From Cold Spring to COLD

We spent the weekend up in Cold Spring, NY with a dear friend of ours and her husband. Had a great time, just traipsing around NY, and then drove into CT so we could say we'd been there (not realizing, of course, that we drove through it from the airport to her house) and to MA so he could say he's been there). We've got a personal mission to visit as many states as possible (and another, separate mission to do *cough*something*cough* in as many states as possible. No, I won't share the exact list, but in the last year we've managed 10 states, four countries and two federal districts ;)) Rest assured Jen, that the guest rooms sheets don't need to be burned...

So thus far, I've visited 39 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming. Not bad, considering that before I was 20, I'd only hit 2 (Texas and Oklahoma).

So ones I haven't visited (11): Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Rhode Island.

Countries I've visited (in order of when I went there - with specific areas noted): Mexico (Monterrey and Mexico City), Canada (Montreal), The Netherlands (Amsterdam), France (Loire Valley and Paris), Germany (though only in the Frankfurt airport - so I'm not sure it counts, regardless of passport stamps), Sweden (Stockholm), United Kingdom (England and Northern Ireland), China (Shanghai), Ireland (basically the entire northern part of the country). Again, before 20, I'd only been to the U.S. and Mexico, so I'm slowly building this list.

We're going with a "travel" theme to the baby's room, and while at an antiques store up in Cold Spring, I picked up a sage and cream colored hot air balloon to hang from the nursery ceiling. We're picking out paint today for his room - and it's starting to come together.

My sister is throwing a baby shower for us this coming weekend, and I'm nervous as all get out. I'm touched by the gesture, but HATE being the center of attention. Patrick is bailing on me and is going to spend the day with his dad, since his mom and sister (flying in from Phoenix) are coming out to the shower too.

And with that, I'm off to physical therapy - the wee babe is bearing down on my pinched nerve in my back and I am well, lame - in many senses of the word these days.

Oh! A heat wave - it's going to be a high of SIX degrees on Thursday. Sheesh.