Dec 1, 2011

ode to my favorite holy sweater


i cannot recall a time that you were not there for me
the only clue to your origin was your tag that read GAP
you kept me toasty warm and shiver free
if i got drowsy i could ball you up like a pillow for a nap
it is true you had a big hole in your right sleeve
and you were a little bit itchy
but no matter - 100% wool is meant to wear in layers
oh sweater why did you leave
since i lost you i've been kinda bitchy
finding you would answer my prayers

Jun 1, 2010

Maynard Got Lost

Once upon a time there was a baby rabbit that got lost. He searched the forest for his family but could not find them anywhere. He was getting hungry and the sun would be up soon. He knew he needed to find a quiet place to hide so the scary animals in the forest would not find him and eat him.

His name was Maynard.

Maynard found a hollow under a tree trunk and crawled in just before the pink sky turned orange. By the time the sky was blue he should have been snoozing away, but he could not find sleep. He was too scared. The noises the forest made during the day were creeping him out. He felt the clump clumping of deer hooves on the dirt, vibrating their way along the ground to his quivering paws. He sensed the wriggling of worms through the dirt. The wind picked up mid-day and the crackling of the limbs around him made him glad he was safe inside a tree trunk.

Maynard wondered where his family was. He wondered if they were mad at him for getting lost. He wondered if they were looking for him. He wondered if they noticed he was gone – there were, after all, more than 30 bunnies in his immediate family.Maybe they would not even notice and never come looking for him.

Throughout the day Maynard slept when he was able to. When he was unable to sleep he worked on a plan in his head. When the sun began to set he would put his plan into action.

Maynard awoke to the tell-tale sounds of evening in the forest – crickets singing all around. Frogs were belching on the edge of the nearby pond. Maynard was filled with fear. Adrenaline pumped through his blood. The fur on his back stood straight up. His nose twitched. All at once Maynard transformed into NINJA BUNNY! He said to himself “you got this, bunny!”.

As if he had springs on his feet, Maynard flew out from under the tree he had hidden under and flew with lightning speed toward the sound of the frogs. He jumped high in the air and with a double twist summersault he landed on the far side of a felled log that ordinarily would have stopped him in his tracks. But not tonight. Tonight he was on a mission. His landing was stealthy. Without hesitation he continued on toward the pond where he was hoping to find his family. He was really hoping to find them because suddenly he realized that his plan did not extend beyond the pond.

Maynard is not the smartest among bunnies, which are generally not considered the most adept species to begin with. Maynard’s plan to go the pond was well thought out, for a bunny. And Maynard must also be given some credit for having realized that he was not prepared with a back up plan in the event that he did not find his family.

The moon was full tonight and the air was cool. Dew was beginning to settle on the grass. Maynard hopped his way toward the pond for longer than he thought he should. The pond must be further than he estimated. Estimating is not a skill the bunnies excel at either. But the pond must be close now . . . he’s been hopping for nearly an hour, he felt!

Suddenly he heard something that made him freeze in his tracks. Maynard had heard the older bunnies tell stories about creatures called humans but he had never seen one himself. Nor had he smelled one. But now that he did smell one, he knew what it was without mistake. Like the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking is to a human – even if you have never smelled it before, you immediately recognize it.

Maynard was like a statue, he was even holding his breath. His heart beat like a bass drum so hard in his little bunny chest that he was sure all of the forest could hear it.The human walked by Maynard so close that in a single hop Maynard could have been to the human.

In a flash Maynard ran through his memory of the stories he had heard of humans.There was the tale of the small human that held a fellow bunny hostage, feeding it nasty carrots. There was the story of the large human that stole all the bunnies it could and killed the bunnies’ dead. There was not a single good human story that Maynard could remember.

Maynard knew he had to get away from the human. He dug deep for his ninja courage and in a flash ran . . . he ran like the wind. What Maynard possessed in courage he continued to lack in intelligence. Maynard ran smack into the human, so hard that he fell back in a daze, flat on his back. The air in his chest was stuck, he could not make himself breathe. Suddenly everything went dark and with a final glimpse of the moon Maynard fell weak into a deep sleep.

When Maynard came to, he was flooded with bright sunlight. He was confused because the only sky and sun he saw was from an opening high above him, on the side. The place where he was was white, all white and bright. The ground he stood on was smooth and shiny. His bunny nails could not grasp it. When he tried to hop he slipped and slid. He stopped, standing still until he could get his bearings. Suddenly a human came into the space. The same human he ran into. The human towered over Maynard. All his ninja courage slipped away and he sat still, shaking, terrified.

All at once the human picked him up. Maynard was too scared to struggle. The human stroked him in a way that reminded Maynard of his bunny mom. Maynard liked this and his fear gradually went away.

The human placed Maynard in a cage with lettuce and radishes (Maynard’s favorite) and cucumbers and carrots. This was nothing like the human stories Maynard had heard from the older bunnies. In fact, Maynard was happy.

Eventually Maynard forgot all about the stories he’d been told. He almost forgot about his bunny family too. He knew he was not ninja enough to escape, so he just enjoyed his radishes and the pats from the human. But every once in a while he thought about his bunny mom and still wondered if she had ever even noticed that he was gone.

Feb 11, 2010

snow haiki

the snow stopped snowing
the wind has not stopped blowing
snow blows everywhere

Jul 15, 2009

Road Trip 2009 - Recap









Wylie and I are back home now. The past week went so fast. We had so much fun though, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Except for the rain on the first day, we had perfect weather the whole trip.






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOXMy4AaXrc&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eyoutube%2Ecom%2Fmy%5Fvideos%5Fedit&feature=player_embedded




My most favorite thing of the whole trip was without a doubt the Grand Canyon. We went to the national park on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and spent the night there in one of the lodges. Everything was wonderful from the pristine trails to the helpful staff to the great facilities. And of course the Canyon was Grand. We watched sunset the evening we were there and we rose early to see the sunrise on the morning we were there. Both were fabulous. I will definitely go back to the Canyon. Sooner than later, hopefully. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6645tN7251s









We saw buffalo at the Grand Canyon also. So cool! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf37rxzvyhY









I liked Meteor Crater a lot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mloU16g-0tQ



Graceland rocked. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI1rWLmJ9MY





We spent an afternoon in Santa Fe. It was very pretty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXKcD8atGXg









Monument Valley was spectacular. We got to watch the sun set there and it was gorgeous. One of Wylie's favorite parts of the trip was when the Native American set the French tourist straight. The Navajo tour guide twice asked the tourist not to photograph him. The third time the Navajo explained that taking his photo was like taking something from him and that one is supposed to ask permission before photographing Native Americans. Of course, asking permission and paying is the usual process. And more than once we heard complaints from locals about the poor tipping from Europeans, particularly the French. In any event, Wylie thought it was funny when the Indian stopped everything to explain why he did not want his photograph taken.









In addition to the sights, it was so great to see Tonya's gang, Tomme and Brad. Although I had seen everyone recently at the wedding, it was so much fun to have another visit. Thanks you guys for being a part of our road trip.









We ended our trip in Vegas, meeting Tomme and Brad there for the weekend. We saw two shows: Blue Man Group and Love. Wow! I was overwhelmed by Vegas. The drunks and chaos were a bit much for me. But the shows were fun, the fountain at the Ballagio was amazing, and we had some delicious meals. I can check Vegas off my list of things to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SydiRMK5i4U

One cool Vegas experience - we stayed at the Venetian and when we got there we walked downstairs to have a look around. Just as we walked into the area where the canal comes into the shopping area, a bride and groom were in a white gondola getting married. We counted at least six brides while we were there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQN0gxC8UIc









We went to Hoover Dam while in Vegas. After sitting in some Dam traffic and parking in the Dam garage we went on the Dam tour. It was Dam exciting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MAVR9hUw5c




So those are some of the highlights. There are other videos in addition to the links in this blog. When viewing one of the videos you will see to the right a link for "More from wylierowe123" and it will take you to the complete list of our videos.

And this link is for our photos along the way. http://picasaweb.google.com/mandywarrington/CrossCountry2009#

Thanks for following our adventure - hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Jul 13, 2009

Road Trip 2009 - Waking up in Vegas




I'm in Vegas so it must be Sunday.

We didn't have a strong signal the past few days at the Grand Canyon or Monument Valley
We saw Meteor Crater in Arizona - it was really cool. And from there we went up through Arizona on our way to Monument Valley in southern Utah. The drive was just gorgeous - route 264 across northern Arizona.

Monument Valley was amazing - we took a tour that drove us through the entire park. You can drive your own car through or take a tour. It's all dirt and bumpy roads, so of course the Corvette couldn't go through. I was surprised by the number of people that did take their own cars through though - I think a lot of them must have been rentals!

The Corvette - it makes friends everywhere it goes. We have encountered a lot of Euopean tourist on our trip and they love the Corvette. It's pretty funny!

We put 3403.2 miles on the car from the time we left Virginia. We arrived in Vegas yesterday and I officially handed the car over to Tomme. She is now keeper of the fob.

Jul 7, 2009

Road Trip 2009 - Amarillo by Tuesday











We left Blounts Creek w/ the top down Sunday morning, but by Greenville were getting rained on and had to put it up. We had rain on and off all day, very heavy at times.



We gained an hour somewhere in Tennessee when we changed time zones. Driving west and chasing the sun we will have nice long days the whole trip.



We had a little bit of a funky start, but after noon or so got in our groove and made great time. We decided to skip Nashville and drove on to nearly Jackson, Tennessee before I deemed it prudent to call it a day.



Monday morning we headed straight to Graceland. An early arrival and we didn't have to wait in any lines. Graceland was really cool. Okay - the trash cans said "thank you very much" on them. Cracked me up!

We hit Sun Records quickly. Then we headed out of Memphis.

We went to Tonya's in Missouri. The drive through Arkansas to Plato, Missouri was gorgeous. And the weather was beautiful, we had the top down all day.

Tonya took me out on her four-wheeler - so much scary fun!






We left Tonya's this morning (Tuesday) and drove through Oklahoma and are spending the night in Amarillo. We had dinner at the Big Texan - the place that has the free 72 ounce steak - if you can eat it in an hour it's free. Imagine! The Big Texan has a web cam on their site and you can view the table designated for the 1 hour attempts at the steak. So being the dork that I am I went and stood in front of the cam and called Tomme to look at Wylie and me. Good stuff!






http://picasaweb.google.com/mandywarrington/CrossCountry2009#

Jul 1, 2009

Road Trip 2009 - Inquiring Minds Want to Know


When telling people about the trip and my planning so far, I get to the part about flying home from Vegas and people naturally wonder what I am going to do with the car. Some make the leap that I must be renting a car and will turn it in in Vegas. Good guess, but not so. So here is the deal with the car:




Wylie and I are driving my dad's convertible corvette. I know, not too shabby, eh? :) We will drive as far as Vegas where my sister and her husband, Tomme and Brad, will fly in to meet us. From there, Wylie and I will fly home and Tomme and Brad will drive he car the rest of the way to their home in Santa Rosa, California.




In mid-July my dad will take a train out to California and visit for a few weeks before driving the car back home to Virginia.




So now you know . . . the rest of the story.