Eric and I met this little toad while hiking at Breakneck Ridge last weekend. You know that saying about mountain weather - "If you don't like it, just wait fifteen minutes"? The same goes for the Hudson Valley. It was cloudy when we started our scramble up the rocks and by the time we hit the peak, it was in full monsoon mode. I mean pouring, torrential rain and gusting wind. I was soaked through. And an hour later while we were getting ourselves terribly misguided in the descent, it turned into a lovely golden afternoon. I learned some interesting things about the area - the KKK is in them thar hills, this season is going to be filthy with gypsy moth caterpillars, and Friendly's makes a mean sundae if you can put up with the screaming three year old at the booth across the way. Oh, and now I definitely know what I'm doing this summer.

I went to the Olafur Eliasson exhibit at the Tanya Bonakdar gallery in Chelsea today. He was the artist who did the expansive Weather Project at the Tate Modern in London. And here in New York I was amazed by the beauty - both physically and conceptually - of his experimentation with light and wave forms and optics in general. "The inverted mirror sphere" was this amazing chandalier inspired by the geodisiac architect Buckminster Fuller made of steel tubes, and steel and mirror plates.

The other piece that practically made me wet myself was "your negotiable panorama," which sported a circular pool of water in a circular room. I have no idea how he managed to just get that thin line to reflect in a circle around the room, but when you step over the bridge to get into the space, it sets off a ripple in the pool, which then reflects on the wall panorama. *Drool*