Western New York! PART 1

So, I've been sick for the past two weeks, overlapping by one week with my two week vacation to Buffalo, New York. Here are some photos from Niagara Falls:

We started out around noon driving around an looking at some lighthouses (will post photos later), then headed on over to Niagara Falls. Here you can see the mist from the falls at a distance:


Before we went over to the park, we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (I picked up a cute T-Shirt in the gift shop). After lunch, we made our way over to the park and to the falls. Here are some preliminary ripples along the bank of the Niagra River:



The rapids as we get closer to the falls were amazing... this is only the second time I remember ever being near a waterfall, and the first was (in my opinion) not nearly as impressive:



Pretty cool, huh?



And the drop:



Here you can see the falls themselves, at last:


And a little woodchuck right up near the falls:





I snapped this shot from the observation deck:


A little bit extreme in my opinion:



This is my favourite shot, I can honestly say that Niagara Falls is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life:



The Maid of the Mist boat tour:



Lol:



Canada:


The Falls again:



I took nearly 400 photos on this trip, so stay tuned for more! : )

Always Check Your Receipts!

So, we went to _____ on Friday, and found some nice boxes and a tube of wrapping paper (vintage beer and ale label print). Two of the boxes were of similar design, but one was slightly larger than the other. The smaller one was marked down from $8 to $3, and the larger from $9 to $3. When I get up to the counter, everything rings up at the marked price except the larger box which comes up at $4, so the cashier calls the manager up. The manager goes over it a couple of times, then loudly comments on the fact that it is larger than the other box. Um, what does the one box have to do with the other? Are they not two separate objects? She then proceeds to inform me that the box should have been marked down to $4, and the $3 label was incorrect. I considered it, was it really worth saving just the $1? After a brief pause, I decided that the money had nothing to do with it. It was strictly a matter of principle. The label said $3, I think I should have gotten it for $3. I stated as much, and with many dark looks, they acquiesced. I'm afraid I tend to be a bit of a push-over in areas like this, so I was quite pleased with myself as I marched out of the store with my finds. I should have looked at the receipt.
That afternoon, I'm going over receipts and I pull out the one for this store. I purchased four items all total, and I notice that the receipt lists five. Much to my annoyance, I found that the cashier had not removed the item from the first time she rang it up. So in addition to paying the $3 for the box, I had also payed the $4 it originally range up at! I was so furious... as paranoid as it sounds, I know she did it on purpose.
So, next day we had to go back down to the store. Fortunately, I did manage to get my money back with little dispute.

Moral of the story, don't forget to check your receipts. : /

Gator Pics.

I love gators.



Second Gator:


Someone dropped a flower in the water:


He annihilates it:


And the ducks look on, unperturbed:


You can see more photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paperbouquet/sets/72157604343957368/

Bwahahahaha!

Your Vocabulary Score: A

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

I love blogthings.

Have you heard...

... About the "Mad Crafter's Tea Party"? The Altered Art Appreciation Society on Flickr is holding a global tea party from the 12th to 14th of April for all artists to participate. Check out the Altered Art Appreciation Society's blog here for details: http://www.alteredartsociety.blogspot.com/.

Just thought you should know...

Fruit-flavoured marshmallows are nasty.

What I read in a year...

I know, it's been a while since I posted... so, want to see what I read between last March and this?

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Spring 2007:


"Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life" by Alison Weir
"The Princes in the Tower" by Alison Weir
"The Wars of the Roses" By Alison Weir
"The Phantom of the Opera"By Gaston Leroux
"Queen Isabella" By Alison Weir
"The Children of Henry VIII" By Alison Weir
"Thomas Cardinal Wolsey" By Nancy Lenz Harvey
"Of Mice and Men" By John Steinbeck
"The Six Wives of Henry VIII" By Alison Weir
"The Sisters of Henry VIII" By Maria Perry
"Nine Days Queen" By Mary Luke
"The Poisonwood Bible" By Barbara Kingsolver
"The Wars of the Roses" By Desmond Seward
"The Wars of the Roses" By Robin Neillands
"Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes" By Bertram Fields
"To Kill a Mockingbird" By Harper Lee
"Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Murder of Lord Darnley" By Alison Weir
"Elizabeth I: Collected Works" By Elizabeth I
"First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis' Civil War" By Joan E. Cashin
"The Grapes of Wrath" By John Steinbeck
"Confederate Heroines: 120 Southern Women Convicted by Union Military Justice" By Thomas P. Lowry
"Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists" By Marcia Bonta

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Summer 2007:

"Titus Andronicus" By William Shakespeare
"Marie Antoinette: The Journey" By Antonia Fraser
"The Life of Elizabeth I" By Alison Weir
"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" By James Joyce
"King Henry VI Part I" By William Shakespeare
"Love's Labours Lost" By William Shakespeare
"The Comedy of Errors" By William Shakespeare
"The Sound and the Fury" By William Faulkner
"Two Gentlemen of Verona" By William Shakespeare
"Crime and Punishment" By Fyodor Dostoevsky
"King Henry VI Part II" By William Shakespeare
"The Stranger" By Albert Camus
"Henry VI Part III" By William Shakespeare
"King Richard III" By William Shakespeare
"Romeo and Juliet" By William Shakespeare
"King Richard II" By William Shakespeare
"King John" By William Shakespeare
"The Merchant of Venice" By William Shakespeare
"King Henry IV Part I" By William Shakespeare
"Great Expectations" By Charles Dickens
"Elizabeth of York" By Nancy Lenz Harvey
"Go Tell it on the Mountain" By James Baldwin
"Henry VIII: The King and His Court" By Alison Weir
"The Wars of the Roses" By William W. Lace
"Absalom! Absalom" By William Faulkner ***
"Henry Plantagenet" By Richard Barber
"The Last of the Plantagenets" By Thomas B. Costain

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Autumn 2007:

"A Tale of Two Cities" By Charles Dickens
"The Wars of the Roses" By Anthony Cheetham
"Innocent Traitor" By Alison Weir
"Macbeth" By William Shakespeare
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" By Washington Irving
"Julius Caesar" By William Shakespeare
"The Taming of the Shrew" By William Shakespeare
"The Young Elizabeth" By Alison Plowden
"Hard Times" By Charles Dickens
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" By William Shakespeare
"The Book of the Duchess" By Geoffrey Chaucer (Edited by Gerard NeCastro)
"The Boke of the Duchesse" By Geoffrey Chaucer
"Othello" By William Shakespeare
"Much Ado About Nothing" By William Shakespeare
"King Lear" By William Shakespeare
"The Tempest" By William Shakespeare
"Pride and Prejudice" By Jane Austen
"Cry the Beloved Country" By Alan Paton
"The Greatest Gift" By Philip Van Doren Stern

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Winter 2007-08

"Emma" By Jane Austen
"The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes" By H.G. Wells
"Complete Sonnets" By William Shakespeare
"Sense and Sensibility" By Jane Austen
"Persuasion" By Jane Austen
"Jane Eyre" By Charlotte Bronte
"Jurassic Park" By Michael Crichton
"Ivanhoe" By Sir Walter Scott
"Northanger Abbey" By Jane Austen
"The Lost World" By Michael Crichton
"All Quiet on the Western Front" By Erich Maria Remarque
"Jane Austen Juvenilia Volume I" By Jane Austen
"My Antonia" By Willa Cather
"Wuthering Heights" By Emily Bronte
"Anthem" By Ayn Rand
"Old Man and the Sea" By Ernest Hemingway

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As you can see, I really slowed down over Autumn and Winter. Autumn was IQF and I was working on my TOGC project, I also had three clocks-in-progress. Winter I was suffering from a severe case of earring-making mania. So sad. But I expect to pick up the pace this spring. ^_^