during the song and he called them up on stage.  They danced while he finished the song.  The night ended with fireworks!

Setlist:
New York City Serenade (with strings)
Prove It All Night
Night
No Surrender
Wrecking Ball
Sherry Darling
Spirit in the Night
My City of Ruins
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Lost in the Flood
Hungry Heart
Out in the Street
Death to My Hometown (with Tom Morello)
Youngstown
Jack of All Trades (with strings)
American Skin (41 Shots) (with Tom Morello)
The Promised Land
Cadillac Ranch
I'm a Rocker
Tougher Than the Rest
Because the Night
The Rising
The Ghost of Tom Joad (with Tom Morello)
Badlands (with Tom Morello)
* * *
Backstreets
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Rosalita
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Shout
Thunder Road
Jersey Girl 

Braids

The goofball among us

He has lots of goofy faces 

I told you he likes this pose. 

Then there's this ... 

Vacay

A visit to Arches was on the agenda this year. 

A brief hike before the sun started beating down on us.  

He likes this pose

Delicate Arch in the background.

Shooting practice

Little fisher

My old man 

Lake Oowah.  A nice, cool day in the mountains.