2006: Typical J.P. and Earl.




Hamilton County.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I kicked off 2006 by taking a road trip. The temperature was in the mid 20s, there were snow flakes in the air, the only place we could go was into the Adirondack Mountains of course.

I started a New York State Counties project back in 2003 that went something like this. Being the big road geek that I am, I would get a picture of myself standing next to a county line marker for every county in New York. All 62 of them, including the five that include the five boroughs of New York. I never quite completed the project, so we had to make two stops in the Adirondacks to add to the collection.

I am a big geek. And I am very proud of that.

As we came back down out of the mountains through the city of Amsterdam, we stopped at one of our favorite diners, The Windmill Diner, because after all, nothing says “I love you” more than a snappy diner dinner for New Years Day.

It was absolutely delicious. The folks at the Windmill had a special menu for New Years and I ended up having prime rib au jus, complete with mashed potatoes, green beans, tossed salad, soup and roll and butter. I passed on the complimentary wine. Earl had roast pork with the same trimmings. It was fabulous!

We’ve also made this kicked-back weekend of ours a cinema experience. Last night we saw “The Family Stone”, which we both enjoyed very much. The movie is not as slapstick funny as the previews portrayed it to be and we found that to be a good thing.

Tonight we saw “Brokeback Mountain”. Earl says he was a little disappointed with the movie because he didn’t find it as emotionally engaging as he expected it to be. Personally, I loved the movie, but I’m a sucker for the scenery out west and for some good lookin’ cowboys.

Tomorrow is organization day so that we’re both ready to hit the ground running on Tuesday when we go back to work.

I have great feelings about 2006.