how long have i been sleeping?

Wooden Anniversary Gifts.

2010-07-09T02:54:00.002-04:00

So, here's something I can post here instead of there. Our wooden anniversary was in May. We bought each other wooden things. I bought Dan janggi, which is the Korean version of Chinese chess:

I posted about it on the Seoul blog because it's Korean. But Dan's gift to me was still on its international way, so it didn't make it into that blog. Instead, here it is.

Dan and I had long ago decided that he would buy me a new wedding band for our fifth anniversary. Weddings are stressful and figuring out my wedding band wasn't a top priority that Florida summer of 2005, so we ended up buying a ring that I haven't worn since just a year, maybe, after we were married. The fifth anniversary being the wooden one, we decided my replacement would be a wooden ring. We scoured Etsy and decided on Naturaleza Organic Jewelry. They allowed us to customize wood type, ring width, and style. The ring is so, so beautiful and exactly what we'd hoped it would be.

Packaged without plastic.

Stoked on it.

Amy and Marlon, who run Naturaleza, were wonderful to work with and obviously do fine work. I wish I wore more jewelry.

I'm 27 Now.

2010-04-26T09:00:00.001-04:00

Hey guys! I had a birthday and a birth week! I'm 27 now, but still committed not to feel old until I'm at least 60. Dan bought me amazing things that only South Korea could have provided for sale. And, because Saturday was Teresa's, a teacher at the school, birthday, I got to do group things to celebrate her birthday and just hang out with Dan (and dogs) on mine. I posted about our activities on the Seoul Blog but I haven't posted the presents yet.

On the first day of birth week, Dan got me a toule wearing sunflower.

On the second day of birth week, Dan got me a pair of KSocks.

On the third day of birth week, Dan got me a three pack of suction hooks, because he remembered that I wanted to hang my apron on the fridge.

On the fourth day of birth week, Dan got me Girls' Generation's 2econd Album.

On the fifth day of birth week, Dan got me a BPA-free travel mug from the Caribou Coffee in Sinchon.

On the sixth day of birth week, Dan got me a solar powered bobble head.

On my birthday, Dan got me this pop up card with a dog on it.

And a Smile Cup reminding me to "Keep Smile" along with the promise of tea and a present in the mail. He did such a good job, but this does not shock me because he is a good husband.

So here was my first cake, purchased from the vegan restaurant at which we lunched on Sunday. It was banana bread flavored. I always try to like banana bread, but I would never choose to eat it.

I blew out all 27 candles. I guess we are reaching the age when we should start getting those number shaped candles.

Here is my replacement cake, chocolate and amazing from the Sticky Fingers Bakery in the Shinsegae Department store. It was always our intention to get me a Sticky Fingers cake, but we were worried it wouldn't be open on Sunday, so we settled for the cake from Loving Hut Restaurant. Never settle, you guys, always go for the Sticky Fingers cake. I very much look forward to eating this cake for the rest of the week or longer or less long. And I think it's funny how Dan got his own cake out of my birthday.

Passover in Seoul.

2010-03-30T19:17:00.004-04:00

Last night was our second Passover Seder. It was just Dan and me here in our little Seoul apartment. We set up a low table (that we found in the trash across the street, score!) at which we reclined, baked things like Matzah and black bean (for which we subbed kidney beans to great effect) brownies in a toaster oven, and bought a rotisserie chicken from a local restaurant. And Dan read the Haggadah off of my mini computer. And it felt more like our own festival this year. My hope is that it becomes familiar but never rote. Both years I have noticed different things, been struck a little differently by the death (and resurrection) of a Savior. And both years we've gotten sugar drunk off of grape juice and giggled our way through "Echad Mi Yodea". I like it.

From my side, from Dan's side. We had to improvise a little. We used wasabi for Maror (instead of horseradish). Lucky Korean cuisine relies so heavily on little sides, as we had plenty of bowls for all the elements.

My Matzah this year was better than last year's. And I rolled it out with a paper towel roll and baked it in a toaster oven. That makes no sense. I think I might just get myself a toaster oven in real life when we move back to the states. It is so reliable.

Hand washing. There were several moments during our Seder and my preparations for it when I was halted by the ritual. The first was while making the stripes on the Matzah, being moved by the symbolism and the fact that I myself was wounding the bread. The second was during the hand washing. Something about the rhythm of washing three times each hand, or the sound of water splashing back into the bowl, about waiting your turn, sharing the experience, preparing for the meal.

Dan did a great job again with the Haggadah. During the explanation of the Matzah, reclining for each of the four cups.

Our candle in what was our one cup. We bought two more cups for the Seder, so now we are a three cup household.

Part of dinner. Kidney bean brownies on the left, more like brownie cake. It was really, really tasty. I can't imagine wasting time with flower on brownies ever again. Matzo Ball Soup with homemade vegetable broth. Latkes and chicken. We also had some deviled soy eggs.

I'd say it was a fine sophomore year for us. We should be pros by the time we have kids, and then we will have someone to run and find the Afikomen.

Dan's 26th Birthweek.

2010-03-14T21:51:00.001-04:00

I wasn't going to blog about not knowing how to blog in both places, but here I am making my disclaimer, because I truly don't know how to organize this. We did Dan's birthweek, and that doesn't really have much to do with Korea, but then we went to a Korean pop concert and Korean barbecue on his birthday, and that does have much to do with Korea. So, friends, I think I am going direct you elsewhere to read about the concert and dinner. Will that make you sad?

And then, I don't know when the next post on this blog will occur. My birthday maybe? Oh, I think we are going to try Passover again this year, and I'll put that here. I guess maybe no more than one blog a month on this one, really, if that.

We managed to have a mostly-fledged birthweek for Dan, considering it's only our second week in this country, and it meant I had to go to a shop (Family Mart) alone. Two Cherry Cokes for the second day.

For the third day, a stretch. I decided this could be symbolic of three cheeses, maybe? Dan said this tasted like parmesan string cheese.

On the fourth day, I made Dan 4 Korean Deviled Eggs (minus the Kimchi). All hard boiled eggs should be boiled in soy sauce.

For the fifth day, 50 grams of coffee covered peanuts. I did end up buying him all food items, because when I was in Family Mart, I was the only person in there, and I felt like I was sort of being watched by the cashier. As a result, I rushed my birthweek purchases.

On the fifth night we went and had Korean Pizza Hut. This is a Double Barbecue (but not like barbecue sauce) Cheesy Bites Fondue pizza. Pretty tasty.

Little chocolate filled crackers for the sixth day. I have no number six tie in.

And then, for Dan's birthday, we did these things, and he bought himself some sort of package deal of the new Josh Ritter album.

And that's the way it is.

Jet Lag is a Real Thing.

2010-03-01T22:08:00.005-05:00

I am struggling with awakedness. It's almost noon here, so almost 10 PM EST. That's not even that late, but I am sleepy. I am going to try to wake up with lunch, but I'm afraid I won't be very clever while so sleepy.

We have been here in Hapjeong-Dong (our neighborhood), Seoul (our city) for several days. We have slept a lot of that time. I have pictures still from Chicago, then I'll update the Seoul blog with some Korean Air and apartment pictures. Fun, dudes.

I made myself a schedule for the days so that I don't laze around and get sad about life. Technically I should be learning Korean right now, but my morning got happily turned around with a Skype from my family. As such, I might not get to my 1 o'clock knitting.

I had lots of pictures, so I grouped most of them. You're welcome. This was our view from our hotel in Chicago. Not a bad view.

This is Dan watching and laughing at Stephen Colbert's Olympic coverage. He told me not to post the laughing pic, but I like it when people laugh.

Dan making a face cause I asked him to.

I made Dan buy me these riding boots, because I am bossy. They are pretty boss themselves.

The elevators had different floors. Otis and h.

An extraordinary chicken for our American friend Lacy.

We ate some Mexican food at Su Casa. It got pretty poor Yelp.com reviews, but we liked it well enough. We didn't get what all the fuss was about.

Another day, another dining opportunity. Riding the escalator to the fancy Bandera Restaurant.

Dan got the Macho Salad, and I got the Veggie Burger, since reviewers had said it was the best veggie burger of their lives. It was pretty good, it's true.

There was this doll house on the way to the NBC building where we received our Visas.

Also over by the NBC building. I think those buildings on the left look like a popup book. I'm pretty sure that's the Chicago Tribune on the right.

Mini cloud gate?

We remembered this from our honeymoon. The Tribune Tower has stones in it from around the world. Apparently, "Prior to the building of the Tribune Tower, correspondents for the Chicago Tribune brought back rocks and bricks from a variety of historically important sites throughout the world at the request of Colonel McCormick."

They had a rock from Korea. We'll have to look that up. I suppose it could be in North Korea or also just really far away from us, but maybe if it's close enough, we'll go to that.

Outtake.

We stayed in the Hotel Cass, now a Holiday Inn.

Contrasts of Dan's personality. Sometimes he is such a dude. Other times, he wears a purse. Just kidding, you guys. That is my purse.

We ate dinner at that there CND Gyros. And on the left is more of the Bloomingdale's building.

So that's the last of our American lives. I'll go post on the Seoul blog. I'll still post stuff here that isn't appropriate for the other blog. Cool, cool. I'm sleepy.

I Don't Know How to Pronounce Chi-Town.

2010-02-25T13:52:00.001-05:00

We are here in Chicago, doing walks and watching Olympics and refusing housekeeping and eating free breakfasts. Even being harassed by street preachers after we told him we already believed in Jesus. I refused to repeat after him his vision, so my straight and narrow, he informed me, was about four steps long. I think his prophesy for me is condemnation? Oh well. Dan had his Visa interview on Tuesday. The second question he was asked was about Tiger Woods. He thinks he answered correctly. But really, the interview is just a formality, and we should be picking up our Visas today at 3:30. ! So we should be flying to South Korea tomorrow. !

Yesterday we failed at public transit and walked for a real long time to Salvation Army to buy a suitcase in which to store 20 excess pounds from two of our suitcases so we don't have to pay out them dollar bills. After we got back from Salvation Army, we rested for a bit and then decided to go out and buy some coats. I don't know, I got nervous that I hated my coat and that I wouldn't be able to buy one in Korea, and Dan needed a better hoodie. It's not a real problem. That's true. It was fun, because we stopped by our Honeymoon Hotel, the Palmer House Hilton, to ask the concierge for directions to a Mexican restaurant.

Here's a video Dan made of our coat trip.

I like the sky when I fly, and here is its sunrise.

Too many cloud pictures.

I know.

This cloud has a shadow!

That's all.

If there is a fire at your bum, you should run from it.

Speaking of fires. We tried to make coffee the first night. It should be said that our hotel room is the tiniest thing. So tiny it is that we had to wheel the coffee cart into the bathroom to an available outlet. We feel this is adequate preparation for a Korea studio apartment, though, and we are thankful for that acclimation. Oh, but fires because we burnt the coffee while somehow managing not to brew it all, which is why we've never made coffee in a hotel room before. Today we just had some coffee at the breakfast bar.

Trump's tower and stacked buildings.

Obstructed sky line walking to Salvation Army.

Less obstructed. And that truck doing one of my favorite winter things: flipping snow off its roof.

Doolin's ain't foolin' around.

Thrift store.

Dan with the cam.

I think this is a pretty fair artistic expression of how shopping feels to Dan.

This is obviously a manatee! For real, isn't it? Overstuffed pantyhose water dweller.

Old hoodie.

A lunch break on our way home from Salvation Army. We had bus troubles on our way to the thrift store. We didn't realize that the streets are announced as they are passed, so we requested a stop after our street was announced and didn't realize until several stops later that we had missed it. We didn't try the bus again after that.

Dan is teaching me to have my picture took.

This is a Bloomingdale's. We think it used to be a mosque or something Jewish maybe? Am I racist since I don't know?

For dessert.

New hoodie. Immediately after we purchased our warm things, we put them on in the double door area at the front of the store. Dan was pulling this on himself which revealed to me the back:

At which point I said, "Uh, Dan, did you see the back of this thing?" He had not seen it. Haha. It's not that bad. I mean, people wear the Union Jack. It's just funny because he chose this one over a hoodie that had a much smaller icon printed on the front.

So we're off soon to get our Visas. Hope this all works out.

It's a Village, Not a Wharf.

2010-02-20T21:34:00.009-05:00

I have been showing Dan all the sights. Of this retirement wasteland. We have been eating sushi every Sunday at Sakura Buffet. We've been to the Port Charlotte Town Center (Mall) probably at least three times. What else, what else? Gooey butter cakes (name misleading). Other things. And now a thing to add to that list of other things: Fisherman's Village, which Dan kept calling "the Wharf". It's weird how memories come back, because I had totally forgotten that my church's teen choir performed there once until we walked past the stage. Weird.

This is blurry because I got nervous that the elderly would bristle and vocalize about a camera pointing whippersnapper.

Boats. Dan and I looked into buying a yacht, and then we laughed about life. Oh that joie de vivre!

Checking out some books. I feel like something funny happened while we were in that bookstore, but now I can't remember it.

A pirate, obviously and naturally.

We ate at Harpoon Harry's...

...with its weathered buoys...

...and its shellacked map tables and its on-the-river ambiance and its proximity to nature and that bird that flitted around under tables snacking on french fries, then up to the rafters to my left where it POOPED ON THE FLOOR, then to the rafters on my right where it POOPED ON OUR TABLE. For real. It happened. Two poop soaked attacks of psychological warfare. Stupid birds.

Dan deciding poorly on a mussels steam pot that sort of looked like toilet water and pasta. I don't mean to be so mean to Harpoon Harry's. I got a crab cake sandwich (and learned that I am, in fact, allergic to crab, oops, more than milk but less than shrimp, so no dying ensued) and fries, and I found both to be very satisfactory, gustatorily speaking.

Making this face.

Making that face.

And then I got preoccupied by the toilet. I appreciated that the stainless steel fixtures were in keeping with the theme, but then there's that part where you have to sit on a stainless steel toilet.

Ooh, fancy photo op.

And a different kind of photo opportunity, too: to practice photo stitching, which I had never before attempted but accomplished with the Windows 7 version of MS Paint. Maybe I will try this more often and with more proficiency, especially since my primary shooting lens is a fixed length.

We had coffees at the Ornery Attitude. I think the owner played up his orneriness for show, but he did keep an aggregated board of customer's stupid questions. My question for them was not stupid, but was thus: "Can you do iced Americano?" And every time I have asked that question here in this southwestern little fat point of Florida, I have been met with apprehension and aimless execution. This time, the ornery told his wife to fill the cup with water, add espresso, drop in some ice. The result was fair, but not fine. I likened it to an iced Americano tea.

But advances are being made in our Charlotte County coffee search. This morning, Dan and I stopped by Hava Java Grill in Port Charlotte, and I asked, "Can you do iced Americano?" And they could did. And they suggested English Toffee syrup because they were without Hazelnut, and it was delightful and tasteful and awesome (because awful is something otherwise). So much did I like this Hava Java that I yelped it.

Also today, Dan played paint ball for the first time non-virtually. And I think he quite enjoyed it. And we learned that Wal-Mart carries shoes and pants in his size (we had to buy him last-minute paint ball gear because we had not anticipated such an activity when packing for a move from Cincinnati to Korea). It was the only Wal-Mart trip I can remember that didn't culminate in defeated despondence (and words with four letters).

Florida Sunrise.

2010-02-19T09:43:00.001-05:00

I have been getting up at 6:40 every Florida day to have breakfast with my dad. This morning it looked like this:

Through the front door.

And they have stars here! In the sky!

Uncategorized.

2010-02-17T20:49:00.002-05:00

Dan bought me flowers and a dog Valentine so I would cry over missing Tater.

We spent some of today taking pictures of used cars my parents are selling (at their shop, not at their house). This is Dan checking out the "custom interior" in a conversion van that he pretended to want for a hot minute.

Achieving the Impossible.

2010-02-17T00:00:00.002-05:00

My mother told me to blog Bob Costas, so I am doing it for her. I mentioned to her that I thought she might not understand blogging, that you can't really blog someone, that Bob Costas is not going to read this. Even still...

Dear Bob Costas,

Re: "It's impossible not to like [Lindsey Jacobellis]". I have done this so-called impossible.

Sincerely,

Serenity

Love Beach.

2010-02-14T16:53:00.003-05:00

Dan and I almost got engaged at the water's edge in Kissimmee, Florida. We had previously exchanged Valentines at a park with a bog. On that day we heard a boy shout "Yahoo!" without referencing the website. So Dan tried to take me back to that park and engage me but the wind was so windy and it was making it too chilly to stay outside, and I made him let us leave. Too bad for Dan. All that to say that we went to the Port Charlotte Beach today on Valentine's Day. Anytime anyone knows I'm from Florida, they always enthuse how I'm so close to the beach! But the beach I grew up minutes from was never fit for beach activities. Having visited it today in my adulthood, though, I wonder if that was a line fed us youngsters to keep us from asking to go the beach. Meaning, it didn't seem all that bad. But I mentioned it to my dad after we got home, and he told me that they've cleaned it up a lot. Or maybe he was sustaining the subterfuge.

I have oft remarked that I find it hard to keep my eyes open in the Florida sun, as I am prone to migraines and light sensitivity. Dan usually scoffs at me. I am posting this picture (and subsequent pictures in which he struggles to keep his eyes open) as a subtle revenge.

Check out them palms.

Dumb birds. The first blog I ever wrote (on Xanga, though I pulled my archives over to Blogger) was about these types of birds...and their propensity to poop on people and the power they weild because of that.

Peace River's Charlotte Harbor.

Pick your poison. Dan claimed that he would jump off this dock in the summertime, even though it is prohibited. Easy for him to say since we're leaving the country.

Dear bird, please do not poop on me.

This is my fave blanket. It's Alpaca. I am taking it to Korea. Dan's brother just randomly got it for me when he was in Peru years ago. I think it's cause, at the time, he didn't know me well enough to get me something else. But, turns out he knew me perfectly without knowing me at all, because I love it so. (Soliloquy: My cousin's daughter Willow and I were having a conversation about Disney princesses and Disney in general, really, how she wished to grow up and live there, how she was filling a money jar and maybe they would accept that one day as payment and let her live there and do whatever she wants. I told her she could grow up and work at Disney World, that Dan himself did so, and she was all, "No, I don't want to work". So we were talking about our favorite princesses, and hers is Cinderella, and I said that Snow White was my fave, and she looked up at me and said in seven year old kid voice, "Your favorite?" and it was real cute.)

I went over there and gave them birds what for.

But I know my limitations, so I walked away while I was ahead.

Dan is a little more dignified than I.

Sand in grooves.

Usually the water is filled with junk like this stuff. Truly, though, most of the beach was pretty clear.

Pyramids.

I am laughing in the face of Dan's closed eyes.

Big fat leafs.

Water quality info. When it is not safe to swim, it tells you so in red letters like red tide.

Perch.

That Florida Rain.

2010-02-12T15:57:00.008-05:00

Dan and I are leaving for South Korea from Atlanta on February 24. My mom said it's like setting a date for a wedding, how it makes it finally seem real. And it's true. I posted on the Seoul Blog our schedule. I'm not sure how I'm going to keep from double-blogging everything, so click over there when I link to it so I don't have to.

We've been hanging out here in Florida, watching cable television, drinking too much soda because we're spoiled by Ohio tap water, putting together the packaging for our CDs. They should go out in the mail tomorrow, so be on the lookout for your local mail carrier. Our various pieces (outer sleeve, inner sleeve, CDs) came via three separate UPS packages, and the UPS guy delivered them completely differently each time. The first package was put in a plastic garbage bag and nestled in some palm shrubs at the end of my parents' paved driveway (the substantial rest of the driveway is unpaved), the second time it was on the paved driveway, not in a bag, and the third time he delivered it to the front door, but he didn't knock or alert us to his presence. It was pretty weird and inconsistent.

I and my mother cleaned the P.T. for four hours one day. Also known as detailing. This is some asphalt at my parents' body shop.

Punta Gorda palm tree.

A gas walker. When a regular walker isn't cutting muster.

We drove up to Kissimmee earlier this week to see Becca Reed and Crystal Hutcheson. After eating mediocre but $40 bbq for lunch, which included gator tail, we killed time at Austin's Coffee. This was the sky on our way to FCC.

After dinner at BJ's Brewery, we went to Starbucks so I could coffee for dessert (everyone else shared Pizookie because they are luckier than me). We made fun faces for a while. That's just what fun, flirty young adults do for pastimes.

Dan's over-exuberant fun face. It was at this point that Becca started documenting the outing. Photo by Becca Reed.

And obligatory smizing. Dan is, like, the smize champion. Photo by Becca Reed.

Crystal's fun face. Photo by Becca Reed.

Apparently all Johnsons make over-exuberant fun faces. Photo by Becca Reed.

Ringed fingers sequence. Mine. Photo by Becca Reed.

Crystal's. Photo by Becca Reed.

Dan's. Photo by Becca Reed.

At one point Becca was titling them aloud as they were happening. "One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure." My trash. I don't know whose treasure. Photo by Becca Reed.

I can't remember what this one's title was. Maybe "Life's Good" seeing as how Crystal's phone was made in our new homeland. Photo by Becca Reed.

Florida hair. Photo by Becca Reed.

This was breakfast today. Eggs in the basket. I don't get why I've never cooked eggs inside of toast before.

Our lunch today. 2 for $1 hot dogs at Circle K. Don't hate like you can't relate.

Sitting Around Gets a Bad Rap(port).

2010-02-05T14:58:00.002-05:00

Dan and I have had two days sitting around. I don't know, I'm not sick of it yet. Right now we are watching Kitchen Nightmares on my brother's 72" TV (we are estimating that figure based on the fact that it is slightly more than two of our TV). We hung out in downtown Punta Gorda all morning, and it was pretty cute. I know no one reading this (other than my PUs) really knows anything about Punta Gorda, but it was surprisingly pleasant to walk around and eat in the little historic downtown area. The weather has been deceitfully cool. So deceitful it was that we ate our grinders from Big D's Chicago Eatery outside. I know no one reading this really knows how much I hate dining outdoors, but it was surprisingly pleasant (and even my own idea!). Dan kept saying how he wouldn't mind living in one of The Residences at The Sunloft Center. I gently reminded him that it is February right now and a relatively dry 80 degrees. You all do the math, cause I ain't got no calculator.

Tennessee was foggy on our drive down. I do like that fog. We should have recognized this as a clever foreshadowing of woes to come. In particular, the PT's inability to drive past Lenoir City without needing a new Cam Sensor. SO AWESOME!! No, not awesome. We spent two hours sitting in the Dodge customer's lounge with three snacking grammar school students and their lone parent. They were actually pretty well behaved, aside from the gummy sneaking.

Other than this serendipitous fog, my favorite part of driving to Florida from Cincinnati has always been Kentucky's melty icicle display.

Dan and I never stay in the classiest places, it's true (though we learned our lesson early on with ye olde Scottish Inns). This notice made me sad. Why would anyone use the hotel's washcloth on his car? It's like when we walked out of King's Island past the kid trying to sell the welcome photos, and, after countless thwarted attempts at memory making he defeatedly mumbled something like, "That's okay, just ignore me", and it made my heart sick for him.

Punta Gorda represent! And Dan with his Spencer Pratt hair. In truth, this plaque was not that interesting to read.

As an aside, we devoted a fair amount of time on the drive down perfecting our "I want Heidi to myself!" pantomimes. Also on the ride down, we saw a billboard for some den of debauchery whose tag was, in quotes "Need we say more?". And so we kept quoting that about absurd things. Like, such as, we would say, "Fried chicken. (air quotes) Need we say more?". I just thought you should know.

I would like to get into this club, because, in my life, turtles are the new cows.

Eating outside at Big D's. After Big D's, we drove down Tamiami to Pies & Plates because "No visit to Punta Gorda is complete without a gooey butter cake from Pies & Plates!" I've lived my whole life having never completed a visit to Punta Gorda, until now. And the gooey butter cake, flavor: chocolate peanut butter, was quite delicious.

Forever with this face! So often do I make this face that I made it even on my wedding day. Oh, self.

Anyhow.

We had a coupon for BOGO mini pecan pie. 89 cents, okay, and mini to be sure. But Dan found it to be quite satisfactory. I don't really like pecan pie. Once I made myself throw it up like spinach because I am the youngest.

In case you were wondering what makes Bonnie the awesomest, I present to you this Bahamian souvenir from her to me. A gourd and string turtle toy...

...whose function is to blow everyone's minds. When you release the string, see, the turtle runs away. We played it with Tater a couple of times, and, while he was terrified as is Tater's way (to the point that he was afraid of Abraham's car seat because it rocked a couple of times), he stopped it with his pounced paw, and it was the cutest.

Also, I got to eat at Luigi's last night, and it was good as ever. Maybe even gooder.

Also, also, here in Florida, Dan and I saw a spider try to conquer a wasp. The wasp crawled away, though, and the spider retreated to his web. It was pretty creepy but very scientific.

Down Time.

2010-02-04T16:57:00.005-05:00

We made it to Florida, which means we managed to pack up our house, quit our jobs, get Dan the right background check with attached Apostille, and drop off our dog. So now we are just sitting around at my parents' house waiting to hear about our VISAs. Dan is playing some racing game on my brother's ridiculous TV, and I am watching some Netflix, because I am so smart and I changed the address on our account for the next two weeks.

I have old pictures. I am going to dump them here. You will like it.

These are my silver kicks with Koala laces. Pretty cool. I made my mom buy these shoes when I was in high school, because she hated them, and I am a shock jock. I wore them to the last birthday get together with Dan's family.

Dan's cousin Allison with baby Ella. They had matching socks.

Dan's cousin Luke with baby Annie (not to be confused with grown Annie who has a baby of her own).

Ella working it out with the toys and stuff.

Dan's uncle Dave with baby Abe.

Good luck cake from Dan's mom.

Baby Annie handling dessert.

Abraham's goodbyes.

Secure.

Abraham and Annie.

Last dinner date. We went to Riverside Korean Restaurant for practice with Lacy and Justin.

Our banchan. Tasty things like seafood salad, Kimchi, pickled radish, dry radish, spinach salad, and pears.

Lacy's Bibimbap with egg mixed in at the table. Fancy.

Dan ate squid.

I ate beef in a cow skillet. Bulgogi. Yum.

Dinner friends.

Pretty much this was the week of Lacy and Justin. We had Korean dinner with them and then they came with us to Columbus on our second attempt at procuring a properly Apostilled background check.

Per Lacy's request, we photographed each other photgraphing each other.

Some building.

We went to Cuppy's Coffee serving Impero roasted coffee. I feel somewhat traiterous to Coffee Emporium admitting that Cuppy's/Impero provided me my most favored iced American with hazelnut to date. But Coffee Emporium's was my first, so I will never forget it.

Streets of Columbus. Have I said here how I really like that Columbus?

So, this is at Dirty Frank's. It is Hall & Oates, and they are being creeps. Dan wanted me to take a picture.

Deciding.

Reviewing.

Pictures in the hallway before our dogs came out.

Dan is way better at looking off in the distance than I am. I always look too far, I think.

Trying to take pictures in this mirror.

Being bad at it.

Dan's hot dog and tater totchos.

Fancy Red Bull tab.

I went to see Bonnie one last time. The drive was miserable! No one would go the speed limit, and then I got stuck behind this hay bale guy.

Snowscape.

Skyscape.

Bonnie took me to Concannon's Pastry Shop, and I didn't get a good picture because I got nervous. Anyhow, they have peanut butter cream doughnuts. It is the only doughnut you will ever need to eat again.

And I would eat it again right now.

We drove to Illinois to eat at Yoder's Kitchen, and it was worth the drive.

And here's the last of the lasts. Our last visit with baby Abraham.

Sometimes crying.

Sometimes balling.

Tater wanting to know who was making all the fuss.

Having been pacified.

Sleepy.

Baby hand signs.

This is my dog.

We can't hang out for a while. It's lame.

I lied. This is the last of the lasts. Final Scattergories SMACKDOWN tally. Dan and Lacy were great contenders. I just straight up lost to everyone.

Cool. So now we are just waiting to get over to Korea. Pretty crazy, you guys.

Last Game Night.

2010-01-24T15:32:00.007-05:00

We often get together with a like-minded group of Dan's old classmates to play board games and eat foods off of coffee tables, an initiative spearheaded by Lacy "L-Bomb" Pez. It's a total gas, and it somehow magically enables me to circumvent my nine o'clock narcolepsy to stay awake late enough to prove myself a young adult.

Last night was Dan's and my last Game Night before we leave for Seoul (although I think we are going to try to get in at least one more round of Scattergories SMACKDOWN in an effort to bring down Dan's reign of Scattergories supremacy). As such it will be our last Game Night for a year unless we really do Skype in. We played several rounds of Aneurysm Catchphrase with a different winner each time, I think, which is always nice and fair, Whoonu? with likes and with dislikes, two rounds of Cranium: Boys Against Girls with a win for each team, and Taboo, at which the girls completely dominated. The nice thing about playing Cranium is that you always learn really useful facts, like how the male fox is called a dog.

It all started when Lacy made this face at me, which I clearly was not prepared to capture. She, wearing the "Don't Tag Me In This Photo" shirt Dan and I got her for Christmas. (Parents: This refers to Facebook photos, in which you can "tag" your friends so they and others know when pictures of them have surfaced on Facebook. If there is a particularly embarrassing photo of yourself, you can "un-tag" it.) Also, here is how you know if someone is a good friend: You are allergic to milk and your friend tricks you, and, without telling you so you can't refuse, specially buys you a milk-free meal (Chipotle), while everyone else shares frozen pizzas.

We kept getting Sideshow cards during Cranium which require one team member to act as puppet and another as puppeteer. Justin kept playing puppet opposite Jeff (which makes Justin a very good sport). Dan and I decided this was in support of the clue model, which just so happened to be a Club Cranium!. It seems like an awful lot of the Sideshow cards are Club Craniums!.

Lacy being the model for the girls' team. Rachel being Janice Dickinson (Tyra Banks?) I don't know, like bossing the model around? Does the analogy hold?

Dan made me post this picture. This was right after they were done modeling. Cranium can be very taxing. Also, in this picture, Lacy is reminding me of Ruthie from One Big Happy, and it makes me like her even more.

Danny (Rachel's husband) and Jeff using their noggins (some might go so far as to say their craniums [rib, rib]).

Another Sideshow. Carolyn (Jeff's wife) manipulating Micah (Lacy's co-worker and an expert at inside jokes) into puppet show. How meta and completely unfair of you, Cranium! No one is going to guess that the clue is the category.

Making such a valiant effort.

The posture of Taboo. Poised for buzzing.

Dan and I have so much enjoyed these game nights and plan to make seamless re-entry in 2011.

The Kindness of Co-Workers.

2010-01-22T20:17:00.003-05:00

Today was my last real day at work. I am working half days next Monday through Thursday to help train my replacement. The girls in the office threw me a going away party, and it was really nice. I knew they'd cook food, but I didn't realize they were going to give me presents, and they ended up giving me really thoughtful ones.

Two knitting magazines, Living in South Korea (subtitled "How to Feel at Home, Make Friends and Enjoy Everyday Life". Isn't that so cute?), and Etiquette Guide to Korea. I have already read the "Eating Dog" note in the living book, also about how singing rooms are like karaoke bars and karaoke bars might not exactly be just for karaoke: "(they) are upscale establishments staffed by women who, for a fee, will service every wish of the male clientele." (Whyte and Kim 56) !

Oh, and they also got me a cookie cake that read "Good Luck Serenity!" If every day could have been like going away party days, I probably would have liked my job more.

Dan and I set up a dedicated Korea blog for friends and family: 52 Weekends in Seoul. True story.

And, in the end, Dan and I are in conflict over our divisive loyalties to Lauren (me) and Audrina (him), because anytime I Netflix any show for myself, Dan always ends up being more interested in it.

Two unrelated pictures:

Is it weird that this makes me cry? Have you seen the new Dominos commercials in which they discuss their ambitions to change their product and make people like them?

My dog on my leg. Maybe one day soon I will post the video of him barking at a video game character on the tv. It's pretty cute.

I'm Behind.

2010-01-15T23:56:00.004-05:00

I'm really behind on pictures. We had a real snow here, which means Tater in the snow pictures. I've been working half days at work this week, because I suddenly discovered that I have 6 days of unused vacation time to work out in the next two weeks. Pretty much half days is the way people were meant to work. I get to come home after lunch and hang out with my dog and pack up my house and watch a Netflix and take a total of one nap/week. Every day I got home, Tater was like, "Oh. You're here? That's weird", and then he would be glad to see me. He's pretty cool. I am working four full days next week, and then finishing up with four half days after that. So boss with my boss at my work working out out the door--peace.

Okay, look at all these snow pictures and Dan's and my trip to Columbus to procure an Apostille on his background check and eat fancy hot dogs at Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace.

Super stoked!

Digging.

Classic Tater.

Snowliage.

Tater found his frisbee under the snow.

He struggles with the flying disc.

Classicker Tater with the ear.

I'm too sleepy to think of awesome things to say.

This is from a separate snow outing. This time with Dan and with Coffee Emporium. I left my drink here on our steps to stay chilled.

Starting our snwalk.

Leaf left.

Salt and snow.

We discovered somewhat recently a field at the end of our street wherein Tater can run free without running away. We played here when it was green out and we took him back for a romp in the snow. Romp doesn't only have lascivious connotations, does it? Because all I mean is that we ran around and things.

My fam.

This is where we took our Christmas card picture.

See? (Side note: I notice that I always vacillate between 500 pixels and 600. Maybe I should make up my mind?)

Ground.

Cherries. I ate one of these when it was not yet ripe, and now they are rotted. I missed my cherry purloining window.

Foots.

Carrying a big stick.

Being all golden.

Blown out.

Better.

Tree.

Boo. My hair is better than that.

Dog fight.

Clapping at my pup.

Running like a nerd. I know better than that. I've played softball, my dad taught me how to run. I have betrayed his honor.

Dog.

Doesn't he seem like such a real dog fetching sticks?

The woods.

Icicles for kicking.

Snow plow. I don't think I get how these work.

Intermittently, I knit this laptop cover for myself. It's like those iPod socks they were selling for a time. In fact, now that I have Dan's old iPod Nano, the one we washed and dried in the laundry that didn't work but works again now after a year of drying out and getting over it, I should knit myself an actual iPod sock. Anyhow, 2x1 ribbing and a mixture of stockinette and garter stitch.

Buttoned.

And un.

Knit.

Purl.

Leftover wooden buttons. I have found great uses for these.

Hey, who is that grandbaby? On Thursday we went over to Dan's dad's for a dinner with all of Dan's siblings. Ben made a ridiculous load of food for fajitas, and we ate until we were sleepy. Probably there were some vegan ice cream sandwiches. Very tasty.

On our way to Columbus.

There is more snow left there than in Cincinnati. We're pretty much completely melty by now.

We got one of these.

And one of these. Apparently it is very important that Dan not have a criminal record. So, you guys, now all of our paperwork has been sent to Seoul, and we are ready to wait for our VISAs. We got that boom, boom, pow. You know? (Note to Dan: read that in the right voice.)

Blue wall.

Dirty frankfurters.

A variety of dogs. We didn't but we should have tried the Seoul dog. What is wrong with us? At least we made up for it by taking Korean lessons on the way home. We listened to a dialogue exercise on an iPod app Dan downloaded. It was all very informative and reminded me of the Paco videos from high school Spanish class (with the mochila and los lápices y un bolígrafo...).

Mine. Fried leeks (good idea), BLT, and the Fancy Pants with sweet gherkins and dijon mustard. Were I to return, I would try the Amy's Big Boston Dog with baked beans on it. Yum.

Dan's. The Original Onions with cream cheese, chives, and onions. Also, the Sonoran with bacon and refried beans, etc. Macaroni and cheese with sport peppers.

Street lamp and fire escape.

Quality. Columbus seems cool. It is way more downtowny than Cincinnati. As in, there were actual people walking down the streets. I like cities.

Some circular building.

Dispatch.

We tried to find a vegan bakery on the fly, and I thought I recognized this place, Piece of Cake, as a bakery a friend mentioned on Facebook. No matter anyway, as it was closed by the time we circled around.

Hey, guys, I need someone to talk to about Heidi Montag and her new face. She's obviously not well, and I need to lament it with someone of like mind and spirit. Everyone online is just being mean.

On Parents and Long Weekends.

2010-01-04T11:26:00.010-05:00

My parents are better than your parents. I don't care who you are. Because would your parents install a new shower wall for you on New Year's Eve? Doubtful. And would they fix two panes of glass in your front door? No. And would they replace the screen on your side door? Obviously not.

But now they are back in Florida, and that makes me sad. Dan and I made the mistake of seeing Everybody's Fine with Robert De Niro on Saturday. It was a mistake because my parents had just gone home and it made me cry a lot, but the movie itself we enjoyed.

Also on Saturday, Dan and I got our respective hairs cut. He has to keep groomed for South Korea, and we have to take pictures for our VISA applications, so I figured I'd just get my hair cut, too. I got 13 inches cut off, dudes. That's a lot of inches. That's gotta be a whole Locks of Love wig, on the real. So, pictures of that and my parents and Dan's last night as a Koala Fire are below the cut.

Dad re-screening. I didn't even ask them to do it, but that's just how much better they are than your parents.

Mom scraping off old glass putty.

Tater surveying. When my parents are around we turn the heat on, and it's like living in America for a week. I think Tater hopped up on the radiator one day when it was hot, and he wasn't expecting it, and he got scared. So I had to ease him back into this standing at the window sill.

She's not like a regular mom, she's a cool mom.

Bonnie was here for New Year's Eve and day, and I was showing her my reverse mount adapter. These are my sleep pants. Can you believe it?!

Tater on my sleep pants. Can you believe it?!

Pup.

Bonnie used her coffee cuff almost immediately because she is a good friend, and White Castle makes good coffee.

Talking of White Castle. I asked for sugar for my small coffee (well, Dan asked. I do not do things requiring so much bravery, like talking at drive-thru workers). Our drive-thru attendant dumped one heaping handful in the center of our cup carrier and followed it immediately with another. Typically I take two sugars at most. Now we have this many at our disposal. But it is good, because I will use it for my teas at work, and I will no longer have to guesstimate a teaspoon.

This is my dad.

People like to chat me about my knitting album on Facebook. Sometimes, though, I knit things out of plastic bags and this is how they turn out. A necklace or a crown (or refuse). My mom modeled it for me. I think, somehow, it works on her. Am I wrong?

Best dog alive, and we have him!

Licking chip dip off his face! Haha.

Haircut.

I wanted to show my parents my caulking (I caulked the shower wall after they'd hung it). Is this how it's meant to look? I feel like this looks really good (but it doesn't all look this good, I will confess).

Cincinnati from Newport, Kentucky. Before Dan's last show as a Koala Fire on the coldest night of the year in a venue with no heat (Aside: It was the week of indoor cold for us, so we fear we might be cursed. We played a show on Tuesday, and the heat took its sweet time kicking in but was nice and toasty when it arrived. And then, yesterday we went to hear Russ Howard preach, because it is a boon to my soul, and the heat in the YMCA at which they meet was broken for the morning). It was the most miserable 6 hours of my life as far as body temperature is concerned. And I behaved very grumpily, regrettably so, but I think Dan forgave me. Other than freezing alive, I quite enjoyed the music played. A band called The Guitars opened, and I was surprised to have an opinion about them, as I am usually not very much into music. My opinion was favorable, and the drummer reminded me of Jonah Hill, and that made me laugh. But also, I thought the Koala Fires played exceptionally well, and it was a sad but satisfying end to this part of Dan's life.

Merchandise. Corrie Loeffler made that heart plush, and it is a remarkable thing. A thing that I want for my own.

Dan during sound check. To his left is a baritone sax player. How Beach Boys of those Koala boys.

Matt during sound check.

Droppin' those beats like will.i.am.

So our kids will believe us when we say their dad was in a band.

Phonograph records.

This wall is historic.

Performing.

Pretending it's not cold.

Shredding.

Singing.

Haircuts!

Friends!

Faces!

And then this. Why does my face look like that? I usually excel at pulling faces.

Family! Tater gets real confused when we pick him up.

Letting sleeping dogs lie.

So that's the end of that. In the mean time, Dan and I are working on our paperwork for Korea. We tried to get some photobooth pictures taken for our VISAs, but the freaking mall we went to had two broken machines and one really, really crap ink-jet printer disguised as photobooth. So. I guess we will just take some pictures ourselves and print them at Walgreen's or some such establishment. And Dan's working on getting a background check with an Apostille sealed upon it. And other than that, we hope to FedEx all the accumulated documents to Korea on Thursday. Things are happening.

Merry Christmas, Bonnie.

2010-01-01T02:22:00.001-05:00

Bonnie is here now, and I've given her her knitted Christmas gift so I will show pictures. We decided we should be friends who make each other Christmas gifts, starting next year (she didn't have time to make me something this year). My parents have completed their gift of self and shower wall, and I love them for both things (and many more, duh). Parents are good. They both even made it til 12 (well, my dad woke up for it anyway). Mom even just now went to bed at 2:11 after having watched Bolt on instant Netflix.

So, pictures of Bonnie's Snowflake Coffee Cuff in Ravenclaw yarn, because I keep forgetting she's Gryffindor.

I even got an extra Starbucks cup at the Kroger to package it tidily. I asked the barista for a clean cup, too, and she thought I meant that I just wanted my drink in a clean cup, and that confirmed for me that I am not fit for public outings during which I am expected to speak things out loud at people to whom I am not related.

Felted in my washing machine (hot cycle, some dish soap, and jeans and a towel for added agitation). I actually had to felt it twice, the first time I cut down the rolled edges, the second time I trimmed up the fuzz off the felt. Felting is fun and always seems sort of miraculous.

Bonnie, feel free to wear it as a fashionable arm cuff.

Anyhow, a reusable coffee cuff is pretty green, so I have given a gift to both Bonnie and Mother Earth (and she should repay me with a hefty snow haul tomorrow).

Winter Time.

2009-12-31T15:04:00.010-05:00

I am working on a list of the most interesting/accessible blogs that I read. This means sifting through 357 blogs in various states of abreastedness. Until that is complete, though, I have some pictures. They include snow, newborn nephews, and knitted Christmas presents.

I made the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret from Ravelry for my fine friend Becca Reed. This is when Dan tried to take a picture of it on me for posterity. It is not his fault this picture is ridiculous. It is my own.

And the lighting in our bedroom is horrible for picture taking.

So I went in the bathroom and took pictures of myself. The latter to check for slouchability. Satisfactorily slouchy.

Cables. It was the first time I've really knit cables.

1x1 ribbing on the end.

Top.

It snowed! But only just. And these guys were hanging out on the radiator while it happened.

Pretty.

Grass and walks are still visible. Lame snow. But it is supposed to snow (I just spelled that sknow at first) some more tonight, hopefully more substantially.

Barely an inch!

Present pile. No tree.

We had my parents and Eric and Melissa Herendeen over on Christmas Eve. These are the place settings.

My GRAMMA mug, containing my mom's last minute punch concoction of Ginger Ale and Crystal Light. Not bad. Is it dumb that I want to take this mug to Korea? Or would it only be dumb if I actually did?

Fondue appetizer. What a pain fondue can be! We apparently lost part of our fondue set, the part that holds the flame. My mom improvised but we made too great a flame, and we had to keep putting it out and re-firing it. Melissa was the brave lighter each time.

Short ribs. I think we are going to make this our tradition. Dan cooked them in the crockpot, so easy, so tasty.

Group. My dad makes me laff.

Vespergyle Mittens for Annie Schmidt, mother of Dan's and my baby nephew (see later in this post).

2x2 ribbing on cuffs.

Argyle. I decided to do these sort of last minute, so I was knitting every second of the two weeks before Christmas. We spent a weekend over at Dan's dad's house, which is where Ben and Annie both live, so I had to knit in secret when they had gone to bed.

A baby! In a little bear outfit! Abraham Oliver Santiago Schmidt, born 12/23/09. Dan and I thought we'd never be an uncle or aunt, and now we are each!

Brother dog meeting brother bear.

New grandma. Dan's mom with Abraham.

Ben and baby.

Little baby fist!

Stretch.

This is a silly cry face.

Hands.

Profile. There are some more in a set at my Flickr.

Lacy came over for some Christmas Scattergories. This is where we're all at now. I am still losing by a lot. Dan is still triumphing. But we all increased our 3-game score, due to the fact that we added a bonus Christmas category to the end of each round.

Dan got me a reverse mount adapter for my camera for Christmas. It reverses your lens and essentially causes it to function like a jerry-rigged macro lens. You have to be careful and tidy with it, though, because your lens is pretty exposed. But look how fun! With it, I have taken pictures of a handkerchief depicting old Tokyo, which I purchased for Dan for Christmas.

Cotton and Japanese. Cool. So, I think it will come in handy in Korea, to take fancy pictures of foreign flowers and things. I'm excited. And that's all I have for now. I have one more knitted present to post, but it is for Bonnie, and I haven't yet given it to her. She comes tonight for our annual New Year's Eve/Day binge eating. It really is what we do, and it's sort of simultaneously shameful and all-American and also only this one day a year.

Since I didn't take any pictures of our Christmas doings or presents, I will record them here. We had so many Christmases this year. We did Christmas Eve like I said, then Christmas Day we went to Dan's mom's to wait for Annie and the baby to be released from the hospital. Until that happened, we went to Jean's friend's party and played with four dogs and ate cookies and dips. One dog tried to hump each of us several times. This same dog kept snatching rolls off of a platter on the counter.

Then we did presents at Jean's apartment with Ben, Annie, and Abraham. I got many fine things. A season of Felicity, some cute apothecary jars, a Yarn.com gift card, an IKEA gift card, a nice photo box, the warmest, most comfortable socks I have ever owned, Happy Go Lucky on DVD, Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn's CD, Jackson Browne's Time the Conqueror.

After that we went to Dan's aunt's house for the main Christmas celebration. We ate ham and turkey and tasty beer bread. We brought a ridiculous tray of Christmas cookies that I'd made with my mom, including my current favorite: the snowball. During the cousin exchange, I got Strict Joy by the Swell Season and a black picture frame that I will pack away for a year. We played Whoonu (but not until after Maggie had thrown all the chips in the air to make it "messy everywhere"), because even old people can play. Hear that, old people? Of course not. They're old!

Then we went home and Lacy came over for Scattergories and gave to Dan UP and to me Julie & Julia because we had seen those movies with her in theaters. After that, Dan and I finally gave each other our presents. He gave me that reverse mount adapter, a South Korea travel book, Lily Allen's It's Not Me, It's You, and a gift card to get my camera's sensor cleaned. It was the gladdest I've ever been about all my presents. They just seemed like the right things to have received. I got him a three-month stint in the salsa of the month club, during which he will receive two different salsas each month (first up: Black Bean Salsa and Cherry Salsa), the Tokyo handkerchief, Hot Fuzz on DVD, Connect Four (and I played it with him and failed completely), and The Essential Weird Al Yankovic as compiled by the artist.

Then Christmas Post, we went to West Virginia to my dad's brother's daughter's house. We ate loads of tasty foods, many desserts, drank wassail for the first time ever, was offered moonshine and/or cherry moonshine, played Boom Blox with second cousins, and took home many desserts to eat for later.

Our Christmases ended on Sunday when we gathered with Dan's mom's mom's extended family at a Kentucky bowling alley, as is customary every Christmas.

And mostly for Christmas, Dan gave me Korea and an end to my job, which is pretty much unmatchable (until my parents get here this afternoon and install my new shower wall, but only because that will also include the gift of self).

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! no more.

2009-12-24T12:19:00.002-05:00

I have the official "Merry Christmas!" tally, it's true.

But first. I was driving home yesterday, down I-75, and I saw this billboard:

See? Jesus misses "Merry Christmas!" too! I'm sure Joseph Smith heard him say so. Never mind that his command to Christians was to remember him when they communed together with each other. Never mind that to add to or take away from his words warrants significant retribution. Never mind that what Jesus probably misses most is hearing us say "Thank you" or "I love you" or "I'm sorry". Hey, let's paint a pettier picture of our God! Because God is a seventh grade girl. Because God doesn't care that you're starving on Christmas, but he gets super ticked off when you don't call it Christmas. And Jesus doesn't care if your daughter died days ago, just so happens he wants you to know it's his doggone birthday.

I can't think of anything better to do with donated Christian dollars than to plaster a billboard (10 of them city-wide) with your fortification against the war on Christmas. Oh, wait. Buy a church in India. Get someone in OTR a coat. Evangelize for real. Indicting someone (surely a non-Christian!) for including in their felicitations Hanukkah (a truer Christian holiday than our own) or Kwanzaa or whatever is not evangelism. It's misguided.

Say "Merry Christmas" all you want. No one is stopping you. For real. No one is stopping you.

In conclusion, I would like to add that a gentleman who works in our plant was up front looking at our collected Christmas cards, scouting out the ones that said "Merry Christmas". I pointed out one with a manger on it but no words. He said, "Nope! Doesn't count", and I'm pretty sure he was joking, but I am only pretty sure.

Now for the anticlimactic tally, because it's dumb anyway.

Really low this year (compared to this year and this year, with a one day high of 86. Whatevs. I'm out of this piece.

South Korea Is Not the North Korea, So Do Not Fret.

2009-12-23T15:17:00.003-05:00

Guess what all you people in the place? As of mid-February 2010, Dan and I will be living in South Korea for a year, and it will be like this all the time.

More Decking.

2009-12-13T17:50:00.004-05:00

I accepted that we aren't having a Christmas tree this year. Our lives were/are sort of in a state of possible transience, so we never got out to the tree farm, and it's too late now to spend 50+ bucks on a two week thing (though, to be real, I usually leave the tree up til February at least). Anyhow, so I put away the tree skirt and moved the ol' nutcrackers to the radiator.

I made some yarn trees I saw on this here blog. They're pretty cute, and I already had the green nubby yarn.

I had some leftover berries from the trees. I guess they are holly-like. I hung them on the cardland. But I google-imaged mistletoe and it looks the same, so now I am a little bit confused. [EDITED TO ADD: I just re-google-imaged mistletoe, and now it looks different with white berries, so now I am more and less confused at the same time about different things].

And I overcooked the rice for dinner, for which we are having Thai-style chicken curry.

My favorite news of today is that we bought a new shower wall kit from ACE.com and we are having it free-shipped to our local ACE. I have long wanted a new shower wall to the point that I asked for it for my birthday this year. And now I will have one!

But, alas! I should be knitting right now. I have a stack of Christmas knitting to complete. In fact, I am felting something right now with the hot water in my washing machine. The instructions recommended that I use 2 tablespoons of dish washing soap. I hope it does not fill my basement with suds.

One more aside in this series of asides: a man read Hebrew in church this morning, the Magnificat, and I almost cried a little bit maybe, because Hebrew is pretty cool, and I miss all the frantic translating. Even cooler was that several multi-lingual members of our congregation read the Magnificat in their own languages, and I really like that our church has that talent.

Christmas is Coming.

2009-12-09T16:38:00.002-05:00

I decked our hall for a bit over the weekend. We don't yet have a tree, but the skirt is down and the nutcrackers are already guarding its space.

Correlating to Christmas cheer is the commencement of the "Merry Christmas!" count at work. The yearly ritual in which I count the number of times I say "Merry Christmas!" on the phone during the month of December. So, be excited about all of that. Right now the count is at a healthy 280, not including today's.

Decanter (which I aim to fill with this year's leftover fir needles), metal Tannenbaum and Santa, bowl full of cranberries and candle, atop a Norwegian place mat (courtesy of Crystal Hutcheson and directly from Norway!).

Snowmen stocking hooks, homeknit stockings, tea candle holder from my grandma Westby.

IKEA tea towel, tea candle holder from my grandma Westby, Christmas cheer courtesy of Tater Dog and his LOLing. (British button tin in the background.)

IKEA tea towel, IKEA Christmas candle, card from Darling Clementine, also Norwegian.

Cranberries in carafe, red hots, old fir needles (from last year's infamous short, fat tree), globe from my grandma Westby.

Paper snow globe I took from the mail at work. It was junk mail, and I used it for treasure.

Real snow globe from Bonnie. If you wind it real tight, it plays real fast. That's, like, physics or something.

Our international wall. Packings from Norway and Japan, Norwegian place mat from Crystal.

En guard.

Card garland. Cardland.

Tater with his Christmas toy which we really do put away until Christmas time.

And making wacky weed face.

Back in Ohio.

2009-12-02T11:41:00.001-05:00

I missed the coat cut off, the day when everyone starts wearing coats from now on indiscriminate of the temperature. So it was 32 yesterday morning, and I was armored only in a sweatshirt. Today I started with the coat. The sad thing is that when I was in Florida having breakfast with my dad over the newspaper (which I read two days in a row, so don't try to judge me by my blog feeder), he had said that my grandma in Ohio mentioned that it didn't get out of the 30s over the weekend, and I knew that would be the coat cut off, and I knew that meant that I'd missed it.

I have some leftover pictures, including some very special family pictures staged at Sonny's BBQ, at which we pledged our patronage no fewer than 3 times during our week in Florida.

Mom and Dad.

My mother is maybe keeping my brother from acting out.

Good but for mom's closed eyes. But who says eyes have to be open anyway?

In case you needed proof that my mother loves me best. Lemon bars and marble cake. Yes, of course.

At one of our gas stops on the way home. So colorful. I would like some of these fruits.

Dirty windshield.

At our Executive Inn. You know how to tell the difference between a real hotel and an "executive" one? Stains.

And fancy Kentucky bridges mean we're home.

So, I think most people who read this have heard, but we will not be going to Japan in 2010. So lame, but I think good things will still come of it. Chief among them: not leaving our dog and also getting to watch the final season of LOST.

Thanksgiving is a Nice Holiday.

2009-11-27T15:34:00.004-05:00

I'm doing all this Thanksgiving blogging so promptly. It's pretty much the promptest blogging I've ever participated in. I'm sitting on the couch eating cake and lemon bars. I even ate a hot pocket earlier today. It is the eatingest holiday of all.

Speaking of eats. Dark chocolate peanut M&Ms in an old Garfield glass, I think from McDonald's in the 80s or some bygone decade.

On Wednesday, we drove my dad's Caddy up to Kissimmee to see Becca Reed. Bonus: seeing Liz Miller. Becca was so happy to see us. We watched Jim Gaffigan: King Baby with them. It was our second time seeing it since Saturday. Then Dan and I watched it again last night with my mom and my brother. It's like we're obsessed! I fell asleep during it last night, though.

My mom and I discussed eggnog making a month ago on the phone. Then she made it for me.

She has become an expert meringue maker. Basically she whipped up a meringue and mixed it into egg yolks and cream and stuff. Very tasty.

These are my brother, my cousin Heidi's daughter Willow, and my cousin Tanya's daughter Hannah. Jeff sat down in this chair and they all started attacking each other.

My aunt asked me why I don't post pictures of my brother online (and mother and father, but I do post them here, just not as many on Facebook). Maybe this is why? I have blurred out the offending gesture.

My mom and Willow's brother Banyan. His little belly.

Thanksgiving flowers.

Thanksgiving pigs in blankets. I took one of these highly coveted food items, and then I realized halfway through that I don't really like those lit'l wienies. I gave it to Dan.

This maybe makes him seem worse than he is if you find the flipped bird particularly offensive. He is not so bad. Maybe I shouldn't put this online? I can't discern.

My cousin Bryan's baby Evan. He is the second youngest member of our family right now. The youngest in attendance yesterday at least.

This happened again after dinner.

This is my dad. We're related.

Oh hey. How modelesque of you, Dan.

My mom did lots of hugging and spinning and general kid wrangling. She said she is feeling it today.

Frisbee fun!

I asked her what sound effect she was making. It was a whoosh.

Hannah looking like her mum.

Moss modeling. Very Floridian.

Proof that I was there.

My cousin Bryan.

Bryan's daughter Madison and my husband Dan.

Madison tossing some frisbees.

This is Dan's "I'm Awesome!" pose.

Spinning.

This is a dead frog. Dan and I collected him either on our way to or back from Kissimmee. It rained all day that day. We can't figure out how he wedged his leg up in the light. It was so, so gross.

My pops. Very menacing.

We played Clue. Dan won. I know you're shocked.

Sleepy daddy.

Madison helped with Clue for a bit.

Banyan. This kid is sweet. He makes me laugh.

I think he looks like the 70s.

My uncle has a helicopter. nbd.

Dan with a bunch of kids that aren't his. Doesn't it sort of look religious?

Hannah wanted me to take some so she could look. All these crazy digital kids.

My aunt Peggy and Bryan playing Password. We kept ourselves very entertained. For real, we played loads of games.

Receiving clues. The head on the right is my cousin Angie.

Tough word. I like how the deer head is presiding over everything.

My dad and me were sitting there all nice-like. Then Jeff sat on us. That's almost a full family foto.

And then he got up off us.

Playing Rock Band/Guitar Hero. They played both.

Bryan's wife Amber, Tanya's husband Sam, and Tanya during Rock Band/Guitar Hero. LoLs (loads of laffs).

Multi-tasking.

I tried this and failed, but it was better than any of my Wii hula-hooping attempts, and it didn't dissolve into a fit of cursings.

I am basically a champion toy-archer. We did have a bow and arrow growing up, though, so...

Even still, sometimes champions cry when everything doesn't go their way.

Shooting the sky.

Banyan with bubbles.

Madison with bubbles.

He's not dancing, but I'd call it the twist. In real life he is falling on his diapered butt.

Evan sort of looking like a speech-giving politician.

Evan sort of looking mischievous.

Dan with Tanya's daughter Summer during Cranium, the last of our many Thanksgiving games.

It was boys+Amber vs. girls+babies. The boys+Amber won. In fact, they were in the final circle while our team was still stuck on the first brain. Boo.

Jackson Browne, Concert of My Life.

2009-11-26T02:06:00.008-05:00

We went to see Jackson Browne at the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theatre (yes, all of those words), and I don't have much to say other than that it was wonderful and completely surreal, which is silly because we did just see him with his band this summer. But just him there on the stage doing the Solo Acoustic tour seemed much more present. I don't know, thinking about it is giving me a knot in my stomach, which probably means that it matters too much to me. Maybe I will work on that.I will say that Miami was not very welcoming at all, and I do not wish to visit again. We had planned an extra hour in our trip for dinner, and of course we burned that extra hour turning around 7 or 8 times and being lost in South Beach. So then we planned to eat after the concert (11 PM), at the first exit outside of Miami. Oh, really? first exit before forty miles with no exit? You're somehow magically set up so that it is possible to drive for a solid hour without hitting any sort of gas station? in AMERICA!!!! Really, and McDonald's, you want to have that ranch that spills all over the car and my butt? Awesome. At least the radio station was straight bumpin'!

So here are my pictures from that adventure.

Crazy purple chandelier in the lobby.

Merch. But it is much cheaper online right now, so Dan will probably just buy all my Christmas presents virtually, you know?

Tickets! I have been holding them in my purse for a month, willing myself not to forget them in Ohio, lest we reenact the Wicked incident of 2008 (wherein we thought we had tickets for one day but had them for a day that had already passed by the time we double checked the tickets. That was sad, but funny now).

Testing my setup.

This is the purple chandelier.

So, I am a blogophile and I have so much stuff on RSS, and because of that I knew immediately when these tickets went on sale, and we purchased early enough that we got orchestra seats! It was fantastic.

You can scroll through these quickly, but I will have you know that I did pare them down considerably.

This was taken with my non-zooming lens, so this is about how far away we were, to the naked eye as they who say say.

He played stuff we weren't expecting at all. He played "Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate", and I couldn't handle it so I cried. And he's just such a cool dude. It was really awesome. He's playing in Japan at the time we'd be there if we get to go. Maybe we are groupies? (Has that word, by now, surpassed its negative connotations so it's just allowed to mean that we would follow him around?)

He did say funny stuff about the songs, but I don't think I remember any of it now.

Oh, he did say that there are two songs he will play immediately when requested. One is "Runnin' on Empty" but no one requested the other one, so we don't know what it is. He has always made himself available to requests, so the concert's format is essentially chat-song-chat interrupted by grown adults shouting out song titles (if you've ever listened to one of the Solo Acoustic cds, it is like that tenfold). Like, it's funny, but it's also sort of the reason I never went to an *NSYNC concert. One lady kept hopping up and screaming, ""I'm the Cat!" You can do it!" You've never heard of "I'm the Cat", because it's a Jackson Browne song that even I don't like, and I am a thoroughlist and a loyalist, and she would jump up after every single song he played. It made Dan a little edgy.

He was talking about having had a heckler at one of his shows and how he didn't really know how to deal with it, and then someone shouted something out, and he said, "It was you!" It was funny.

So many guitars.

He still sounds exactly the same. His voice is impeccable. I am not lying.

At one point he was mentioning "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys, and someone shouted, "Play it!" And he was like, you don't want to hear that, it's not in my range, but he went and played some of it, and it was not in his range at all. It was fun. Dan videoed some, but mostly you hear me laughing.

I am always surprised how Dan and I are the most mature people at these things, even though we are the youngest people there. We were definitely dressed the most maturely. I'm talking elderly women wearing mesh dresses and six inch heels. Sick. And all the adults get drunk at the wine bar so that they shout out endless requests for Jackson to play his worst songs like "I'm the Cat".

He called up his guitar tech, Manny (I'm pretty sure his name was Manny), to play a couple songs with him.

The venue had these Psychedelic light panels that they refused to turn off. It was weird.

Valet cause we so baller. But also, because we had been driving for four hours and were pretty over it.

At least Miami was pretty cool looking.

But, never again, mis amigos.

Florida for Thanksgiving, Part 1.

2009-11-26T01:43:00.009-05:00

We are in Florida right now, and, in fact, our trip is on its back end. That makes me sad, so I will not think of it. The drive down, beginning at 2:00 AM on Friday was pretty uneventful. Oh yeah, except for our car breaking down at 6:30, still in the morning, in Lenoir, Tennessee. It could not have been luckier that we were at an exit with a Chrysler Dealership only five minutes from the hotel whose phone book we borrowed. Apparently the cruiser's computer needed a flash update. What a completely stupid reason for a transmission slip on the interstate. Completely Stupid. But, for real, it was only an added hour to our travel time and we got to hang out in the cold Tennessee morning looking like hobos with our hoodies and our dog and being cold, especially Dan, having worn shorts in anticipation of Florida's heat.

We got to spend a night in Tallahassee with Dan and Lindsey Cole and their kids, Kylie and Reed. We watched Jim Gaffigan's King Baby and played lots of pretend and hiding games with Kylie. We also watched the Chuck Norris Revolution. If you know what that is, I've already said enough. If you don't, I've said too much. Tater sort of got accidentally whacked on the face with a metal ladle and that pretty much solidified his fear of blonde baby boys.

Our South Florida exploits have included a 4-hour Sunday afternoon nap for me, loads of video game playing together with my brother for Dan, a Jackson Browne concert (more to come on that), a drive through the Everglades (who knew!), playing Memory enhanced by consensual cheating with my cousin's almost 7 year old daughter Willow, a trip to the expansive (false) Port Charlotte Towne Center Mall to see Beth and Tim Douglass and eat free Chick-Fil-A, Sakura Sushi Buffet at which my mother tried sushis I picked for her, BLTS, and today a trip to Kissimmee in my dad's Cadillac (highlight: butt-warming seats) to see Becca and watch some more Jim Gaffigan at Liz Miller's crib (which would be cute if you were a baby). Florida is not always so bad, and there is talk of a cold front moving in.

Early morning driving is characterized by slap-happiness and loads of fog.

Not visited, but passed by. Dan got a breakfast burrito at a Wendy's nearby this motel. I am glad I abstained.

We fed and watered our dog at the Chrysler Dealership. It had not been our intention to offer him Figi water, as we are not yuppies, but we were in quite a bind.

Seriously, the nicest man alive worked in the body shop.

We opined that they had or certainly should have a commercial to the tune of Chantilly Lace. Something like "Shop Tilley-Lane, stop by and save..."

Competition as the sun rose.

There before the paper was taken in but not before it was delivered.

This face has provided pet/dog healing to my immediate family after an unfortunate experience with an unfortunate pet dog. Even my brother has told my mother how he's a good dog, and he compared him to Gator, our most beloved of childhood pets. (We prepped our mom for Gator's arrival, which we'd already worked out with our dad, by asking, "Mom, if you could have any dog, would it be an English Bird Dog?")

Hanging around. We had to ask Tater not to bark at men wearing hooded garments. He doesn't mind women or children, but something about men wearing hoods sets him off.

Failing to capture his breath, but it was readily visible. It was quite chilly.

Displaced. We took turns going inside to the bathroom for warmth.

Then back on the foggy road!

For some reason we pulled off at a scenic stop. Oh, I think we needed to walk the dog.

It wasn't especially scenic, though, was it?

Back on the road. This time with mountains.

Hanging out the back.

Mix of foliages.

Rest stop after my 1.5 hours of total driving contribution. Sorry, Dan.

All Dogs.

2009-11-18T13:16:00.007-05:00

Tater has one cousin (dog), Curbie, and another cousin (human) on the way. Dan's mom loves both her granddogs equally, and she has longed for a photo of the two of them to put in some dog frame she has. Curbie and his owners, Ben and Annie, were at our house last Friday to celebrate Ben's birthday. Jean asked if I would try and get a picture of the two of them together. Eventually Dan wrangled the dogs, and we got a great one:

But there was a lot of trial and error up until that point.

Curbie.

It was hard to get them facing the same way. Dogs, you know.

Tater got tired of sitting around.

When they are together, these dogs never stop freaking out.

Curbie loved this toy. It's Tater's, but he only cares when someone else is enjoying it.

Dogz.

Tater gets those crazy eyes.

Claiming ownership.

Curbie's coloring goes really well with our living room.

I thought I might catch them both on their way back from a water break. No such luck.

Ghost dogs.

Even though we'd gotten that one great shot, we kept trying for a close up.

See how well that turned out?

Tater tongue.

Crystal was in town, as I mentioned, so naturally we exchanged really classy (also, nerdy) gifts. I made her a Tea Mitten with leftover Ravenclaw yarn, 3x1 ribbing throughout with 2x1 at both ends. She gave me wonderful things from Norway, which I failed to take pictures of. They are two little placemats. I am super stoked.

Buttons from Target sweaters.

Tip it over and pour it spout, you know?

Here are baby things for the aforementioned future human cousin of Tater's. Ben's girlfriend is about a month away from providing Dan's parents with their first grandbaby. Two Rounds Baby Hat, booties are my hijacked knit version of these really cute crochet loafers (for which I might learn how better to crochet).

I thought I had made a great little hat poof, but then I looked again at the picture when I was looking up the pattern link, and I see that I should have trimmed it much more neatly. It was my first poof!

This is Tater after a night spent running around with a friend.

He didn't even demand to go under the covers. Sleepy pup.

I also made the Oliphaunt elephant after I saw elephant sheets on Ben and Annie's baby registry. Turns out Annie really, really loves elephants. Win.

He is also made with leftover Ravenclaw yarn. That pretty much does it for the bulk of that yarn, though.

I knit him while we were waiting for Becca and Crystal to get to our house, which ended up being 3am, because I gave them my work address instead of our home address, and I lament it even now!

Tail.

Globe trotter.

Hey! Check that FCC van in the background. Becca and Crystal traveled in total style. Total.

The Business of Raking Leaves.

2009-11-16T11:49:00.005-05:00

Dan has been calling me funny a lot lately, and I was thinking that meant I am getting really good at saying universally hilarious things, but then I realized it probably just means that I have honed my ability to make Dan laugh. I am okay with that.

Also, we spent 4+ hours raking and bagging leaves a weekend or two ago and already our yard is as if we'd never lifted a finger. Oh, fall. Oh, oak tree. Oh, being from Florida and the not-knowing that had thentofore accompanied me.

Piles.

In front of the house.

We took a break on leaf raking day to eat at Giminetti's, our new favorite sandwich place. Also, the best thing to come of Dan's current job. He and all the ladies at his office went there for lunch one day.

It's a baking company, so the bread is extra tasty.

Out the window.

We took Becca and Crystal here for the meal they shared with us this past Saturday on their way to Indiana. Dan made sure that Crystal tried the loaded baked potato salad. Salad is not the right word. Loaded is the key word. Grease is the word word. Word.

After Giminetti's on leaf raking day, we stopped by Coffee Emporium for some reinforcements. Lacy works there on weekends, and we like to see her sometimes.

Leafs.

These three are all essentially the same, but I couldn't decide on my favorite.

Leafs like hearts.

Bird watching. Dan saw this little bird nailed to a tree. I took a picture so I could send it to the Overlooked Cincinnati blog.

On this particular Coffee Emporium visit, we ran into Kenny and Korie Frost right as we were leaving, so we stopped leaving and sat outside while they had their tea.

This is the second floor of the coffee shop from the outside. It is a cute little thing.

And then we got back to business.

hahaHalloween.

2009-11-04T14:17:00.008-05:00

Last night Lacy and Justin came over for sort of a last minute double date game night. We played Scattergories and Taboo. I think everyone's favorite part of the night was when, on a crucial Taboo turn of Dan's and mine, Tater randomly started peeing on his bed. Tater is not a house wetter, so I can only think to blame it on foul play. I don't know how they did it, but it's obviously Lacy or Justin's fault. We ended up losing Taboo. A shallow victory for our sneaky opponents, I'm sure (just kidding, everyone knows Lacy's the Taboo master).

Right now someone's mad at someone else at work. If this holds out, it will create the exact circumstances in which I completed my job at the Osceola School District's Maintenance Department in Florida, and won't that be pleasant? Though I don't foresee Calvary hosting any awkward goodbye lunches for me at Olive Garden. Not that it usually affects me much. I have always been the young one who sits away from everyone else. If ever I have a job again, I will have to be an adult at it. I am not so young anymore.

I have meant to post about Halloween, but I am just getting to it now. We joined Bonnie and four of her international students for a day of King's Island, and we had such a time. No lines at all in the morning, and I think the longest we waited in the afternoon was 30 minutes. Amusement park enjoyment is inversely proportional to line size and wait time. It was loads of fun. Plus, they have two newer coasters that were really top notch. Good for you King's Island.

After dinner at Red Robin, we went home and scrambled to get our outfits together so we could go to our show at Corner Bloc Coffee in costume. Red Robin ended up being a strategic dinner choice.

Strategic because we needed a balloon in order to be Carl and Russell from UP. We actually had two balloons and they were tied to a little house from the game of LIFE but this was taken after we'd gone back home and we had given the balloon to a little girl at the show.

Dan photoshopped the UP house in. I should have given him more headspace when I took the picture. Oops.

What we were going for. Then Dan found this blog the next morning, and we felt completely schooled. But that's okay.

Tater being Doug.

Test shot.

Trying to look grumpier the second time.

There's a witch behind me!

A little Amish fry pie that I almost blindly accepted as milk free until I decided to be safe and look it up online. Milk free but for the icing. So lame, so Dan "I never used to eat dessert" Johnson got to eat Derby pie and Amish fry pie, and I, Serenity "Dessert is the only meal I actually believe in" Johnson ate none.

Old man Dan.

Scoops! On Dan's iPod. I'm addicted. That is nowhere near my real high score. I'm going to try to get on the international leader board. I gotta get at least 333,000. I'm on it.

The Happy Maladies. They went as the cast of Seinfeld and joked that they were a band about nothing. But just for the night.

Kramer's short pants.

These are the glasses we got when we saw UP in 3-D. I kept them. Dan mocked me. But then they were part of his Halloween costume. So, there.

Decor. It was a really cool space. I should have taken more pictures of it. I would like to go back. I have an ever increasing list of Cincinnati things I want to make sure to do before we leave.

Young lady to whom we bequeathed our balloons.

Then she also wanted Dan to take a picture.

And I did try an Americano. Yum.

This is Tater's bow tie, but he let Dan borrow it. Bonnie used to be a banquet server, and this was her Christmas season bow tie. When she didn't need it anymore, she gave it to our dapper dog. He has a black one, too, which would have better suited our costume, but we couldn't find it during our time crunch.

So that's been our life a little bit. We are still waiting to find out about Japan, but it could be any day now. I am ready to move to the land of sushi 24/7.

Otherwise, we've really gotten into Felicity, and when I say "we" , I mean to indicate that Dan is just as fully invested as I am, if not more so. The biggest problem is that we support different boys for Felicity's ultimate beaux, and we don't know how it ends either. Dan, because he didn't start caring until the middle/end of the second season and didn't see the first season where Noel is so perfect for Felicity, is completely allegianced to Ben. I am for Noel. I try to explain to Dan that, in real life, he himself is the Noel/Dawson/George Mcfly (too far?) character, but he is having none of that.

Outtakes.

2009-10-28T11:58:00.004-04:00

It turns out I had more outtakes than I thought, so I am making a dedicated outtake post.

First with outtakes from our Christmas card picture:

Dan looks so beleaguered here.

A man and his dog. Dan should be a hunter or something so that we could put this in his study next to some deer skins and stuff.

I wasn't ready already.

Then we started setting up to take pictures for the Bell & the Hammer:

What a little panning reveals.

We make the sweetest faces, he and me.

I said this is like a Kroger ad, and Dan said, "I don't know about that", and I disagreed with him.

What fun we had!

I think this picture is ridiculous. Dan thinks it's funny cause I look so short. I was fake laughing, Dan was real laughing, and he tried to guilt me into real laughing.

So then, to work up to laughing, I jogged in place and stuff, so I think I am real laughing here.

And here is the failed jumping I was talking about. Even Tater has failed, and dogs love to jump.

Dan's actually pretty good here. My favorite part is how Tater is so glad to be running toward us. But why am I doing that with my hands?

And here Dan is giving a half thumbs-up. We suck.

Tater mudded Dan. Come on Tater!

Taking Pictures.

2009-10-28T11:38:00.003-04:00

Dan and I spent a chunk of our Sunday going into the field at the dead end of our street and taking pictures for our Christmas card and also for our band. I will have outtakes of some of those. It turns out that we are prize failures at taking those jumping pictures. We brought Tater along since he is on our Christmas card, and he was very well behaved. At one point a man was walking his dogs at the far end of the field and Tater ran toward them and then his leash snapped off, and, instead of continuing to run, he stopped when we called him because he could tell something wasn't right about that much freedom. His leash is fine, we just accidentally clipped it around his tag instead of the leash loop. Oops.

We ate Saturday's lunch at Fatburger. I don't think we recommend it. It was okay, and I got a fried egg on my Baby Fat (I have to eat kid sized hamburgers, because 1/3 of a pound of ground cow makes my stomach turn a little bit), and it was fun to wait around and drink soda pop, but Dan felt sick after for most of the rest of the day, and Five Guys is so much tastier.

While we were waiting for our food, we started to do some really awesome copycat pictures of each other. I'm not meant to look like I am holding in vomit.

Then smizing commenced. Mine is too obvious. Dan's is subtle but potent. Upon seeing it on the back of the camera, I said to Dan, "I think you're going to be disappointed", but seeing it bigger changed my opinion. Nice work, Deyes (Dan's eyes, of course, if you are a complete idiot like Tyra Banks).

I made this face for a while.

And then I made this scarier face.

Beaux.

I had to try several times for this one.

I think he's handsome with his baby face.

The last great hamburger stand. That's debatable.

Row of ready fries.

Fatburger is near to Coffee Emporium where we went to visit Lacy at her job. The leaves have turned real nice over there.

Red, yellow, green. Over-a-tree-ver.

Mossy ground.

So yellow. My favorite is when the tree is green and yellow.

Dan's so glad about fall that he forgot to open his Deyes! But then we wondered why it matters anyway, this having the eyes opened in every picture.

Fall for someone who only had Florida growing up can be a semi-religious experience.

Drive-In.

2009-10-22T16:18:00.003-04:00

I have had pictures of the drive-in for almost two full weeks by now. Work has been busy, but also, I have been getting websites together for the Bell & the Hammer, so that has been taking up all my extra time usually reserved for posting pictures of the drive-in. Luckily (false, unluckily) the phone never stops ringing, so I will just post pictures and caption.

Aww, look at the sleepy baby.

A nice thing about the drive-in is that it makes you anticipate and watch the sunset. It's always nice watching what the sun's up to.

We watched a double-feature of UP and Harry Potter 6. Dan and I wore our house scarves. Lacy came with us. She did not wear her house scarf (because it is not yet knit).

It was cold. Not cold, cold, but too cold to sit outside and watch five hours of movie. We made it through UP but moved into the car for Harry Potter.

I liked that I have one blurry and one not blurry of both Dan and Lacy. I applaud my continuity.

Lacy's throwin' up signs in this one.

It was relatively empty the night we went, likely on account of the cold, the Sunday night, and it not being the first night of the double-feature run. Even still, the owner ran the whole thing (literally, the whole thing, he let people in, ran the show, did concessions) and was so wonderful to us. I even Facebooked Holiday Auto Theatre on Facebook to tell them that I love them so.

Boom box. You know what I think is funny? I am very swayed by nostalgia, and I always long for things that were and no longer remain. Like the way drive-in patrons used to have a radio box, I guess, and that's what those poles are for. I always look at that and think it must have been so fun and cute, but Dan's mom was telling me about how annoying they used to be, so here I am longing for something no one even liked.

Hot dog. Hot dogs from concession stands are the best hot dogs.

Spooky Potter.

Titular.

We fogged up the windshield with our body heat. The window fog, combined with our comfortable warmth and the time of day contributed to my inability to stay awake. Boo.

Snow.

Oh, No Big Deal.

2009-10-15T16:18:00.006-04:00

I'm sitting here at work, drinking my afternoon tea on this October 15th (I was tempted to say, "I'm sat here", which is a British thing to say, and I am drinking tea, which is a British thing to drink, but I'm afraid it would seem incredibly pretentious, and I am not Gwyneth Paltrow or a crazy Britney Spears, nor am I even listening to Harry Potters anymore which always left British accent residue on my brain directly afterward). It is an ordinary day but for the influx of callers during our busy season, oh, yes, and but for the fact that Dan and I have finally released some music into the virtual and even non-virtual world! It is exciting, to be sure! As of noon today, we, the Bell & the Hammer, are the official purveyors/promulgators of To (Set Things Right) EP 1 (of 4), which includes three of the twelve songs on the album we are working toward (to be released in January of 2010). We did our social networking blitz early this afternoon. I have said before that we are recording in increments and at intervals, three songs a month for four months, and we are going to sell the songs as we go along.

If you are feelin' (read: fillin') what we're shillin', you can buy it in two different ways. You can either collect the songs in EP sets, purchasing them as they become available, or you can pre-order the entire album and get bonus goodies. We have noted all this in detail on our website, and you can find the purchase links there, but I will also put them here for you, because I am just that kind of gal.

Click above to download just the EP.

Click above to pre-order the album.

Working On It.

2009-10-12T16:15:00.003-04:00

Dan and I are working toward this album goal. If we never write or record songs beyond the twelve we aim to put together at this time of our lives, the completion of this project will be enough for us. We have been trying to record for years, but we are definitely most equipped to do it now. We are recording three songs a month for the next four months, and Dan's cooked up a nice release/pre-order/download deal that, I guess, we will declare officially (in all its interwebular officialness) tomorrow. We spent some time last month working on our album cover(s). It was fun. There are buttons. I hope you like it when it comes out tomorrow.

I have a tin full of buttons. They figure in prominently.

Dan in flannels.

Knitted letters.

We even worked some knitting needles in.

And this here acorn from our front yard.

Tater felt neglected, only because he so often experiences the extreme opposite.

Buttons.

Babe.

Hoo-rah!

You Dudes.

2009-10-10T21:01:00.005-04:00

I keep wanting to address people that way in my head, and I am hoping that by typing it here that desire will cease (sort of like confessing in order to be healed).

I have figured out life and how it works. I together with Dan. I have done it for you dudes, this incalculable percentage of the universe, incalculable because it is so small, and I am not great at math. I am having a quarter life crisis. And we sort of decided that while men have their mid life crises (and get diamond stud earrings and red vehicles), women have theirs as young adults, and that is why I can never stop thinking lately. Thinking about eternity, thinking about purpose sort of desperately, thinking about Jackson Browne's songs and how they are my heart. I think that maybe women sort of instinctually need to figure things out to prepare for motherhood maybe. Not that all the thinking leads to figuring out, but maybe that is why I keep thinking. I don't know what men are preparing for in their midlives, though. But I keep wondering why Dan does not keep having these crises of thought along with me, and this is comforting me, and now I will be able to help him through his future piercings.

I thought about living forever yesterday, and it did not make me feel glad, but it did not end with hyperventilation either, so I call that improvement. I am discovering that it is the quantifiable that paralyzes me not the esoteric. We were setting up chairs at church tonight, and I immediately considered the number of times we were going to have to set up chairs, and I couldn't cope for a minute. The things that are stackable, I always stack, and a lifetime's worth of setting up chairs for church is impossible to process. So I have to stop stacking things and just do them as I do them, but eternity is always now and never later so nothing is stackable there?

In other news, this first episode of the second season of Felicity is good again. I did not like the last couple episodes of the first season and that made me nervous.

Also, I made tamales today and an orange cake and it was unintentionally labor-intensive, what with all the tamale wrapping and the orange squeezing. We are not eating dinner yet for another twenty minutes or so as a result. Yum.

[Edited to add tamale pictures]

Tater always being in my face!

I like flannel pajama season.

Dan had looked up whether you're supposed to eat the corn husks, which, once we learned you are not was totally obvious. In so doing, he found that salsa proves really complementary, so we tried that. Dan kind of collects salsas, so there are probably ten in the fridge.

It is also snowman plate season, so that's good.

My Face.

2009-10-08T09:03:00.002-04:00

This morning, I woke up with my right eye so swollen that I looked (and continue to look now as I type this several hours later) like this:

Jumba from Lilo & Stitch.

I am not exaggerating. I also sort of look like the Hunchback, so I look like a variety of Disney creatures.

Dan pretended he couldn't tell at first, which was kind of nice, but also mostly like lying to your wife (i.e. sinning).

I was going to pluck my eyebrows, but I had to ice my eye instead. But I'm straight. I'm cool. I'm just going to pretend I look normal and try not to look at anyone full in the face.

I see now, too, that I have knitted Sosipater pictures that I have not yet posted here in this space.

Same old Sheldon pattern from Knitty.com as I used for Lucius Urbanus, my other knit turtle.

This time in left over green baby yarn and the brown yarn I was originally supposed to knit Crystal's hobo gloves in.

He is green and brown, the Turtle of the Town.

Now he just needs a bowtie.

Iced.

2009-10-02T21:44:00.005-04:00

I have a slightly realer blog to post. I started working on it earlier today, but I got distracted by reformatting our Myspace. In the meantime, I made myself some goat milk ice cream, mostly because Dan's having a video game night with a brood of dudes. We bought the ice at White Castle, because we forgot to get it at Kroger, and White Castle is always advertising their low price on ice. Peanut butter chocolate chip goat milk ice cream. And it was amazing. A little goaty, but I'm used to that by now. So good. It was significantly better than our last venture with homemade ice cream when my parents were here and it was vegan.

Yum and yay!

Ice cream maker. Turns out it's sort of easier to do it alone than it is to pass it around the basement between your parents.

I have a weekend's worth left over. I might let Dan taste it if he's nice to me (and I have it on good authority that tomorrow he's taking me to the library for Jackson Browne cds and then to Coffee Emporium, which will probably warrant a bite of ice cream).

I Could Never Live Alone.

2009-09-28T10:21:00.010-04:00

Dan was in Seattle Saturday and Sunday trying to get us a year in Japan. He said it went well but they are not making their final decision until the second week in November. Over a month away! And if he gets the job, it will leave us with two months to sell/lease our house and pack up out of here. Wow.

So Dan was in Seattle, and I was home alone, and I didn't do much except laundry and cleaning and ironing for two hours. I also started seaming my sweater only to find that I hate it and I will probably un-knit it and make bookmarks out of it or something. Oh, and I played a couple levels of Scribblenauts and had two migraines (Totally my fault, I know. Guys, I can't not eat doughnuts if I look at them. Can't not! I know people say they don't like doughnuts, and they are always lying when they do, but I am not lying when I say that it is never the kind of doughnut that I like that sways me. I most enjoy eating plain ol' glazed or plain ol' glazed cake. I especially hate jelly/Boston Creme filled, but those decorated ones appeal to some strange sense in my brain that makes me powerless to resist them. They look like the food in Hook or something, and it hooks me). I am just going to keep listing the things that I did while I was not posting these pictures on my blog. I worked for many hours mocking up (useless) logos for my sweet folk band, sifting through billions of pictures and alphabets from old books. And I called my parents. And I snuggled with Tater. And I watched lots of Felicity.

So, you see? I was so busy with my paragraph of nothing.

Before all that, we had gone to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings (BW3s, even though there are not three Ws) with Lacy on Saturday before Dan had to leave. They had Mello Yello and Cherry Coke, and we didn't even know it! We keep having Saturgories Day (would it be better to say Scatterday?) with Lacy, and it is quite nice. Our Smackdown is really coming along:

I am pretty much losing on all counts now.

The pictures I am about to post are from Midpoint Music Festival, at which Dan's Koala band played. There was a bit of scandal at the festival as one of the restaurant venues canceled a couple of bands because a million people left during an earlier set. That doesn't seem like hyperbole at all, Cadillac Ranch. So chain restaurants continue to be pretty lame and dumb, but we had fun while we were downtown and sort of got heckled for giving only 50 of our cents to a man's quest for lunch money ("I'm not going to be able to get much with that!") and hugged by a different man for giving 50 of our cents toward bus fare. I even got Dan to walk me to Coffee Emporium, home of my first and favorite iced Americano.

Maybe working on a project.

Best friends.

This fell out of our tree.

We were both wearing hoodies and noticed how we, being tall, always get short-sleeved.

Where we parked. The parking attendant was a nice old man. He reminded me of my grandpa Hernley.

Furniture store in black and white. Dan's grandma and her parents used to buy furniture from here, I guess.

This sticker spooked me.

Hanging out outside drinking my coffee. This building looked like MGM/Hollywood Studios. I want to go there.

Balloon party.

We should live somewhere like here.

Dan probably agrees with me.

Midpoint mascot. Dan said it's a mole. Like a mole on someone's face. I liked it until he said that, because that is the stupidest thing ever.

We hung out on the patio at the Courtyard Cafe waiting for Dan's set time. It was really nice out, wet from rain, a cool patio space.

Dan activated my debit card! Cool. Now I can access our monies. We figured we should do it before he left me alone for the weekend. I tried to activate my card like an adult several months ago, but I did not know the secret codes. Or something. I tried, like, five times.

Rain drops.

Chillin' like villains, obviously.

I'm working on staying still.

First, watch the first five seconds of this video. (If the video doesn't work, click here to see a picture.

I have been practicing my Miley face. I think it's really coming along, right?

Practicing in the mirror.

Another effort.

Dan's try. You should try it. It's fun, and a good way to redeem the time.

Revisiting our sleeve problem. This time with Midpoint wristbands.

Dan liked the patio door.

Roof.

Koala Fires getting ready. It was the tiniest restaurant, and it was packed. I stood up to take a couple of pictures, then sat down and spent the rest of the time trying to avert my eyes from patrons' posteriors all up in my face space.

Dan broke a bass string on the first song. Then he changed it in record time. It was a Midpoint Miracle.

I think working on his Miley face helped him also with his rock band face.

Like-minded Coffee Emporium drinkers. We thought I wouldn't be able to bring it in, which is why we stood outside while I finished it.

We have a sort of unfortunate habit of going to White Castle late at night. At least we didn't get meals this time, only snacks. You do not want to be eating that mess right before you go to bed. To be true, we went for (Red Cream) sodas.

Dan's hair looks like a soccer mom's. A combination of rain, sweat, and rock and roll.

Tile. This is for the tile. It is not meant to be a picture of anyone's butt.

I kind of think White Castle is the cutest. What with their romantic Valentine's Dinner and their tile and their fancy hamburger sign.

Foggy morning after all the rain, and now it is cool outside. Fall is coming, and I'm glad. If we do make it to Japan, I hope it snows at least once before we go. It is good for my soul to watch it snow.

A Sunday Well Spent.

2009-09-20T20:28:00.003-04:00

I don't normally talk about this here, because it usually feels really silly and unreal. We spent today recording with Eric Tuffendsam at Moonlight Studios and it has made me so glad, and it finally feels like the whole thing will get finished or something at least will. Anyhow, it sounds really good already, and I feel encouraged by that.

Food and iCandy.

2009-09-18T21:58:00.008-04:00

I said we went to Brown Dog Cafe to celebrate/support Restaurant Week in Cincinnati. That was not a lie. I will get to that.

But first! In May Dan had a graduation party. He received many monetary gifts. He saved them and waited to get a new iPod Touch. How responsible and grown up of him. Here is Dan acclimating himself to his iCandy:

It's totally going to change the way we drive to Florida.

One last brief aside before the Brown Dog Cafe pictures. Maybe Lacy is right about spiders living in parking lots. Dan and I made the argument that having a giant tree in your front yard invites more spiders than usual to plant themselves in your vehicle or house or life. Lacy countered that spiders hang out in the corners of parking lots. I was dubious until this guy.

It was crazy dark all up in that joint. Something ironic happened at the end of dinner concerning lightness and darkness. You'll see.

Panko Fried Goat Cheese Salad! So good. Creamy crunchy. Yum.

Dan got the Popcorn Salad. Anyone remember when we first started dating how Dan hated popcorn?

Sorry this picture is ridiculous. I got the Duck with giant couscous. Turns out I love giant couscous. Turns out duck meat is too dark for me to love it. I did not eat those carrots. That makes it sound like I did not enjoy my meal, but I enjoyed it so well.

Dan ate rabbit. Someone said something about Thumper. Who cares if Thumper gets ate? People? I don't know, I never really watched Bambi. I was too busy reading Jane Eyre.

I got fingerling potatoes instead of dessert, because all of the desserts were cream something or other. I was too full to eat many of these, but they were tasty little things. There was bacon and duck fat.

Dan had Pistachio Creme Brulee for dessert. He has been a brulee fan since our cruise.

Oh, hey. Remember Dan's iPod? He was messing around with it, trying to impress me with his apps, and he randomly decided to flaunt the flashlight, at which point I said, "Dan, why have we not been using that this whole time?" So here is the one well-lit picture from our fancy dinner.

Speaking of food. Dewey's Pizza. Lacy came over for games (Whoonu, Skip-Bo and Scattergories) and tv on Wednesday, and she brought pizza. Half Cuban, half goat cheese, ham and mushrooms. Thanks for being pizza I can eat, Dewey's. Thanks for bringing pizza to my house, Lacy.

I fried up some Oreos on the fly, because I like her. I'm like a regular ol' fry mama.

Water Way To Go.

2009-09-16T12:37:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was Children's Hospital's company picnic at Coney Island. I think it is an annual thing, but Dan didn't tell me about it last year. I have never been to Coney Island. It's a huge pool and it has some rides and gardens, I think. Our plan was to go for lunch then swim for a little while afterward until we had to leave to get home in time for me to make corn dogs, caramel corn, and fried Oreos (for the drive-in!) before church. Well, the lunch line was ridiculous, so we spent most of our time waiting in it, then we walked around a bit, contemplated going swimming, and eventually decided not to. That was a really good idea, because I just barely finished frying the corn dogs before we had to leave. So, even still, I have never been on a water slide.

It felt like Florida with all the Stucco.

How brazen of him!

Uncharted by us.

Because of this ridiculous line.

Does anyone know what this could mean? Dan thinks someone just stuck it there, but it's so odd. What is it? Sweet tea? Is it not serving any purpose?

Sunny buns for lunch.

Moonlite Gardens to contrast with the Sunlite Pool.

Lazy Skee Ball machine.

So, I have a new lens, and I had to sell my old primary lens to get it, and it is significantly better for my purposes than that lens was, but the focal length is shorter (? I'm not sure what I'm saying, but I think I might be right), so I have to back up real far sometimes to get everything in the shot. There was no room for that here.

Dan's Skee score.

Me and my high score. I think we might not be that great at this game/sport.

There was also a bowling game. This is all in the little arcade section. The ball for this was surprisingly hefty.

The Sunlite pool. It wasn't actually until we were in the parking lot on our way to get our towels that we decided we wouldn't go back for swims.

On our way to the drive-in. The Holiday Auto Theatre allows "gentle dogs on leashes", and Tater is a pretty gentle (read: very emotionally sensitive) dog, and we leash him quite regularly. This is him hanging his head out the window. I think I have here mentioned that he was not always keen to do this, so it stirs our hearts every time he acts like a real dog.

Movies we saw. Neither of us really understood Time Traveler's Wife. We felt like there wasn't enough time devoted to developing Rachel McAdams' character, and, to me it didn't feel like a movie or something. Like, maybe it all felt like exposition.

Corn dogs. I made the one on the right. Here's a tip in case you ever intend to make corn dogs. After you dry off the hot dogs with a paper towel, roll the dog in only as much batter as you need to cover it. Otherwise you will dissolve into a floury, cursing mess, or so I heard.

I always love drive-in screens. They are so iconic.

The only non-gentle thing Tater did was bark briefly and jovially at some kids who ran by him in the dark. He sincerely thought everyone had gathered to play with him, and he couldn't figure out why we were the only two who did.

Babe.

So we had corn dogs, caramel corn (so easy and so tasty! Who knew?), and fried Oreos. I would like always to eat my Oreos fried, please.

Stars. This drive-in is open during the winter. We think it could be fun to go on a cold night. We'll see.

I'm not sure Tater would like it though.

Bonnie Being Bonny and Being in Town.

2009-09-10T14:07:00.007-04:00

I mentioned that Bonnie was in town for Labor Day. She was, and it was great fun. We watched some crappy movies via instant Netflix (Blonde Ambition and Made of Honor, the latter of which made me decide that Bonnie should marry Scottish so she can be somebody's bonny Bonnie), drank coffee at Coffee Emporium, ate at Chipotle and LaRosa's (where even the turkey has milk in it, but I didn't know until I looked up ingredient information after I already felt sick from dinner - oops) and hung out and stuff, the way friends do.

The first fall of fall from our tree.

We passed this building in Over the Rhine on the way to the coffee. I guess Dan has loved this building for some time. It has cobbly stones and maybe an obscene gesture chalked onto it (but it is hard to tell for sure).

For the coffee.

Dan eating dessert.

Bonnie being contemplative.

I don't know if you've ever noticed, but my mom never stays still for pictures. Apparently, I suffer the same affliction:

I should work on that. All trillion pictures of my face taken by Dan.

Bonine (I accidentally typed this first, and I am leaving it this way) got a hot Americano to match my iced. I am looking forward to gingerbread latte season so I can try my drink with a shot of gingerbread. Yum.

When we got home, there was this RIDICULOUS toad in our yard. I do not normally get grossed out by toads or insects. Well, spiders are scary a lot of the time, but usually I am pretty brave, but this toad was so big. The longer we looked at it, the creepier it became.

Then the neighbor girl scooped it into a bowl so she could scare her little sister with it. It didn't even care, it was so lazy.

Bonnie and Tater got in some quality time, too, so that was sweet.

We are having a busy weekend this weekend, so I will probably have pictures next week. Also, next Tuesday, Dan and I are participating in (i.e. going out to eat) Restaurant Week at the Brown Dog Cafe. I am most looking forward to the Panko Fried Goat Cheese. Yum.

WEBN Labor Day Fireworks.

2009-09-10T13:33:00.010-04:00

We went to Cincinnati's annual Labor Day fireworks down by the riverside. We've gone several times. I didn't know until this year that the thing started as a celebration of this radio station's (WEBN) anniversary. I don't know, doesn't that seem kind of silly? It's a huge and expensive show, and it's all for this (sort of terrible) little radio station. Even still, we love the fireworks, and I'm glad we went this year, since it might be the last time we ever get to go to a Labor Day/Radio Station Anniversary Fireworks Display. I like this city we live in, and I will miss it (probably not while we're in Japan, but certainly some day).

We went with some of Dan's high school friends. Bonnie was in town for me, though, so that was especially nice. Lacy went down early and laid out a massive tarp and we ate $6 hamburgers and french fries and funnel cakes and played board games and waited for the sun to set. It was nice, and even though there was no after-fireworks coffee or ice cream as had been promised, it was a fine city experience.

Aneurysm Catchphrase minus the aneurysm. It was so loud that we couldn't hear the buzzer (which is what causes the stress). I liked it better than regular Aneurysm Catchphrase, because I do not like aneurysms.

Lorna and Justin. Dan went to high school with Lorna. Justin is being our human buzzer. See how he's holding it to his ear?

Lacy concentrating to guess.

Bonnie giving out clues. Bonnie ended up winning two rounds of Catchphrase, making her the champion. Last year she won Fireworks Scrabble, too. Either she is a river boardgames shark or she has some sort of river/fireworks voodoo. Neither seems very respectable, does it?

Stephanie giving clues.

This was at the end when it was just Bonnie and Lacy. You can tell Lacy is taking it very seriously because she has removed her glasses, presumably to heighten her other senses. Even still, Bonnie prevailed.

Dan had a funnel cake for dessert. I had some powdered sugar, presumably being allergic to funnel cake's ingredients. Powdered sugar is so much better than regular sugar.

Dan has tried to make claims that he never really ate dessert before we were married, but dude is always getting desserts when we eat out on the weekends. Sometimes I find some vegan baked goods, and that makes me very glad. There are lots of things I truly never did eat until I married Dan, mostly ethnic foods. I find that he has made me a more adventurous eater.

This is Lacy's middle initial on the tarp she laid. I was too lazy to stand up and get the L in the picture.

Bridge. Can anyone say with authority what the numbers on the side of the bridge mean? (Mom, do you know?)

We played some UNO. These are Dan's cards from his childhood. They are worn. I only cheat during UNO because it's fun (and easy), not because it helps me to win, because I rarely win.

Beach balls were flying. There were two little kids in front of us who loved the beach balls. It was cute. Also not unlike a Nickelback concert.

I kept thinking about river culture. Rivers as the source of life and all that, how people near a river gather at the river.

Apples to Apples. Basically, the unfun version of Cranium's Whoonu, which we now own!

Sun setting.

Dan said, "Take a picture of the other side (of people with us)". I did but I failed.

It's kind of hard to tell but that little boat is actually pulling the huge barge that the fireworks are on.

Dan took this picture of the Majestic.

Some preliminary smoke shots.

Spirals.

Puffs of smoke.

Explosions.

It gets so smoky, but that's almost the better part.

From the bridge.

From the finale.

We ended up having to park downtown, when in the past we have taken a bus shuttle. It was actually easier and quicker to park. If we're ever in town for the fireworks again, I will try to remember that.

During the Fall-Like Weekend Temperatures.

2009-08-26T16:53:00.009-04:00

Hey! Guess what? We did something this weekend. We have been having many weekends of do-nothing days, which is actually my preferred modus operandi, but we took the dog to the dog park this weekend. Mostly why we did this was because Dan's mom was briefly at our house on Friday and she brings with her expectations of long walks and lots of attention. Then we said park out loud to him, and we knew we'd have to follow through.

But first. This is what Dan's hair does to him when it has not been washed for a couple of days, like a built-in defense mechanism like plants have.

Zany tilt!

Detail of the feathering.

Conquering the bed. I like this face he has on.

My knees and the dog.

Conference.

Face.

This is when we told him we'd be going to the park. I had been getting ready when Dan said Tater was doing cute things with the leash. I ran out to take a picture.

But he refused to perform.

So we kept goading him, but then he got mad and started barking at us.

Meeting of the front yard trees.

Sniffing out the other dogs.

This is how Tater reacts when other dogs take interest in him. He bristles and then runs away.

This little dog, in addition to yipping at everyone and starting lots of fights, wanted to be Tater's best friend with benefits. Tater did not return the sentiment.

You gotta mark it up.

Dan went and got a (nasty, nasty) tennis ball to throw for the dog. I like how he is gazing expectantly at him.

Good jumper.

Good fetcher.

Puppy at the park!

So tender.

Hiding out. There was a mean ~~Pug?~~ ~~Boxer?~~ Boston Terrier named Oliver who kept taking the puppy by its collar and wresting it to the ground. His owner kept running over and reprimanding him. The puppy took it all in stride. So cute.

Laffs. I love when Tater makes this face. It is often.

I thought it was funny that it was Area 31 as if there were aliens involved.

Then we took Tater to the car wash, which proved rather difficult to photograph.

Creepy stuffed animals at the end of the car wash.

Sky blue and black.

Star Tower near where we live.

Tater taking in the bottle of the best diet soda both Dan and I have ever tried. It's some berry Mountain Dew. We always try all the Mountain Dew flavors. It's game fuel.

I bought myself this little bolster pillow, because I have kind of always wanted a little bolster pillow. Tater took it over, and it's become a sort of pacifier. If we can't get him to lay down or hang out with us, we just stick the pillow under his chin, and he lays down and clutches it.

Frosty Paws. A delicious summertime treat for dogs. Yes, it is dog ice cream. No, this is not the first time we've purchased it.

While I was taking pictures, Tater took the unopened thing in his mouth and began to eat it that way.

Then I removed the lid and he went to town.

They Made Meryl Wear Really High Heels.

2009-08-17T10:58:00.008-04:00

Right now, Dan, my husband, is at a job he has. First day. We're so proud (and able to keep paying our mortgage). We woke up together and did some morning reading, and it was all domesticated and grown up, and Tater pooped outside so he doesn't have to spend all day in the crate!

Yesterday Lacy (who described this here) and I went to see Julie & Julia at Cincinnati Mills, the saddest mall in Cincinnati. So sad is Cincinnati Mills that part of the mall is completely closed down, due to lack of consumer interest. I think only two of the stores in the entire mall are national chain stores, not local stores, and one of those two is LensCrafters.

Okay, and guys, I need to get control of my life. I am 26, which, technically and mathematically can be rounded up to 30, even though fellow mid-twentians take issue with my rounding. I am 26, and I didn't (still don't) even have any means of payment on my person. I have 3 cards in my wallet: 1 expired credit card, 1 credit card I waiting too long to activate, and 1 debit card which also remains unactivated. Dan meant to lend me his credit card yesterday but needed it to pay for lunch, and I forgot to get it back from him before the movie. So I was standing in the lobby trying to activate my card and failing until Lacy paid for my ticket at the concession stand (what? saddest movie theater in Cincinnati). I used to drive. All the time. When Dan and I first dated, I drove everywhere. I have gone to movies alone. I went to college by myself, and now I don't even have my own activated debit/credit card? No.

We left the theater lamenting the inevitable failure of our next meal to compare with anything so buttered and braised as the foods in that Mastering the Art of French Cooking (except for aspics, i.e. beef flan - that mess is gross), jovially observing the significant age gap between we and our fellow movie goers, they of septuagenarian ilk, and we of almost thirty, and concluding that they probably had more right to Julia than we did (I did used to say a phrase like Julia Child, though. I can't remember what it was, but I think it was about putting turkey in an oven? I also used to practice falling down comedically, so that's where I'm operating from).

We decided cotton candy should be our next taste instead of some ill-fated fancy meal, and especially since we were able to procure it immediately... from the saddest parking lot fair in Cincinnati. Yeah, there was a fair in the parking lot, no big deal. Carnies are a clever bunch, are they not? You'd think they'd do some research to be sure if ever anyone parks in those lots. I do not foresee this fair breaking even. They did have some great airbrushed rides, though. Dora the Explorer Drop and Dumbo and an MTV fun house with all those crazy MTV kids painted on the front, though I'm positive I could have done a better Justin Timberlake. I have Justin Timberlake drawing experience. They even had Gravitron as Gravitron and not as Starship 2000.

I would like to aside here that movie beds always look significantly more comfortable than my bed. I want that to change.

And a word of advice: double Mexican, even if you share the second iteration with your husband, is never advisable. I do, however, recommend going after Don Pablo's in Rookwood to Whole Foods in order to find a vegan dessert and eating the samples in every aisle.

I also discovered that you can use E-Sword online without downloading it, which is good for someone with a netbook, but not advisable if you have the means and memory to download it. The online version is such that you might make improper use of the Strong's Concordance tab (until you realize that you need first to find the numerical equivalent of the word in question and then enter that manually into the fields, and, hey, just for good measure, use H for Hebrew words and G for Greek. I am an idiot) and completely lie, though somewhat convincingly, to your mother and father over the phone about John 3:36.

And, to make this second part of the post even less organized, pictures of the dog.

Tater likes to lounge. And when lounging he requests a bottle for chewing and a magazine for perusing.

Saturday hang outs. (I just considered spelling Saturday S-a-t-e-r-d-a-y. Something is wrong with my brain today. This blog has taken so long to write, and I keep doing work stuff wrong.)

He gets grumpy.

When we were watching American Teen. Dan told me not to post the second picture, but it is a very good sad face, and high school can be quite sad.

Late for the Sky.

2009-08-04T09:32:00.005-04:00

Since last Tuesday night, I've had a bit of a problem. I can't stop listening to Jackson Browne. Dan's mom took us to a concert. Dan actually introduced me to Jackson Browne years ago. I don't know if you know this, but Dan is a record collector. So I've listened to several of Jackson Browne's records, but never before have I sat down and read through the lyrics. Music doesn't usually move me like it moves other people. Maybe that seems strange. Music doesn't, but I have always been especially susceptible to lyrics.

I was only sort of into the concert until he played "For a Dancer". I have been struggling with the concept of eternity, I think since middle school. Lately, I have been clinging to concepts that explain it to me well and comforting myself with those words. Most notably from C.S. Lewis, and now from that song "For a Dancer" and when he sang "I don't know what happens when people die, can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try/It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear but I can't sing, can't help listening", it was all slow-mo for me, and I felt like a loser, and immediately after that I liked Jackson Browne like people liked the Beatles and I have sat with my record player and his albums crying and reading and having my life changed and Dan took me to some record stores on Sunday and bought me some more records and that is how my life is going right now.

That and taking pictures of the dog.

Sometimes Dan lets me take pictures of his face. You guys, these photos are always way brighter on my little Dell than they are on my computer at work. I hope they are bright enough for you.

Expectant animal.

Sometimes Tater is a creep.

But sometimes he is sweet.

And sometimes he's not ready for the picture.

Taking control.

Dan and I did some dueling and some potion making. It was pretty amazing.

Trying to get in a fence fight with the mean neighbor dog.

Baby faces.

Dignified. Last night I accidentally called Tater indignified instead of indignant, and then Dan and I ~~mocked~~ sang that "Undignified" song.

Laying on pillows.

This is Tater's "big ball". It is a sort of deflated volleyball we got for 99-cents at the Gap clearance store, and he loves it.

Splits.

2009-07-24T23:22:00.004-04:00

Dan and I went to dinner at Lemon Grass for Massaman and Tom Kha Gai, then to Coffee Emporium for coffee. Somehow it came up that I liked banana splits. Dan asked if I wanted to make some tonight. I didn't really feel like it until we had been back home for a couple of hours. So we went to UDF to get supplies. They had everything we needed. That was kind of weird. Pineapple, chocolate malt syrup, whipped cream, and bananas. We have been having some nice dates lately, and apparently I mostly only write in simple sentences now.

We put them in corn-on-the-cob holders. That worked until I kept pushing the melted ice cream out onto my lap.

Dan made this face.

Dan's in progress.

Mine in progress.

Dan's (first) is prettier than mine.

Marriage Material, On the Real.

2009-07-23T10:05:00.002-04:00

Online Yellow Pages Liar Guy (OYPLG): Your company has a free online listing with us. I am calling to update that information.
Me: We don't confirm that over the phone, sir.
OYPLG: Okay, put someone on who can do that.
Me: No one here will do that for you, sir.
OYPLG: Put [the owner] on the phone.
Me: He's not available right now.
OYPLG: You're just the secretary, put someone important on.
Me: Sir, I have the power to either connect you or disconnect you.
OYPLG: Nah, you're just the secretary, come on, put someone important on.
And then I defeated him with the generic salesman voice mail dump. Boom! Cause my momma didn't raise no fool.

I was hoping he would call back to further harangue me, because I do so enjoy that, but these types of fellows, they never return your calls.

2009-07-20T09:22:00.001-04:00

"Serenity! What a pretty name! Sounds like a perfume or sumthin'."

No. Wrong answer.

Guess What I Made?

2009-07-19T11:31:00.005-04:00

It's seasonally inappropriate, except that it's been in the 60s for a couple of days.

Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff from the Charmed Knits book a certain Crystal Hutcheson apparated into my mailbox. A basic 1x1 ribbed scarf with 14 double bars of striping. It was the first thing I've had to fringe. Fringe is crazy easy to do.

Tater was hanging out during the picture taking.

Double-scarved.

Our Hufflepup.

Fancy New Tater.

2009-07-18T22:30:00.005-04:00

I have this dress that I turned into a skirt. I "made" an "ascot" for Tater out of the resulting waste. He's a real charmer.

Indepence Day in Florida (post 3 of 3)

2009-07-16T13:22:00.004-04:00

Here are the last of our traveling tales. Included will be pictures of food we ate and shows we played and things we missed.

We played a show in Naples at the Bayshore Coffee Company on the same night that we went to the nature center. Our idea was to drive south and do some Florida stuff before the show. We ate dinner at Sushi-Thai.

Dan's mom got an avocado appetizer.

Dan and I shared this sample plate. I ate the two on the left and half the crab. Dan ate the others. This doesn't necessarily make me a grown up, but it does make me an adventurous food eater, so there!

This is my Massaman Curry. It's been two weeks now since Bonnie took me to Thai Smile and encouraged me to order Massaman Curry, which marked the first time I'd ever tasted anything more Thai than Pad Thai, and I have had this dish 5 times. 5. I am truly addicted to it. Massaman and now Tom Kha Gai, a coconut milk and chicken soup. I need to get addicted to something so Japanese. Could spicy tuna roll count?

Dan's dinner. Tempura on the left and Udon noodle soup on the right. He is much more Japanese than me.

Dan's mom's dinner. Something shrimpy.

This is Naples beach. Soft sand, kind waves. We stopped there for five minutes right before we went to the coffee shop. We did a beach day a couple of days later in Venice. I didn't take any pictures when Venice beach assaulted us with her Hungarian Horntail waves filled with sea crap and 800-grit sand.

Wind is funny.

Dan's mom.

Tall and small.

This is the only way that pictures of my face happen. Here I am waiting for Dan and Jean to get done in CVS.

The coffee house. It was one of the nicest we've been in. It's also one of the only in Southwest Florida with live music that isn't exclusively jazz.

Stuff.

So, that was Monday, and this is from Friday, and nary a picture taken in between. I'm a lazy picture taker. This is when we tried to play "Tumbling Tower" or some other alliterated block falling name. These blocks were ghetto. They didn't line up right unless you spaced them out. It was dumb. I lost two games with my first then second pull.

Justin Pressly! He and we played a nice little show at Austin's Coffee and Film in Winter Park. I heard they had vegan chocolate cake, but I didn't get a chance to try it, which is very unusual for myself. That is regrettable.

Reunited. At first I thought maybe he didn't miss us so much, but he has been extra snuggly this week, so now I know it's true.

Indepence Day in Florida (post 2 of 3)

2009-07-16T12:59:00.008-04:00

I've been really busy at work the last couple of days, so that has hindered my picture posting. Let it now resume!

This is my boo eating breakfast at my house. My mom made us tasty breakfast victuals, including pwaffles (pancake batter cooked on the George Foreman).

These are the remains of my teenaged ceiling. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to canvass the ceiling above my bed in *Nsync news clippings. This meant every single tiny picture of any of them in every magazine ever. I used staples. My brother moved into my room after I moved out, and he tore the pictures down. Every time I've gone home, I've had the intention (the kind of intention the road to hell is paved with, so they say) of de-stapling my ceiling.

And I finally made good on it. I think it only took an hour or so. Awesome daughter alert.

This picture is horrible, but it's Dan and a turtle. Two of my favorite things. We went to the Calusa Nature Center & Planetarium in Fort Myers. It was really cute.

Snake. Mom! We saw a snake that was poisonous, and I meant to remember whether it was red on black. I think it went yellow, red, black. But I can't remember, so it's still as useless a rhyme as ever.

This is where the nature center began, in some trunks.

I never stayed awake in a Planetarium until this day. I even fell asleep at Chicago's Adler Planetarium on our honeymoon. It's not that I don't like what they are saying. I like stars, but I have a sleeping problem. Karen guided us through Southwest Florida's night sky. She told appropriate jokes. We liked her.

Lamps.

Wall. Like an IMAX.

Star maker.

Iron Meteorite, I guess.

Turtle.

Fox's fence.

This place had all the things. Even butterflies.

These stupid trees make me feel nostalgic now. It really is a strange thing to move away.

If you smoke, you will die, and not in a good way.

All access, aww yeah.

Hiking through the forest. Sort of like Robin Hood and Little John.

What was this called, again? Fire weed or something. It's supposed to help with fires or something. I cannot remember at all, but we thought it was real cool.

Hurricane aid.

Dan and his mom. He very specifically wanted me to include the tree stump on his left. I guess it proves we're in Florida.

This is a fox. All of the animals who stay at the nature center are animals who cannot be rehabbed. They are actually very active in rehabilitating abused animals, but some could not survive in the wild. They have a bobcat who was fed cow's milk by a well-meaning farm family. That is illegal. It's also bad for bobcats, because cow's milk doesn't have their required nutrients in it, so his hips grew wrong. We came in late on the explanation for the fox's captivity, but the guide joked that he was bi-polar, that some days the fox loved him and other days it bit him and stuff. Our guide was probably 20 years old. He also said that he started wearing flip-flops in hopes that he'd lose a toe to one of the eagles so he'd have a good bar story to tell when he was old.

Turtle.

From the touching pond. I don't know what it is, but I touched it. [This is not my tan skin. It is Dan's mother's. Even at my most tanned, I am the palest person I know. I tried to compare tans with my dad. I lost.]

Dan. Picking up...

...this. It was pretty weird. It was definitely alive, and it moved about in his hand.

Turtle sunning. I want to have a turtle when we return from Japan. They are cute little guys.

Indepence Day in Florida (post 1 of 3)

2009-07-14T13:52:00.005-04:00

Today is my second day back at work after a week off. And not just a week off, but a week in Florida with people we know, like know. That is hard to leave. Not that we don't have any people we know here in Cincinnati, but we don't have quite the quantity here, and I had to leave my family, and that is always hard. I have over 100 pictures, so I am going to split posts according to pictures when appropriate. This first post will show the Fourth of July and works on fire.

Is it lame if I say that what I missed most about Cincinnati was my dog? It was so nice to get back together with him and just snuggle on the bed. I have days when I feel fine about leaving him for Japan. But there are other days when I just don't know how I'll handle it. I can take video of him and all, but video isn't snuggling. And what if Tater forgets how to be Tater? How much of his personality has been shaped by experience? Was he born so snuggly? I hope he doesn't forget.

It is lame, I know.

We flew this here aeroplane down to Florida.

Dan is always pulling faces.

It truly is my favorite thing in the world when the clouds are the ground. It is the kind of thing that changes my life, even though that sounds silly.

These little cookies they serve on airplanes are too, too tasty. Plus, they do not contain my allergen, so I can eat them by the plenty. On our flight home, some girl in front of us had an unannounced peanut allergy so they didn't serve ANY of us ANY snacks. That made me feel sad. I wrote an email to Delta requesting some cookies. It was a friendly email, because I really did enjoy the free Coca-Cola.

There's that Florida! I become increasingly more sentimental about this state. That is something I never thought would happen. I will never be sentimental about 30 mosquito bites on my toes or heat-swollen hands.

Riding the tram.

Dan and his mum doing the escalator. His mother is who sponsored our trip down to Florida. She got to hang out with us for most of the trip, too. She has a friend who has a beach house in Siesta Key, so she dipped out for that for a day.

Tampa's airport.

Renting a car. Something was wrong with our rental car. Somethings, really. Someone's coffee had exploded in the driver's seat, leaving streaks and splashes of coffee on the seat and on the ceiling. It creeps me out when weird stuff is on car ceilings. Once someone's car had, like, scratch marks at the back. Whose car was that? It creeped me out.

Things not seen in Ohio: Palm trees.

This is my brother. A waitress at a Port Charlotte Restaurant,Giorgio's, called us twins once. I was in high school so it made me sad. It would not make me sad anymore, because we are the perfect composites of our parents' faces.

My dad has a crossword solving system. He lets them get at least a day behind. That way he has the answers. Here is his stack of crosswords. Just put the latest on the bottom. He's a genius. He is also trying to complete all the Free Cell games.

This is on the Fourth of July over at my aunt's house. This is Heidi's daughter Willow. She says funny things.

This is Willow's brother Banyan. He doesn't say funny things, but he does make funny faces, and he doesn't fuss much.

My cousin Bryan's son Evan. He's a happy baby.

We played Cranium with the grownups. There might be an age cap for this game.

Then we played Diploma Dogs with the little kids. It's like Trivial Pursuit+Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?.

Willow was purple.

My cousin Tanya's daughter Summer was my partner. All the adults partnered with the kids. I think I got more wrong than she did, though. That's the rub.

Willow decided to go play video games with the boys for a while. My brother got this game Trine. It's a linear game(Dan, what's the technical term for that?), which I like. Three characters, one of whom is a ninja. There is lots of ninja roping. That was fun. We would play it for hours before we realized that we should be doing something else. I miss it now.

Madison is Evan's brother. That is her dad right next to her.

She ambles around muttering things to herself with a little lisp. It's really cute.

She came and played Diploma Dogs for a while.

We had to cut the game short because it finally got dark! I missed all the sparkler action. This is Summer with a sparkler. Maybe they weren't the best sparklers, because their ends kept shooting off and stewing in the grass.

100% zoom of a firework's spark.

Smoke.

Summer's dad, Sam, does all the fireworks. He does a really good job. This year it had rained on the Fourth, so the mosquitoes attacked all our exposed skin. Apparently they are worse if you eat bananas/potassium.

The ascent.

This is my favorite. It looks like stars.

Baby boys are the thing right now.

More gaming.

Burps.

Banyan and his grandpa.

How that looked the last time I saw it. (From Thanksgiving 2008)

Pottermania.

2009-07-14T11:31:00.001-04:00

In case you were wondering, HarryPotterGories commenced, and I am winning:

Sorry, Lacy.

Holiday Auto Theatre.

2009-07-02T10:15:00.005-04:00

I have returned, as promised, with pictures of our straight baller lifestyle. The next post will either be from Florida or about Florida, because we are flying there tomorrow afternoon, courtesy of my very gracious mother-in-law. We hope to eat some of her delicious left over potato salad before our flight. She made a tub of it for Dan's party, and it was amazing, and I usually hate potato salad. I am going to eat free M&Ms on the flight. Free because I have a 100% coupon. If you are wondering if I've been taking Benadryl before eating milked items, your ruminating has prooved fruitful. It seems to be helping with some of the side effects (namely the vain ones, so that's all I care about! No, I care about more than just uglyface). It makes me fall asleep almost instantly and for several hours, though, so maybe that's something I should also attribute to milk eating. This way, I will not abuse it?

We went to that Holiday Auto Theatre in Hamilton to see Transformers 2 and Star Trek. Transformers was horrible, so I napped my Benadrylled (but also subsequently Full Throttled, so it was not as easy as it should have been) way through it so I could be awake for Star Trek. I spent many pre-pubescent afternoons watching and enjoying Star Trek: The Next Generation. The movie was the good kind of ridiculous.

Entrance. Dan said this sign has been there for, like, sixty years or something.

There were rolling hills in the background. That's cute. And farmy.

Waiting for the sun to go down.

The young people in this vehicle came to kiss, and kiss they did, even in direct violation of one of the advertised admonitions not to. Uh oh.

Mini peanut butter MoonPies. I usually hate MoonPies, and I don't know why, because I do like those Pinwheel things. But these particular pies don't have marshmallow in the middle. Instead, they have peanut butter spread like the Amish make. And it is tasty.

Screen. And conversion van. Later another conversion van parked right next to them. While backing into the spot, one van was probably only a hand breadth from the other van. It was like a fine pre-show.

I did not use this place. Lucky me.

This fella was on top of the snack bar playing cover songs while the sun set down. It was interesting, but kind of a nice idea to have entertainment to wile away the couple of hours between arrival and show time.

Last night I planned out my three anticipated theater ventures for the boy who lived. Hopefully Tater can come to one. At this drive-in, they allow "gentle" dogs on leashes. Tater's totally one of those! I will have to knit him some Potter paraphernalia. Maybe a Hufflepuff bow tie, because he is obviously Hufflepuff.

Snack bar neon.

This phone booth was host to no phone at all! Dan rested his natchos on top. [EDIT: I think that actually looks like his hot dog, but I do like to say natchos, so I am leaving it.]

We invited Lacy Pez, but she had to work, but then someone brought her truck.

Snacker.

We laid on the ground and looked at clouds and cruiser hatches for a while. There was really only one cloud in the sky, and it was a Komodo dragon, and then it mysteriously disappeared while the sun was setting. Seriously, it poofed away into thin air and shocked us.

This was to the right of my head while I was laying on the ground.

Pledge of Allegiance? It was one of those old film reels they play at drive-ins.

We brought gaming chairs and put them in the back of the cruiser. Dan does not fit!

Then we flipped our flops off and enjoyed the show. Drive-ins are fun. Dan almost hit a raccoon on the way home. Those things happen when you're out in the sticks.

I got the hankering to make supplemental Scattergories cards to keep our SMACKDOWN fun and our minds fresh. I got a little obsessed over it. I even laminated one side since the real cards are smooth on one side, unfinished on the other.

Yes, now we have a Harry Potter card, and we may or may not have set up a secondary HarryPottergories Championship.

I didn't get many pictures of Dan's graduation party, because I am not good at taking pictures of people who aren't married to me.

Unless no one can tell the picture is happening. This is Dan's aunt and Dan's cousin, taken from my knee.

Party people in the place.

Gift table. Lots of cards. You know what that means.

Table full of cards.

Summer Showed Up. Thanks, Summer.

2009-06-25T10:36:00.001-04:00

It is hot outside. Not oppressive heat. We had one day of that a week ago. But it is hot. We're hoping that tomorrow evening marks a break in the temperature because we aim to be outside at the Holiday Auto Theatre. It is not our usual drive-in, but we gotta try stuff out while the day is still today, you know? It's more expensive than Bethel's Starlite, but I heard it is nicer. We'll see. It's gonna be Transformers and Star Trek, so, quality films and all. We're excited because we're going to get Greek Festival food to go before we go. Yum. Also, I gave Dan a $10 stipend for the snack bar. I tried to change it to $5 after he got overly excited, but he would not allow me to.

Dan picked me this flower from our backyard. It was planted before us and comes back every year. It lasted about .5 seconds in that glass, though. Boo.

And this is my boo sorting through living room stuff making it prettier to live in.

We haven't been doing loads of stuff, just easy living, you know? We went to Half Day Cafe for breakfast with Lacy last week and did a little updating of our Scattergories SMACKDOWN tallies:

Girl finally got a point!

Oh, Dan finished classes for school! That's pretty significant. His mom is throwing him a graduation party on Saturday night. He won't actually end up walking. He missed the deadline to walk at the latest graduation ceremony, and he'd have to wait til fall and it will all be relatively moot by then. But we are so proud of our little Danny, aren't we? He and I are going out to celebrate on Sunday. I won't say where because it will only make you jealous and us embarrassed. That's, like, two of the ten right there.

Commandments, of course.

And I am only joking.

I will come back with pictures of the fly-by Greek Festival and the drive-in and the graduation party and maybe sneaky pics of our Sunday.

Tonight we are going to Sidewinder for dinner! I'm excited. They have wraps and things. I am going to try my last of the vegan cupcakes. So far my favorite has been the pina colada and my least favorite the chocolate hazelnut orange. Tonight I will try the lemon raspberry. Tonight also, I think I will probably finish my Ravenclaw scarf, fringe and all.

Poster Child.

2009-06-15T10:57:00.002-04:00

This is our dog.

This is our dog on ZOINK!:

(With a pink flash gel. Spooky scary.)

He will cut you.

I read about gelling your on-camera flash on the cheap and easy, so I did it and then I played around a little and it was fun:

Working on a rubber stamp logo for our rock band.

Uh Oh Oreo.

2009-06-15T09:44:00.001-04:00

The Oreo on the left is a normal Oreo. On the right, uh oh.

Hard Times Acoustic Festival

2009-06-09T12:53:00.010-04:00

On Saturday Dan and I participated in the Hard Times Acoustic Festival, hosted and organized by the family of one of our music friends (Moriah Lawson of Wonky Tonk and also of Lawson Reunion Band). It was really fun, and we were glad to be asked. There was BBQ, amazing homemade salsa and some very tasty hummus (so tasty were the two that we hovered over the table trying to decide which should be our last bite). Also, the weather was wonderful and we appreciated its solidarity.

Our friends Wonky Tonk onstage.

After Nick had to leave mid-set to get to work.

At the barbeque shack, redeeming our sandwich vouchers for pulled pork and brisket. Dan also got some potato salad and "the best macaroni and cheese I've ever eaten".

Stage from the side.

Sky.

The Happy Maladies were up after Wonky Tonk. Tuning up.

Waiting.

Playing.

Back stage.

Our tri-fold attempt at friend photos.

Resting bass.

Jasmine's shoes.

Country. The festival was at Johnson Farm.

Dan started to get cranky at the picture taking.

Then we ventured to the roadside.

To get some pictures of the fantastic roadside signs.

Entrance.

I wanted to chew some grass and get a picture of it.

But the grass is never visible enough in any of these pictures to make it look like I'm doing anything more than making a weird face over and over again.

Many Mountain Dews.

When we were on our way to the festival, we stopped at a gas station to fill up and Dan said he was going in to get some waters for us. He came back with this ridiculous gallon jug.

My favorite part is how it's "The Hydration Drink". Unlike all the other drinks.

There were some flies. Dan thinks they bit him.

Then we played bubbles for a time. There were some games and activities set up for kids.

There are a lot of bubble pictures.

On the lam.

Hidden Mickey.

Refueling.

Action shot.

Then we were persuaded to participate in a young man's ping pong toss. All you had to do was toss some ping pong balls into this here tin pot.

Dan tossed first.

Of three balls, three remained outside the pot. It was pretty impossible. I got one ball in after I accidentally bounced it off the ground first. Tricky little kid. He was very good at soliciting participants, too. I think we played 15 balls at 25 cents/every three.

Dan went back later and kept trying (but for free this time).

Watching the Blarnacles, an Irish band with Irish jokes. They even played a song that I know, that I have the clarinet sheet music for. I was pretty excited. And now I know how fast I'm supposed to have been playing it (much faster).

The Lawsen Reunion Band closed out the evening. I think there was a hootenanny type thing after their set, wherein everyone got on stage and jammed, but we had to leave before all of that.

Buildings on the way home.

Then I wanted to look at my sunburn.

Red edges. I also got a weird burn near my ankles, but it went away quick.

And I have some unrelated pictures:

Leftover anniversary flowers.

Accident.

Up Dog.

2009-06-08T14:18:00.002-04:00

We went to the theater to see "Up" in Real 3-D. Of course we wept, because Dan and I are weepers. Lacy and Geoff flanked us in our row. Behind us sat the kind of theater goers who like to narrate the film on a 3-second delay. Every punchline they repeated. Every action they described. At every sight gag, they let out audible gasps, like, the kind of gasps that are basically words.

Some of their more memorable repeats:
Dug (a character in the movie): My master made me this collar. He is a good and smart master and he made me this collar so that I may speak. Squirrel! [looks to distance for a few seconds]
Narrating Theater Goers (NTG): Squirrel! Oh, haha!

Carl Fredricksen: Do you want to play a game? It's called See Who Can Go the Longest Without Saying Anything.
NTG: ...without saying anything! Yeah, I know that! Haha!

Russell: With my Wilderness Explorer GPS, we'll never be lost! (he throws hands back and GPS flies out window) Oops!
NTG: Oh no! Haha!

By the end of the movie, Dan and I both were so tuned into their narrating frequency that we could not stop sharing knowing looks (lucky we had on 3-D glasses so our irritation remained somewhat covert), gripping each other's hands, and finally ~~making fun of~~ imitating them out loud. I guess that makes us jerks?

At one point, Lacy was on my left weeping, and Dan and I were laughing and she thought we were heartless and crass, laughing at the sentiment on the screen. Not so. We are all just trying to get by, you know?

If Your Fortune Cookies Said This to You, What Would You Think?

2009-06-05T21:38:00.003-04:00

We went to a Chinese buffet. We received a series of fortune cookies that makes me think that they know something I don't know. I opened mine first:

Now is the time to call loved ones at a distance. Share your news.

And Dan's:

Soon someone new coming into your life will be a best friend.

Dear Fortune Cookies, are you suggesting that I am pregnant?!

I'm not.

Insomuch as I am aware.

Overly Gracious.

2009-06-03T11:45:00.000-04:00

Every time I have a conversation with a particular one of our sales reps, this is how it ends:

Him: Okay.
Me: Okay.
Him: Thank you, Serenity.
Me: You're welcome.
Him: I appreciate it.
Me: You're welcome.
Him: Thank you.
Me: Okay, bye.

I'm On the Next.

2009-06-02T10:42:00.009-04:00

I've mentioned the gaming. Last weekend we had more of the same, but this time we also had some fire. We went over to Lacy's parents' house for an impromptu game night. We also played cards with her grandma. My brain is not wired for cards, but I think I did well enough. I can't remember the name of the game right now. Cards are less fun for me because I did not grow up playing them, but also because there is such rigid game regulation. It is so easy to do it wrong, and I like my game play like I like my truth, relative. I'm just kidding about relative truth. But I am not kidding about the game play.

This is a bridge we pass on the way over to Amelia, where Lacy's parents and even Dan's parents live. It is the East side. People are friendlier there, but we have better ethnic foods on the West, so...

Lacy's old front yard.

And then there was fire. Apparently, Lacy burns her thumbs off when starting fires, so her dad set this one up for us. It's okay, Lacy, we had to stop letting my mom use sharp scissors in kids church.

Danny D standing by the fire. He has no face like an episode of Fringe.

At one point, Dan and I were charged with keeping the fire alive. Dan had back up.

That is where I want to cook my marshmallows.

Dan wanted to make some fire sparks.

Wife that I am, I obliged.

Doing hangouts in the dark.

Lacy, here, is a vegan. Even still, she cooked up our hot dogs for us. I like my dogs like I like my men, hot. I'm just kidding about the hot men, but I am not kidding about the hot dogs.

Neighbor's floodlight. Lacy's old backyard felt like my Ohio to me. We did a lot of hanging out in my grandma's backyard in Sabina, Ohio, when I was growing up. With the Ohio air and the helicopter trees and the bratty neighbor's who flung poop at us once.

Here we are settling in to play some Catchphrase and Scattergories. These pictures are kind of controversial because Lacy wasn't sure what I was taking pictures of. Turns out, it was her face. Which turns out to be hilarious in the second one.

Then began our 80s hair mugging.

This is how Dan, our session photographer, felt about it.

In betweens.

Finally! What a tight pose we are doing. I am being "them chickens jackin' my style" and Lacy is being "they try ta copy my swaggah".

Here we are learning that I am a terrible poser, which is good for my personality but bad for my modeling career.

Flips in the dark.

(Dark Chocolate) S'mores! I don't remember loving s'mores when I was a kid, but that's because I was dumb, and I could still eat milk products. Now, it is just really nice to be able to eat a treat like all the normal people do. I ate a lot of marshmallows this night. I am the only lover of the marshmallow skins (which sounds disgusting, but what is the better way to talk about the charred outsides?), so I ate a lot of those for the people who loved only the insides.

The end of a fire is perfect for cooking those golden marshmallows, so I kept eating them even after the fire died.

I realized once we were leaving that I had become a bit cranky toward the end of the night. Then I realized that it was after midnight and I felt less bad about it. I do think it's funny that I get cranky like a baby when my bed time comes. This has happened before. It was a weekend day and I was being totally unreasonable and Dan wanted to take a nap and I was whining about it like a brat, and then we took a nap and I woke up and I was all better. So, that's sort of embarrassing. Doesn't matter, though, because I won myself a Scattergories win tally on Saturday.

So, now I have had a summer bonfire. I need a summer boat experience. Someone take me on a boat!

Fruit and Flowers.

2009-05-28T22:05:00.013-04:00

Dan and I have been married four years today. It does and doesn't seem that long. Time is a funny thing that way.

Additionally, I think I invented a phrase! Google agrees. Don't hate like you can't relate! Too bad Ricki Lake's not on tv anymore.

We ate at Golden Corral for dinner. I mentioned that.

We got these free plastic cups!

Then we went to the Esquire to see Sunshine Cleaning. It made us cry, but we are cry babies.

Then we got a $9 Little Caesar's meal deal for dinner. Crazy bread was/is crazy delicious.

Pajama party like we started on our honeymoon. Pajamas are fun to wear.

Fourth anniversary is for fruit and/or flowers. I got Dan a fruit flower bouquet. It was delivered this afternoon while I was at work. He knew I'd want pictures, so he took some. Then he ate it.

Blossoming marshmallow strawberries.

Chocolate strawberries.

Since it's basically common knowledge that I kind of hate all food but cookies, Dan bought me flowers not fruit. No, I like some fruits, but my tastebuds are finicky, and I always like to look at hydrangeas.

Dan bought them in downtown Clifton. Look at us supporting the local economy.

Yay.

Lover picture. I especially like the denting on my nose from my glasses.

And I definitely have a good side and a less good side.

And Dan has an uncanny knack for smiling the same way many times in a row. There were several more but I deleted them.

Driving down to Clifton for sushi tonight.

Water.

I made Dan decide on our rolls because it requires so much reading.

We love Maki Express.

So, we decided on our standard spicy tuna roll (front row) and our unstandard sexy roll (back row). Dan also got some clam and some octopus nigiri. I had some of the octopus. I was very proud of myself, but I don't know that I could do it again.

Cleaned up.

Power lines.

I had a cupcake.

It was more muffiny than I am comfortable with. I have a strange aversion to muffins.

I have no aversions to icings.

Dan had a chocolate bottom cheesecake cupcake.

Babes in Sidewinderland.

On the way home.

Anniversary cards. Dan included in his some fantastic Mad Gabs. That's topical! Here are some samples: "Sect Sea Lay Dee!" "Hula View Them Host?" "Love, Yo Horus Band". Dan is cool.

The envie for my card to Dan. (To Dan Johnson, the DJ of my infinite playlist on this, our commemoration of four fine wedded years. Happy Anniversary. From Wife.) Once Dan's grandma gave us a Christmas card and it was addressed to Dan and Wife. Wife, that's me.

So, that's it. Our next anniversary will be in a different country, one of rising suns and bullet trains.

Teamsters.

2009-05-27T16:26:00.009-04:00

The Cincinnati gaming scene is more active than I once thought. Of course I'm talking of board games. A couple of months ago, Lacy Pez invited us over for board games. I couldn't actually make it that first time, but thus began a regular (sometimes rigorous, sure) schedule of gaming. We just took it to the next level. Monday night saw the commencement ceremony for our Scattergories Smackdown. Dan, Lacy, and I will be competing (I guess until we go to Japan, but, if we do do Scattergories Skyping, this could go on indefinitely. Well, no, not indefinitely, because then no one will ever be the winner) and keeping note of our personal bests and tallies of wins. It's not like Donkey Kong, but it is on.

It's funny because we Johnsons just started Video Game Tuesdays. Add to that a monthly Game Night and now the Scattergories Smackdown, and we have very rich game lives. This is Dan playing Rock Band, and it's from a weekend day, not Tuesday, but it is a prime example of a Video Game Tuesday activity. Yesterday we played the XBox version of Zuma.

In the last week, we have had Lacy over twice (once on Friday, next on Monday) for board gaming.

Friday, this is how Dan chose to wear his hair. I call it the sweaty hair with headband. I'm pretty sure he might be embarrassed over it.

We played Aneurysm Catchphrase, and we used these creative and heavy objects for game pieces. Santa, his tree, and Toad.

The game.

Objection! Likely to Dan's offensive propensity to cheat by refusing to guess at other people's clues.

I thought it was funny how expressive Dan's hands were throughout the night.

Tater played his own games.

We found this light up toy in the clearance section at Kroger. It says ZOINK! on the side. He is obsessed and aggressive about it to the point that we have to put it away at night so he'll go to bed.

Um, I guess this is the best shot I could get of Dan switching out the records. We listened to records that night.

Monday night we played Scene It: Box Office Smash! on the XBox. We found it at Target on the cheap. We were actually pajama partying in celebration of our anniversary, but we decided to invite Lacy over, too. A party ain't a party if it's just a duet. Or something like that is probably true. It was then that we decided Scattergories Smackdown should exist.

Tater thought it would be such a gas if he stole the die and ran to his bed with it. He was right. It was quite the gas.

Dan wresting it back from him.

Then Dan put it on his face.

Then we set up the Scoreboard. I did very little, actually.

Dan marking his spurious winnings.

We weren't sure exactly what we were going call the event on Monday, but I added the Smackdown last night. I think it works.