wherein Liz leads a boring life (special photographic edition)

A spur-of-the-moment portrait of me and my friend Susan (on the left and the right, respectively) in front of my parents’ garage in New Jersey this morning, after we’d had breakfast at the Friendly’s on Rt. 124 in Morristown, admired her family’s new landscaping, and admired my parents’ new home improvements… like a paved driveway instead of a gravel patch that became a swamp every time it rained, back porch steps that aren’t broken, and a back sidewalk (from the garage to the house) that has steps and brick paving rather than slate paving and a section at a forty-degree pitch and thus will no longer actively attempt to kill anyone who sets foot on it in winter.

There were reasons my family got that house crazy cheap for its size, and the sunroom that was uninhabitable for two years after we moved in because of residual cat piss was only the most memorable. I am just saying.


( cut for photograph )

In other news, my drive back to Ithaca went smoothly, despite scattered areas of congestion. My parents have a stack of sleeping bags on their living room floor, plus another stack of pillows and towels on a nearby armchair. I have a bag full of mail to bring to Minnesota with me on Tuesday. I have also started packing for my vacation -- I made a list and I simply didn't bother to put away a bunch of the laundry I washed in Madison, but am keeping it in a basket until I know what else I need to fit into my suitcase.

And now to bed. :-)