Color Me Rad 5k

This spring I decided to sign up for my first 5k.  My friend Sarah agreed to do it with me, and we both started training.  I was actually making some pretty good headway and was running probably the best I ever have.  Of course, then I got pregnant.  It was really hard to do much of anything for a while, much less run.  So exhausted :P

Anywho, I realized I'd never even gotten these photos off my camera.  This particular race involves getting hit with colored cornstarch, or "color bombs".  It's not timed, anyone can do it, even babies.  They don't care if you walk it or run it.  In fact, the rules say you should finish by sunset so you can see where you're going.  So we jogged just a bit, but mostly walked.  I'm sad I wasn't able to run it, I feel like I was so close before things got nuts!  But it was seriously a LOT of fun, and if you ever get a chance to do this or something like it, I highly recommend it.

Photos are all taken by DS on June 17, 2012.

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The Brooklyn Bridge is Secure

 Every once in a while, we like to take the bus up to Brooklyn to stay with our friends Matt and Sam for the weekend.  The guest room in their "cloud mansion" has two walls that are all glass.  This photo is a panoramic around the angle as the sun was setting.

This one is out their living room, and that's Manhattan in the background.  The roof of the building at the bottom of the photo is Macy's.  You can easily see their roof decks from the living room, and according to Matt, their catalog photo shoots are often done out there.

Friday night we hung out with their friends, went out for Thai, and then back "home" to the pool room for beers and a few games.  Just fyi, it's easy to convince a group of people that you're excellent at pool if you're one of the only people not wasted.

Saturday we took a rare trip to Manhattan to see some sights.  Normally when we're visiting, we spend the entire weekend hanging out, but it seemed weird to never do any of the New York things I've wanted to do.  So I got to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time, and at one of the towers, discovered these locks:

Every one of the metal rings sticking out of the tower, of which there were many, was completely covered in locks.  They were mostly normal locks like you'd get in the hardware store today, but some of them were really cool.  Really old things with fancy designs and giant keyholes.  We had no idea why they were there.  A quick search just showed that they were probably some love thing, but for some reason that is not as cool of a reason as I was hoping it would be.

Once in Manhattan, we saw what we could of the inside of the Woolworth Building, and checked out the construction site of the World Trade Center.  By this time we were tired and ready to play games and drink coffee, so we caught the subway back home.  We played a lot of Dominion, and learned how to play Killer Bunnies, which was hilarious.

It never feels like we have enough time there, but the nice thing is that they're close.  I can't wait to go back.

New Painting and Table Runner

Little Nova, by Kaitlin Deering - 2009

This is mine and DS's first real art purchase.  The painting is titled Little Nova, and is by our friend Kaitlin Deering.  I adore it.  The rainbow colors, the little flecks of white in the black background.  It's magical and wondrous and makes me feel like I'm witnessing some miracle of space or the northern lights or something.

Felt Leaf Table Runner by Sleep Goblin Crafts - 2011

Also new, this table runner.  I finished it last night.  It's just felt cut in leaf shapes with some running stitches for veins, all connected together.  I wanted something that was very fall, and cheap and easy to make.

Felt Leaf Table Runner by Sleep Goblin Crafts - 2011

Now we just need a few more chairs, and this table will be ready for a dinner party.

Mandolin

Check out my new mandolin!

Not long after DS and I moved in together, or perhaps even before that, DS was given an old mandolin that had been found in his aunt's attic.  For a long time I dreamed about learning to play it, but it was not in great shape.  We held onto it anyway, and after I started playing with the band Designer, it was decided that my learning to play would be beneficial.

So I tuned it up with the old strings, which were rusted, to see if it was worth a shot.  It seemed to hold a tune, and I got really excited and bought new strings and a book for learning to play.  Unfortunately, when I went to restring the thing I discovered two of the tuning pegs were bent.  They would only turn so far in one direction before they would just stop moving and would only go back the other way.  This made restringing it impossible.

We took it to the repair guy at the music store who tried his best, but apparently that old thing has a weird tuning head and he couldn't find a replacement for it.  Poor me, I was forced to buy the one I had been playing with all the times DS had been shopping for a bass!

I've had it for just over a week, though it already feels like twice that.  I try to play for an 45 min to an hour everyday to help build up my calluses, because I've never played anything like this before.  I'm taking my time learning the basics, trying not to rush it.  DS keeps asking if I can play like Chris Thile yet, and I can assure you the answer is no.

Finished Garden 2011

Have I told you how excited I am to finally have a balcony for an entire growing season again? SO EXCITED. Feast your eyes on this gorgeousness.



Plants from left to right:
Catnip
Ornamental Thai Pepper
3 Strawberries
Lavender
Eggplant
Basil
Oregano
Cilantro
Garlic

Hanging:
Yellow Pear (Heirloom Tomato)
Marion (Heirloom Tomato)
Anaheim Pepper
Hot Banana Pepper
Jalapeno Pepper
Habanero Pepper

Things you can't see yet:
Spinach
Lots of part-sun flowers
The cats camped out in that camping chair
The water puddles on the balcony below because I can't figure out how not to make a mess when I'm watering.  :(  I'm seriously considering hanging a shower curtain that will funnel the water into a bucket.



This is the window box on the other side of the apartment, outside our bedroom.  It doesn't get much light, so I picked out plants that are supposed to like part-sun.  Gerbera daisies for the win!

Now I just need the sun to come out more than once every 10 days.

A Wedding in Baltimore

We had the very great pleasure of attending a wedding in Baltimore.  Micah was a high school friend of DS, and though I haven't seen much of him, I've always had the impression that he and his family were, well, family.  So you can imagine how happy we are to only be 1.5 hours from him now.  This means a lot more now that the wedding has occurred, and he's no longer frantically preparing for it.

The cathedral where the wedding was held, and I do mean cathedral in the strictest sense of the word, was absolutely gorgeous.  Having catholic family, but not being raised catholic myself, I did my best to keep DS and myself in check throughout the ceremony and not embarrass ourselves.  At the reception I discovered I probably should have given all his friends a quick primer as they were confused, but no one did anything strange.  All standing and sitting went as expected.

The reception was held on the top floor of the Admiral Fell Inn.  There was an open bar.  I can tell you I danced.  A lot.  Not necessarily on the dance floor.  Apparently I felt the need to encourage everyone else to dance by whipping my head around a lot.  My neck has never been so sore.  It took 3 days to recover.

In all honesty, my night should have ended with the reception, but instead we all headed over to the Greene Turtle to watch the South Carolina football game.  Where there were more drinks.  And my husband decided to enjoy the company of his long lost friends and let me be as I went back to the bar.  *sigh*  At some point I was handed a Jägerbomb...  The next 36 hours were trying, let's put it that way.

For your enjoyment, here are a collection of photos of the beautiful church, and the parts of the ceremony DS and I managed to capture before things got too crazy.  We can't wait until Micah and Anne start visiting.

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Hiking Shoreline Trail

It was an absolutely beautiful day.  The kind of day that insists you go out and enjoy it.  There was some talk of climbing Mount Olympus, but as I had not packed any active gear and have not exactly been keeping up with my exercise, I pushed for something a little easier.  Thus, we hiked Shoreline Trail instead.    This is actually part of what will be a 280 mile trail system that follows the historical shoreline of Lake Bonneville, a massive lake that once covered most of the state of Utah.

The fall colors were gorgeous, and the hills were covered in long grasses and plants that made it all look like a blanket of suede.  Lovely.

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DS's Parents Visit

DS's parents' road trip finally brought them to us.  It was a lovely couple of days, and we celebrated with good food and wine.  We introduced them to the joys of In-N-Out Burger, west coast seafood, our cold beaches, and the mountains.  Two of the places we went were lovely, so I took some photos.  The first set is from Cold Spring Tavern, which was a stagecoach stop in the mountains just above Santa Barbara.  Now it's a tavern and restaurant.  The second set is fro Rusack Winery, where his mom did not realize I was being facetious on the way in by saying "Man, this place is a dump" until we'd been there for a bit.  Which, if you knew her, would be hilarious.  That woman is sharp and funny to boot, but this place is obviously not a dump.  I'm not really a wine person though, so mostly I just enjoyed the scenery.

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David and Juliana's Wedding

As expected, David and Juliana's wedding in Potomac, MD was absolutely beautiful.  The backdrop of forest was perfect, and I particularly loved the alternating greens and blues of the bridal party.  The wedding was outdoors, in both Spanish and English.  Afterwards, dinner was served and there were many speeches by friends and family.  We were lucky to have translators, though sometimes I suspect that we lost some of the turns of phrase in the process.

Because Juliana is Colombian, the cake was specially brought in from there.  Unfortunately, customs suspected it had some nefarious purpose and destroyed it.  Fortunately, it was pieced back together and the taste was unaffected.  All I knew was the cake involved alcohol.  Juliana tells me it's called ponque negro, or black cake I think.

After dinner, we headed upstairs.  There was a dance floor, a room with chocolates made by David's sister along with some coffee, and a fun photo booth.  I had quite a bit to drink, so I can't remember too much about the latter half of the night, but I can say we all had fun.

Once it was time to disperse, all the friends went down to see the honeymoon suite, which was two bunk beds pushed together and decorated.  It doesn't sound like much, but considering we were all sleeping on twin beds from a former Girl Scout camp, it was adorable and romantic.

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*Written 2/14/11 and backposted

SB Botanical Garden

In an attempt to "see California" before we leave sorry state, we spent Sunday at the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens.  At least half of it is still trying desparately to recover from the last forest fire, but as you'll see below, lots of lovely things remain.  To my enjoyment, I even saw redwoods for the first time.  Feast your eyes on what can happen if it rains even two or three times a month!  So, you know, like once a year.

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Hiking Figueroa Mountain

Our friends convinced us to hike a six mile trail up Figueroa Mountain to see the spring wildflowers.  While I'm not much for exercise for the sake of exercise, things like this are easily agreed to.  If only they were easily done...

The drive there was longer than expected, so I hit my inhaler a bit too early.  Plus, on the way, we kept seeing fields and hillsides covered in gorgeous carpets of flowers.  We couldn't resist pulling over to take photos.  As we pass the shorter, paved hikes, we enjoyed mocking the people gathered, calling them "Sunday Drivers" and the like.  We kept going, to the big hike, expecting to be met with rich rewards for our persistence.  Boy were we wrong.  Karma is a bitch.  The hike we had chosen was dry, rocky, and uphill for miles.  UP. HILL.  I thought I was going to die.  It's a good thing I took the inhaler out of the car with me, because that early shot left me hyperventilating five minutes in.  We felt like we were lost in the desert, and in a way, we were.  We had no idea where the "good part" of the hike was, and we plowed forward, our feet creating trails of dust in the air, our shoes full of spiky little pebbles, sure that each new bend or crest would provide us our prize.  There was no prize.  Unless you count that one time I led, and everyone wondered how I could hike so fast.  That was pretty cool, for a wimpy asthma kid.

After several miles, we gave up, ate our picnic lunch, complete with wine, right in the middle of the rocky trail, and went back.  Since it was all downhill from there, we moved quickly, and then drove back to the wildflowers we had mocked people for stopping to see.  Sometimes, following the trail most taken is very good advice.

The lower parts of the trail did have some flowers and greenery, and you'll see that in the photos.  But all of the lush fields of flowers are, unfortunately, from elsewhere.  Honestly though, it was a great day.  You know what T-Rex says... "The worst that can happen is Adventures!"

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