i wonder if I can teach my animals this trick?

How awesome is this little bird?!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24753683/

go yankees

A few years ago, after my mom's little bout with breast cancer, I decided to take her on a trip...just the two of us. She had always talked about Walt Disney World and how much she wanted to see it...so we packed our bags and did a mother/daughter trip. It was so fun to hang out, just my mom and me. A year or so later, I took Beca (my sis) to San Diego for her first big trip outside the state. She was very into Sublime and Slightly Stoopid and Ocean Beach was the birthplace of their genre of music.

Over the next couple of years, I took the "girls" on a couple of other trips, my mom to LA to see "So You Think You Can Dance", the live show, and my sister to San Francisco to visit the city and drive along the PCH - pics from all the trips are on gaigespages.

These paired off trips became a family joke as the Lora's Make a Wish Foundation and I asked my dad where he wanted to go for his adventure. He wanted to see a Yankee game in his hometown of New York. I researched during last year's season and it was just too late to plan, get tickets and make it up to a game. So, fast forward to this spring and my mom hints that baseball season is coming up (even though my dad won't mention it right to me!). So the "Lora-style" planning starts!

Last Friday we took off for New York at 11am. I gave my dad a little care package to kick off the trip...including a map, yankee hat, NYC things to do book and a book called, "I Love You, Daddy" that I had customized with all the things we were doing on the trip. And finally, the signature laminated itinerary.

After a little delay, we made it to a rainy and dreary NYC at 5ish. We took the bus to the subway, like locals, and arrived in Times Square at about 6. From there, we hopped on the subway to Yankee Stadium. It was fun to watch the number of fans build as we got closer and closer to the stadium. PS...jerseys are really popular up there! We had to switch trains once on the journey and one of the guys got a text message that said "game cancelled". We all denied it and blamed it on him being a Mets fan. But, as we pulled into the 161st/Yankee Stadium stop, word was spreading fast that it was true.

We strolled our way through the rain to the box office to see if there was anything we could do. We met the craziest guy in line. He is the "world's biggest Yankee fan". He pulled out his cell phone and showed us a pic of his truck with a Yankee logo on the hood and his basement, he calls the luxury suite...it's all painted blue with pennants and other Yankee paraphernalia all over the walls!! Here's a pic of us :)

He also suggested a restaurant near the stadium called Molino Rojo. So, we finally get to the front of the line, ready to beg and plead, and to our surprise, we were able to get tickets for the next day's afternoon game...yea!! And they were even better seats, so we paid a little fee, but got to upgrade at the ticket's face value.

So, happy as clams, we walked over to the restaurant suggested by the superfan...and it was awesome! They have this greasy, kind oh "eh" looking food in the wndow, then the food inside is phenomenal! We had rice and beans, the philly cheesesteak, chiken and homemade flan. Yummy! After the restaurant, we went back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep.

Bright and early, 4AM, the alarm went off. We pealed our tired selves out of bed to stand in line for Saturday Night Live. We arrived in line at about 5AM...and there were about 80 people in front of us in tents and snuggled under blankets. The people right in front of us were awesome! There was a couple from San Fran (she was about to graduate from Columbia in NYC and he was in visiting) and a father and daughter from New York. We exchanged numbers with Melissa and her dad, Andrew...as they chose to try for the rehearsal and we went for the live show! We got our numbers and parted ways at about 7am. I'm so glad they were great...it helped the 2 hours of standing to fly by!

From there, we crossed the street and scoped out "The Today Show" weekend crew, so no Meredith, Ann, Al or Matt. And we snacked on croissants from Dean and Deluca...we may have been in the background and not even known it. :) The Matt Lauer replacement took this baby at one point and carried it all around...then kept kissing it on the head...we were hoping he knew this baby and didn't just take it hostage!

Next, we walked around saw Rockefeller, St. Patricks and Central Park. We also stopped in Central park to see the seals swim around at the Central Park Zoo and the John Lennon Memorial, Strawberry Fields. We then crossed the street to The Dakota, where he was actually shot. It was a very sad feeling place...you really got an eerie vibe standing there. hard to describe.

Our feet were aching by then, so we hopped onto the subway and headed back to the Bronx for the baseball game. We were there early for batting practice...it was pretty cool to have most of the stadium to ourselves! And it was a beautiful day...not a cloud in the sky. We rooted for the Yankees and I caught a super cool pic of Jeter hitting the first home run of the game! It makes me sad that it's the last season at Yankee stadium though...these old stadiums have so much more character than the fancy new parks. You can see the new one being built across the street while you're inside the old one. The grounds keepers were so funny and broke into a YMCA dance routine between innings! :)

After the game, we took to subway back into town and chowed down at the Carnegie Deli...the food was super (and the portions huge)...we had the best waitress of the trip here. Once we were full and happy we went back to the room to relax and catch a few z's before the show.

We arrived back at the NBC studios at 10:45 and took our place in line. We made it to the "elevators" (the first 20 people got to go up) and it was time to wait and see if our number was called. After about 15 minutes they said thanks for coming, but we're out of space. We all sighed and hung our heads...then the page said, "wait, we may be able to take a few more!". Cheers all around!!! So we stood all giddy and waiting. Then Samm Levine, Dax Shepherd, Kristen Bell, John Kranzinski, "Kenneth", the intern on "30 Rock" and Renee Zellweger walked by with their entourages. We all whispered and pointed as they took the elevator up. Then we realized, wait a minute...they just took our spots!!! A few seconds later, the page again made us hang our heads and said they were officially out of space. Oh well, waiting in line and making some new friends was half the fun!

We quickly called Melissa to see if they made it in...pretty sure they had since the rehearsal was a little less popular. And we were so disappointed to hear for the 2nd time they had tried, they were where the line was cut off! They were 40 and 41 in line and they cut off at 39! Stinks!!! But, they were super sweet and said they were rooting for us too. I will definitely we calling my new friends when I go back in Sept...they said there should be a film fest in that time frame too. :)

We watched the Steve Carrell/Usher episode from our room and laughed until we fell sound asleep. My favorites of the evening were The Japanese Office and Bless this Child. :)

Sunday morning we woke up again and headed to St. Patrick's for the music mass. It was very pretty, but very fast. The have a mass every hour...so they defintely run you in and out. But it's crazy that it is so full...and the Cathedral is huge! My dad was very excited to participate in service at this historic church.

Next, we shopped for a few little souveniers for mom, Beca, Paul and Bryan in Times Square then went to John's Pizza. This place was wonderful! The original was in Greenwich village from the early 1900s and now they have 2 additional locations with brick oven pizza that is defintely worth a try!

We had a little time to kill so we wandered up a few streets and hit the jackpot. There was a humongous street festival in Hell's Kitchen with food, clothes, housewares and lots and lots of people. We wandered from booth to booth and even though we were stuffed, we enjoyed a little dessert of coconut ice cream and a caramel apple. This neighborhood had such a cool vibe...we both really loved just hanging out there. There was even a cop dancing to the music from one of the booths...so fun!

We then went to the Golden theater to see Avenue Q. it was a beautiful theather and a very funny, creative show. There were parts that were a little risque...but it also had a nice uplifting message too! :)

When the show was over we headed to the airport to take off for Houston. I had gotten a first class upgrade that I gave to my dad...it was his first time to ride up front. :) And I was super excited when the flight attendant brought me an upgrade too! Yea! Here's the beautiful sky and view of the city as we took off. It was a wonderful trip and so glad dad and I got to share this weekend! Love you Dad! :)

i can exhale...

This weekend I took my dad on an incredible trip to New York City. More details on that later.

I went to copy the pics and my brand new SD card flaked on me. I deleted a single file and all of a sudden with no warning or little task bar the entire folder vanished. I hit ctrl+z to undo, nothing...went to the recycle bin...nothing, checked the folder I copied the file to...nothing. I was in full out panic mode.

Bryan then called his ex-cowoker and our friend, Mitch. HE IS MY HERO! He talked me off the ledge and helped me to download SW to find all the little hidden files still tucked away on my SD card. People with a combination of that much smarts and calmness are incredible.

I was able to recover most of the pics, some a little grainier or jumbled a little...but they are there and back on my hard drive (in a few locations just in case).

I am so happy and thankful that I can finally breathe and get a good night's sleep. Thanks a million Mitch!!!

time to put on my dancin shoes

I'm so very excited! Back in the day, I was on the Spartainaires drill team at Stratford High School. I was in Company D (the Ducks), led by my then, officer and now, friend Stacy.

Fast forward about 15 years (ouch, I feel old) and we're still good friends...and she's a drill team director now! Tonight is her spring show and she's even going to dance too! Nita, Camille and I are heading up to the far NW side...even farther than HP, to check out the show.

I hope I can stop myself from running up on stage and shakin my arse!

oh happy day!

Gaigepages is up to date! The pics from Nikki's bday in Fredericksburg and the Europe trip are all posted...15 new albums! :)

www.gaigespages.com

Day 11 – Breakfast in Milan, Lunch in Newark, Dinner in Houston

Sunday morning, we took off for Newark (with a nice stay in the Pres Club…note – they do have cheese and it was MUCH yummier than the cheese that was still in Alison’s bag) then made our way to Houston.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my travel buddies Alison, Bill and Oscar and all the HP people in Florence that made this an unforgettable trip! Can’t wait to see what the rest of the year in travel has to hold. Going for Platinum Elite, baby!

Day 10 – Lake Como, Villa d’Este, Brunate and Milan

We woke to a perfect day. It was probably about 60 and sunny. And the day only got prettier! Here's the view from the hotel room.

And a few of the trip back to the town of Como.

We took the hydrofoil (fast boat) back to Como and met a chatty little new friend.

The view was so beautiful...if you look closely, you can see the snow capped mountains in the backgroud...

And here it is zoomed in a little! Just perfectly gorgeous!

In Como we had some fresh gelato at the dock and bought our tickets for the slow boat over to a place called Villa d’Este. It used to be a private residence and is now one of the fanciest hotels in the world. Oh, and PS, was the rumored location that George Clooney was going to propose to his girlfriend earlier this month! We rolled up on foot and were asked if we were clients…uh, no. Alison answered, "We’re having lunch here." And we got in! We walked over to the lake side bar, surrounded by the definition of characters. These people were even caricatures of themselves…oh to be rich! We ordered champagne and relaxed. It was perfect out and I turtled in one of the prettiest places in the world. Until we got the bill of a whopping 63 euro for the 3 glasses!!! Ouch. But, it was well worth it! And we got delicious, fresh olives as big as ping pong balls, nuts and cheese crackers ‘free’. We walked the gardens and grounds, smelled the fragrant wisteria and checked out the floating pool and of course had to visit the ladies room! Isn’t that always the best part of fancy hotels? These did not disappoint! They even had a bidet, which we had a lengthy debate about its use in a public restroom!

We took the slow boat back to Como and headed straight over to the funicular that climbs up to a small town called Brunate. This was the tallest one I had been on and from my google-ing looks like it was a 55% grade and somewhere around 2000 feet tall. The town of Brunate appeared to be tiny, but was very pretty with meandering streets and views of the lake and town of Como. We had paninis for lunch at a tiny café and soaked in the sun.

This lazy little guy was soaking in the sun and didn't budge when we walked up!

From there, we began the trek down the hill and across the town of Como.

After a quick stop at a local park (with 5 years olds driving go karts...yet another thing to never fly in the US), we caught the 6:00 train to head to Milan for dinner and to get a quick look at the city. This is where the fun began! We hopped off the train and headed for the lockers. Milan’s station is a mess and isn’t tourist friendly at all! There was a huge line for the baggage storage room and it was manned by people instead of a nice do it yourself locker room and it was a per bag charge! Yuck! So, we decided to check on jetting to the hotel then coming back into Milan. That’s when we found out there is only a shuttle bus (no metro) and it was an hour drive. That was out…so we headed back to the lockers and checked our things. When we went to purchase our bus tickets, the last one left at 9:10 (and it was already 8!)…but we had paid to check our bags, so we walked outside and circled the train station…got about 10 pics to prove we were there and headed straight back into the baggage check line. We got our bags out of hawk and went down to the waiting area. Our shuttle took off without a hitch and we took the very long, but relaxing ride to the Milan airport. Here we are giving sad faces at not seeing a little more of Milano!

When we pulled up to the airport, we all thought to ourselves, man, this place is tiny, but maybe it’s huge inside. It did say domestic and international departures on the sign. We cheerfully went to a cabbie and asked him to take us to the Airport Ramada. The look on his face was blank. “Are you sure”, he asked, “that hotel is 22 KM away”? What!?!?! The sheet said it was 2 KM away…doesn’t that make more sense for an airport hotel? So, he very kindly called the hotel while we were trying to look up our confirmation info. They sent over a shuttle and we were to wait by the farmacia for about half an hour. The bus showed up as planned (phew), but we had a stop on the way. It was the exit off to terminal 1. We all cracked up when we saw the humongous airport in the distance. Now, this was what we were expecting…I guess we had gotten off on the wrong stop from the shuttle!! So, we picked up one more passenger and made the 10 minute drive into the country to the “Airport” Ramada. It was actually very nice and we had some dinner then hit the hay.

Day 9 – Lake Como and surprise, Lugano…SWITZERLAND!

Alison and I packed ½ our belongings into a Fedex box and the rest in our packs. Oscar, Alison and I then set off for Lake Como, Italy! It was all plains on the way, so a good opportunity to catch up on a little shut eye! As we were rolling close to Como, it was still all flat…and I was thinking, hmm, did we book the right station?? Well, right as we pulled into the station, the mountains rose from the plains and we could tell this place was going to be gorgeous! We got off the train and the guy at the small shop in the station told us to take the bus into town. We waited there for AGES and met a couple from Greece that was very nice and waiting for the same bus #4. It finally arrived and drove 5 minutes before our stop, oh well, lesson learned! We grabbed lunch (one of my favorites of the trip) at a street café.

We looked at the map we had and saw a dashed line with SVIZIRRA written in big letters. Surely, we weren’t so close to ANOTHER COUNTRY we could check off our list?!?! Then the girl behind us chimed in and said YES, Switzerland’s border was only about 10 minutes away by bus! Oh my gosh, Alison and I nearly jumped up and ran across the border. We skipped over to the tourist info center and got the skinny. We could get there by bus to ‘cross the border’ with nothing to see in 10 minutes or take a 45 minute ride on the train to a cute tourist town. About 30 minutes later, we had a change of plans and were on a train to Lugano, Switzerland…and off the map of our laminated itinerary!!

The only sad part of the ride was that we didn’t get the coveted passport stamp, but we did get to mark off another country! This town was a hoot. It was pristinely clean, very pretty and RICH. I think there were far more banks than people that took residence here. They were, no joke, on every street corner, facing each other. It was like Starbucks in the US! We walked down to the water, took many pics and were back on the train in an hour or so. I will definitely be going back to Switzerland though. I really loved it!

I even found time to get a pic with a Swiss Golden Retriever. :)

We were entertained on the train back by an accordion player with a lazy eye. According to Alison he was totally drunk! He just kept pointing at the accordion and smiling then he started saying Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Ljubljana…when we finally made out what he was saying, we said, SLOVENIA back to him. Hey, we were just there!! He was pumped we knew what he was talking about…and just kept repeating it. We tried to egg him on to play on the train…but he was a little too sober for that. From what we could gather, he was going to Ljubljana to play at a wedding. How fun!

We had to be back in time to catch our ferry to Bellagio on Lake Como. The train was running a little behind, so we were a few minutes late getting back. And we ran like crazy as soon as we pulled into the station. Oscar, thankfully is a marathon runner, so he took off! Alison and I a few steps behind. I think she was nice enough to hang back for me…wow, I need to hit the treadmill! We made it up to the boat dock and they were just loading. Oscar was there waiting with our tickets in hand! Just awesome! Everything just fell into place perfectly!

We arrived at our hotel in Bellagio, just across from the boat dock and it was adorable.

We walked through the very quiet and romantic town and stopped for a drink at a small local bar. We munched on chips and the best cheese puffs. I have to try to find them in The States, they just melt in your mouth and no orange fingers! From there, it was drizzly and we were pretty hungry. We found a pretty restaurant that looked cozy and warm and popped in. The food was delicious and Alison took the opportunity to ‘relax’ a little from a hard week she had planned so masterfully. She was totally hilarious. After a few glasses of wine, she disagreed with Oscar and me about something she had said earlier and we ran with it! In celebration of us being right Oscar and I gave each other spirit fingers (Alison does this with others since she’s not a cuddler…minimal touching ;) ) and then she was outraged! Here's Oscar and I celebrating...the pic of Alison had to be censored!!

We walked back to our place and crashed out! It was a great night’s sleep after running so hard.