Writing

Corn dogs and cheeze fries, funnel cake, and explosions, oh my!

For all that I can be a bit down on Dayton every now and then, they do patriotism right on the 4th.  Which means a big street fair and fireworks show on or near the 4th.  The downtown show was on the 3rd this year, so we headed out with plenty of time to wander around the packed and cordoned-off streets, and stand in long lines for delicious and terribly bad for us food.  The cheeze fries were a bit of a disappointment, but the corn dogs and funnel cake were delicious.  My biggest complaint was how the organizers of the fair handled making sure people had something to drink.  The food vendors couldn’t sell beverages.  If you wanted something to drink, even if all you wanted was some bottled water, you had to go stand in line at one booth to buy drink coupons, and then you had to go and stand in another line at another booth to exchange the coupons for bottled water, or soda, or lemonade, or whatever.  Argh.  So, so, stupid… (Actually, the phrase that I used at the time was “this is so retarded”.)

Getting food and drink was about all that we could stand of the massive, seething, mass of humanity that had all piled downtown, so we headed over the bridge to secure a good viewing spot on the hill opposite the point where the fireworks are launched.

It was a good show as always.

All of the rest of the fireworks photos can be found on flickr.

We parked a little further out then we usually do, so we were able to get out and home much more quickly then ever before.  Not to self to remember for next year – a little extra walking to and from the car park equals a lot less time spent idling in neutral and waiting for someone to take pity and let you pull out of the lot and into the road.

On the 4th itself, oddly enough, we didn’t find a fireworks show anywhere close by, but then, we also didn’t look particularly hard either.  We played with sparklers and shot off bottle rockets in the backyard, and watched our neighbor’s mini-display from the back deck.

There will be more fireworks tonight in Centerville, at the high school.

one year ago today

One year ago today we had a small group of close family and friends over to watch us get married and help us celebrate.  I don’t think that it is a stretch to say that it was one of the best days of my life.  Looking back on that day… it was perfect.  There is not a single thing that I would change or do any differently.

One year ago tomorrow we got on a plane and flew to Maui, and the night we landed we drove up to the top of Haleakala to watch the sun rise.

on top of the world

This is our favorite picture of us together.  Some random stranger took it for us shortly after the sun rose over the cloud cover.  (Thank you random stranger, you did a great job!)  We’ll be back there someday.

Happy anniversary, John.  This has been an awesome year.

I love you!

forget-me-nots

Forget-me-nots are my favorite flower.

When I was working out what I wanted to do for my wedding bouquet and boutonnieres last year, I didn’t much care what other flowers were in it as long as I had forget-me-nots and the other flowers I picked looked good with them.  I didn’t think that it would be easy finding forget-me-nots at a florist (afterall, they are hardly a common bouquet flower) so I made sure that I had some in my garden that I could pick and use.

Since the weather abruptly changed from chilly and rainy to hot, sunny, and humid, John and I took a walk in the cox Arboretum to see what we could see.

Cabbage Rose

This is one of my favorite shots of the day.  I think that it is some kind of cabbage rose, but I admit that I am not 100% sure.

After the arboretum, we had daiquiris and played backgammon on the deck.  It was that kind of a day.

Why do we have to go to work tomorrow?

There is a bush right next to the front door that is some kind of lilac.  It smells wonderful, but is only in bloom for about a week in early spring.  Right now is at the very end of its flowering cycle.  I wish that I could find a perfume that smelled like this bush.

Lilac bush

Does the Nexus One have a nice camera?  Yes, it does.  My current mobile (Pantech Duo) has a shitty camera.  Even the cheap clamshell phone that I had prior to this one took better pictures.

As one does when one (or at least me) has a new camera to play with I ran around taking a lot of photos.  The plants, the house, the cats… lots of photos of the cats.  Mostly because they can’t really complain about the paparazzi treatment, all they can do is ignore me or walk away.

Merlin sitting on my desk chair

Dogwood blossoms

Lilac

Merlin at the window

They aren’t great photos, but they are fun photos.

There are more at my flickr site.

Don’t think, however, that if I got a Nexus One that I would abandon the DSLR.  Because I wouldn’t.  But I probably would start to take and post more photos on a daily basis because the Nexus One makes it so easy and quick to do so.

Percival with Jellybeans and Great-Grandma's Candy Dish

For Christmas this past year, my Grandma gave me one of her antique glass pieces.  This piece, in fact.  A yellow, covered candy dish that her mother (my great-grandmother) had owned and that my Grandma could remember being used around the house when she grew up.

I like antique glassware, and I like antique glassware that has a family story attached to it even more.

The dish is on display on my coffee table (the cats are very good about leaving it alone) and is usually filled with pistachio nuts.

When my folks visited last weekend, they brought John and I an Easter basket with Paska, Kolache, sausage, red horseradish, some chocolate, and a bag of pink and yellow and cream colored Jelly Belly jelly beans.

I decided that I wanted to be festive and put the jelly beans in the candy dish.  Then I decided that I liked the way that the late-afternoon light looked coming through the living room windows and shining on the glass, and decided to get out my camera.  Then Percival came by to see what was going on.

Too cute.

Here is one of the dish sans kitty.

Candy dish and jelly beans