Rock, or Dinosaur Head?

Swoon

Groups of Chairs

Catseniya

Kseniya's been catsitting a very cute kitten named Ike. He's incredibly playful, and only gets more and more energetic the more you dangle and throw things at him. He also produces this constant, quiet, rolling purr, like the sound of an old car idling down the block. Apparently it only shuts off when he dreams. He goes back to his owners tomorrow, and the second photo is Kseniya saying goodbye. The Happy Birthday balloons were found in the lobby of her building.




Ike is what's known as a "tuxedo cat" -- he's all black, except for his white paws and a bit of white on the chest. Very formal. Puttin' on the Fritz.


This is our friends' new kitten. They have another cat who's been grumpy since this one arrived. Like an aging soap actress when the younger, prettier costar starts getting all the good slap scenes.

Decaytur

Boldt Castle was never completed after the death of the owner's wife, and it sat dormant for the better part of a century until being opened to tourism in 1977. Visitors quickly took to the walls, and never stopped.








A few miles outside of Natural Bridge, the nearest town to our cabin, this pile of house sat rotting at an intersection. I was amazed at how vibrant the blue paint still looked, until I realized it was plastic siding and would remain that vibrant long after the whole thing falls away.

Cell phone photo of chair and floor patterns at work.

Time Away II

A transplanted railroad booth in the parlor of Singer Castle (below), located on Dark Island in the Thousand Islands region on the St. Lawrence River and built by the president of the Singer sewing machine company.




Singer is also home to this flawed device. A person sitting on the stool would be shut up inside with hot water, which the many incandescent light bulbs would turn into a soothing steam bath. A soothing, sparking, electrically conductive death trap bath.

Over at Boldt Castle closer to the U.S. shores, this is the children's "playhouse":

The Flintstones-like design is great, and I like that it's the biggest, most ridiculous clubhouse imaginable. There appeared to be underground tunnels running into and around it, but the playhouse was unfortunately closed due to renovations.

Also at Boldt Castle:

Deer.


Deer.


Dear.

Time Away

The cabin we stayed in was one of only a few rustic homes around a semi-private small lake/large pond. There was no electricity, only gas-powered lights and a wood-burning stove for heat. It was a little too cold and drizzly to go out on the water, but it made for a serene scene.






On our first full day, we spent the morning at a petting zoo.



I'd just taken the above photo and was admiring it in-camera when I saw some quick motion out of the corner of my eye. I looked up to see Kseniya holding her head and looking dazed. Apparently the camel had mistaken her hair for hay and tried to grab a bite, but ended up headbutting her with his teeth. There were two big red marks just above Kseniya's forehead in the shape of rows of teeth, and a lump for a few days. Recreation of the aftermath, complete with oblivious camel:




At the end of the Wizard of Oz-themed corn maze, your reward was an awkwardly posed Dorothy and family in damp, weathered thrift store clothing. And one camel-chomped, traumatized friend of Dorothy.

We also bent space-time:




Hungry cow knows his boundaries (no human heads).


Uncle Sam, the softest bunny. Each one had its own little house, and you could reach in and pet it and pretend it was your hat.

View from Columbus Circle

It's hard to see in this cell phone photo, but in the view from the Time Warner conference center in Columbus Circle, all of these buildings look really two-dimensional, like cardboard cutouts stacked on top of each other. What I also like about them is the range of distinctive architectural styles, and the way you can almost pick out one building from each decade of the last century or so. You can very clearly see the 1920s, 40s, 60s, 80s, 90s, and today (the monochrome one just above the glass panels at the bottom, the new Museum of Arts and Design, opened last year).