In line for the Firehawk, King's Island

Chicago Illinois Is Like A Shiny Toy

So, Aaron and I are planning a quick getaway to Chicago over Labor Day Weekend. We decided that there's enough interesting and fun things to do within a day's drive of Toledo that there's no excuse for us not to get out and experience them. Right?

We have a few ideas of things to do: check out the view from the Sears Tower, eat some pizza, walk around Millennium Park and enjoy sounds of the jazz festival, and hit Mitsuwa Marketplace, the giant Japanese market northwest of town. One friend suggested the planetarium, which sounds totally cool. Another friend is trying to convince us to go see Blue Man Group, too, but we're not totally sold on it yet.

In order to generate ideas for things to do and places to visit, I decided to Google the phrase, "in Chicago, you have to..."

Here's what I came up with, vacation-appropriate or not:

• In order to brave the elements in Chicago, you have to dress yourself accordingly—three fleeces layered on top of each other and a ski mask.
• If you are in Chicago, you have to go here [Giordano's Pizza] for dinner at least one night.
• You're in Chicago- you have to pay a visit to River North.
• When running in Chicago you have to run along the lake.
• But [Sears Tower]'s the third tallest building in the world and once you are in Chicago you have to go!
• I still don't understand why in Chicago you have to pay for parking at the hotel you are paying to stay at.
• Are you still in Chicago? You have to make a pilgrimage to Hot Doug's! Gourmet hot dogs.
• (In Chicago, you have to ask for ketchup on your hot dog.)
• Also, when you're in Chicago you have to try chicago style hot dogs and Italian Beef.
• In Chicago, you have to pay double tolls if you don't use the automated system, and it's a lot slower.
• If you are in Chicago, you have to go and see a concert to get the real summer in Chicago experience.
• In Chicago, you have to get the deep dish.
• If you're in Chicago, you have to visit Michigan Avenue, and since you're seeing Michigan Avenue, you have to amble down Oak Street.
• I started out in Chicago. You have to learn the business.
• If you are in Chicago, you have to try Goose Island and it's even better if you drink it at one of their fine establishments.
• If you're in Chicago, you have to have a potbelly [sandwich].
• Now, since you're in Chicago, you have to get a flame broiled steak at the Weber Grill (yeah, sounds touristy, but the quality is excellent) and a stuffed pizza at Giordano's - just don't have the pizza for lunch before a game.

Well, then. That should keep us busy.

To wrap up, I'll leave you with this little number from the 1982 movie Victor/Victoria:

Ann Arbor Art Fairs 2009

Amy, Aaron and I enjoyed an afternoon at the Ann Arbor Art Fairs this past Saturday. I'm still recovering from the fun, but wanted to briefly share what I bought at the fairs.

Several years back, I saw some hanging plant rooters at the Crosby Art Festival here in town. For whatever reason, I didn't buy one, assuming that (like most other booths) I'd see them at another fair in the near future. Turns out that the artisans aren't exactly local; they're from Vermont. So, this weekend, thanks to Aaron's sharp eye in seeing their booth, I finally picked myself up one of the more popular copper rooters from Vermont Nature Creations. I'm planning to head outside sometime this week and cut some catnip to try rooting in my new piece of art. If I like it, perhaps I'll buy myself another for a spider or two.

One of my favorite parts of going to an art show is watching the people who will actually show you their craft and how they create their wares. Linda Tong was one of those people this year. She creates Asian laquerware, and showed us the delicate handpainting she does for each creation. Knowing this, the Maneki Neko I got for $15 was quite a steal.

During our turn around the Liberty Street Courtyard, I found a booth of jewelry and earrings created from bottle caps and coins and other bits of found items. I bought a pair of earrings made from small Asian coins — only $10 for the pair. She also had earrings made from typewriter keys, but I couldn't find appropriate initials (except maybe I.T., for my occupation). Which is really too bad, because I absolutely adored those earrings. The Fun Company has some of their wares posted online, but nothing quite like the Asian coin earrings I bought, unfortunately, and no typewriter key earrings.

One booth I quite admired, but didn't have the coin (or the real estate) to purchase and properly display, was John Chumack's Galactic Images. His astronomical photos have been featured in National Geographic and Time Magazine, among others, and he has an impressive backyard observatory in Dayton, Ohio. Seeing his photos almost made me want to go out and buy myself a telescope (preferably one I could connect to a camera body). Some of my favorite photos of his, though, were ones where both the stars and the landscape were amazingly sharp; those intrigued me from both a technical and an artistic perspective.

I'm glad that, this year, I actually bought some useful and easily-displayed items that won't still be leaning up against a wall a year later, unmatted and unframed.

In addition to the booths, the food, and the company, I also enjoyed taking photos with my Lomo LC-A. But that's another post for another day...

Religious Denominations of the World

Aaron and I spent yesterday afternoon in Ann Arbor. Ate some delicious food of various ethnic origins, stopped into some interesting stores, and generally had a good time hanging out in a different town.

One of our standard stops in Ann Arbor is the Dawn Treader Book Shop. We've picked up some interesting books there in the past, and it's always fun to just look around. This time, I came across this 1872 publication, Religious Denominations of the World, compiled by a Vincent L. Milner. The title page states that it is "a general view of the origin, history, and condition of the various sects of Christians, the Jews, and Mahometans, as well as the Pagan forms of religion existing in the different countries of the earth: with Sketches of the Founders of Various Religious Sects."

This looks like a fascinating read. The Table of Contents includes dozens of religions I've never heard of before, and some I've only heard of in passing. It should be interesting to read about these religions from the point of view of a Christian from the year 1871 who is attempting to be as impartial as possible (per the Preface).

The only disappointing thing about this book, from a research standpoint, is that it claims to have been "carefully compiled from the best authorities on the subject," but it never references who those authorities are. What I've read so far seems to be factually correct, though, if a bit more biased than Mr. Milner might have thought.

Expect to hear more on my blog about Mr. Milner (if I can find anything) and his take on Mormons, Atheists, and obscure religions of the 1800s.

Early Birthday Weekend

It's been a tradition since the early years of our courtship for Aaron and I to celebrate our respective birthdays on the weekend nearest to the date. Aaron's worked nights/evenings for the last 15 years or so, which makes birthday dinner problematic. Since my birthday is on a Wednesday this year (hint, hint), we opted to celebrate this past Saturday.

Our plans initially revolved around going to see the Star Trek exhibit at the Detroit Science Center, but later expanded to include dinner in Ann Arbor. The short version of the day: The weather was positively BEAUTIFUL; the Star Trek exhibit was fairly detailed and involved, and it definitely catered to the Trekkie/Trekker; dinner was at the Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant on S. University, and was delicious; we continued to be Starbucks whores, even in another town; and we topped off the evening by sharing some mochi ice cream.

The long version of the day (with photos) is after the jump...

read more...

Apple Butter Festival 2008

I realized that I was getting some weird looks this afternoon in Grand Rapids, Ohio, at the Apple Butter Festival. Of course, I *was* wearing my Pump Up The Jam t-shirt from Hot Topic, prominently displaying a piece of toast with jam on each boob.

After discussing this unexpected attention with Aaron, he pointed out to me that I was "That Guy." You know. Don't be the guy who wears a condiment t-shirt to the condiment festival. Don't be that guy.

Not only that, but we purchased condiments at the condiment festival: three pints of apple butter (handmade in Grand Rapids, before an audience of onlookers), a jar of habañero pickles, and one small squeeze-bottle of peanut butter spread (made in Holmes County, Ohio, and which we had previously enjoyed on our 2005 vacation to Amish Country).

Three cheers for a diet which allows apple butter! We've never purchased apple butter in Grand Rapids before, since sugary goodness was taboo. Now, though, three or four tablespoons of apple butter is only one WW Point. Spread that on a toasty whole-grain English muffin, and you've got one tasty breakfast. Nom nom nom.

Prayer... Warriros?

Thus saith the Lord: When thou makest thy signs in the manner of Microsoft Word, surely shalt thou heed the line of red, which marketh thy misspellings.

Seen at the Fulton County Fair, 31 August 2008.

Little Bit of Everything

I don't do these massive update posts much anymore — I prefer to keep my blog entries on one topic at a time — but I figured I'd do one catch-up post, then maybe expound on parts of it later. So, working backwards from today...

Weighed in today at 196.5 lbs on my home scale — that's one and a half pounds away from my recent all-time low of 195 from May 2007. (Yep, I gained 15 pounds in six months, and it took me longer than that to lose it again.) It was a bit of a disappointment, then, to weigh in at my Weight Watchers meeting at 200.4 lbs, even after I had an ultra-light breakfast and didn't drink much water before the weigh-in. My mini-goal had been to weigh in under 200 pounds at the meeting. Oh, well — I guess I'll wait until next weigh-in to hit my mini-goal, and to reward myself with some shorts and dress pants and blouses that fit.

My supervisor asked me this morning if I'd like to attend a User Group meeting in Lansing (two hours away) this Thursday. Then she asked me if I could drive, since her car doesn't have air conditioning. D'oh! So, I'll be getting up at the buttcrack of dawn on Thursday, driving with my supervisor for two hours, attending four hours of Business Intelligence lectures and panels, then having lunch and driving two hours back. At least we don't have to work for the last couple hours of the day; basically, my day gets shifted forward by two hours.

I landed a freelance web design gig yesterday. Actually, I pretty much "landed" it last Wednesday, when he asked me if I do web design, but yesterday's client meeting was the first official sealing of our new business relationship. He's the resident conductor of a local orchestra, so I'm basically making him a PR tool, which is perfect work for me. I underpriced myself, as per usual, but I made sure to leave myself an out: a flat fee for the first 20 hours, then an hourly fee for the next 20, topping out at 40 hours. So, I won't have totally hosed myself.

This past weekend, Aaron and I went up to the Ann Arbor Art Fairs. Great time, as always. I took a few pictures (with the Holga, too, although I'll have to wait until those are developed to post them), and I bought one expensive thing and one not-so-expensive thing.

Oh, and I still need to get this blog moved to its new home on another web host, and not just because something's borked with my MT installation/upgrade (as you will have noticed if you tried to comment on a post lately — your comments ARE going through, I promise). I have until the end of August to get my stuff moved — which, incidentally, is also the deadline for getting my freelance site done. I'm going to be looking at some mighty busy evenings here. I'll need to carefully ration out my time.

And now I should get to bed, because I need to ready myself for my epic early-morning wakey-wakey in another day or so. I haven't gotten up at 5:30am since... um... well, it's been a while. Not counting jet lag in another timezone, of course.

Anime Punch 2008: Armageddicon III

This weekend, Aaron and I took a trip down to Columbus for our first anime convention in over a year. Honestly, it was nice just to get out of town for a weekend. The convention, however, was a great time, as always.

Anime Punch has been one of our favorite conventions the couple of times we've attended, just because they a.) stick to actual anime themes, instead of being an all-encompassing anime / gaming / J-rock convention; b.) insert their collective sense of humor into everything; and c.) include intellectual and intriguing academic panels alongside the typical fan panels. This year was no exception.

But let me begin at the beginning: with bologna sandwiches in Waldo...

read more...

Animarathon and Asimov's

I skipped out on the Saturday afternoon session of this weekend's Aikido seminar to go to Bowling Green with Aaron. We checked out the Animarathon for a short while, walked around campus, then got a coffee at Grounds.

But first, an aside. BGSU alumni: take a look at this landscape and tell me what's missing:

I'll give you a hint: I'm standing in the parking lot by Jerome Library and Anderson Arena. On the left is Kreischer. On the right is the art building.

If you said the Saddlemire Student Services Building, give yourself a point! The old bookstore building was torn down late last year in preparation for a new Fine Arts building. It was unsettling to see a big empty dirt plot where the bookstore once stood. Almost as unsettling as walking around an anime convention inside Olscamp Hall, where I attended so many classes nearly a decade ago.

Grounds for Thought, however, is a more comfortable sort of familiar, as is the taste and smell of a single mocha and the feel of the heavy, tall glass mug in my hands. It feels like home, somehow.

A good part of the joy of Grounds — for me and mine, anyway — is perusing the used books. In particular, I like looking for new-to-me science fiction. And we hit the jackpot this time, when we saw an entire shelf of Asimov's Science Fiction and Analog magazines. Aaron and I sat Indian-style on the floor in the middle of the aisle and scanned the table of contents for each one, looking for authors whose names we recognized. Our resultant haul:

• Asimov's, January 1985
  Including stories by Frederick Pohl, Connie Willis, et al.
• Asimov's, August 1986
  Including stories by Orson Scott Card, Harry Turtledove, et al.
• Asimov's, August 1989
  Including stories by Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, et al.
• Asimov's, Mid-December 1989
  Including stories by Isaac Asimov, Connie Willis, Harry Turtledove, et al.
• Asimov's, February 1990
  Including stories by Bruce Sterling, et al.
• Asimov's, June 1990
  Including stories by James Patrick Kelly, Larry Niven, et al.
• Asimov's, November 1991 (double issue)
  Including stories by Isaac Asimov, Mike Resnick, Robert Silverberg, et al.
• Asimov's, November 1993
  Including stories by Frederick Pohl, Connie Willis, et al.
• The Black Hole: The Illustrated Adaptation of the Exciting Film.
• I, Jedi - A Star Wars novel by Michael A. Stackpole

After we got our coffee buzz and our sci-fi books, we went to Goodwill and found the Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture 2 DVD game (with questions we can answer! Yay!), then headed to the Woodland Small Mall to Steve and Barry's, where Aaron and I got some geeky T-shirts.

I'm going to have plenty of short fiction to read for a while, and hopefully will discover some new sci-fi authors to follow. I'm looking forward to this...

Business Trip #2, Wrap-up

The short version: Hotel was what I expected. Training was what I expected, and exactly what I needed. Time spent with co-worker was what I expected, yet not quite, in many ways. Chicago was as cool as I expected, and I expect to go back someday soon.

The detailed version follows....

read more...

Business Trip #2

I'm carpooling with a co-worker to Chicago tomorrow for more software training. We're taking off in the early afternoon to battle the inclement weather, and so we don't have to drive too far in the dark. I haven't spent much quality time with this co-worker, so this will be a good opportunity for us to get to know each other. Hopefully, we'll still like each other by the time the week is over...

I'm really looking forward to the content of these classes, as my job really hinges on the subject: creating dashboards for business intelligence applications. Once I learn some of the finer points of creating dashboards with this software, I hope I'll be able to hit the ground running when I return to work next week. We'll see how that works out.

The Best Western where we're staying claims to have a 24-hour fitness center with treadmills and stationary bikes; I have every intention of taking advantage of that fitness center, especially since I didn't get to do so on my last trip (and in light of my underwhelming weight loss of late). Apart from that, I'm expecting less of the Best Western than I did of the Hampton Inn, just by virtue of the difference between franchises. I hope I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I'm not counting on it.

My travel buddy will be checking out a laptop from work, plus there's supposedly a Business Center at the hotel, so I may or may not end up blogging while I'm away. I'm honestly hoping to spend a good part of my evening free time on a treadmill, when I'm not eating or reading or (hopefully) hanging out with Timmay.

We're going to be staying one extra night so we won't have to drive four hours home on a Friday night after class. Saturday morning will be spent seeing the sights of Chicago, and we'll head home after lunch, arriving back in town around dinnertime.

This is shaping up to be a much different business trip than my last. Whether that's good, bad, or indifferent remains to be seen...

Business Trip #1, Wrap-up

The short version: Driving from Toledo to Columbus was snowy / windy / rainy (in that order). The class was moderately helpful to my job, and was more of a foundation for what I'll be learning in later classes. The highlight of the trip, however, was visiting with friends every evening.

The more detailed version follows...

read more...

Business Trip #1

There may be few or no updates for the remainder of the week, as I will be in Columbus (Dublin) for MicroStrategy training. I'm sure the Hampton has a business center where I can check my e-mail and whatnot, but I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to spend on e-mail and keeping up with my RSS feeds, much less actually blogging.

Even though I'll be missing out on a grand total of 45 minutes (that's three days' worth) of Aaron time, I'll be hanging out with some old friends in the evenings, which is awesome. I know there are some people in the area that I'm not getting to meet up with, and I do apologize for that. Maybe next time... (And there probably WILL be a next time, with all the training I could potentially sign up for.)

I'm looking forward to learning more about the Business Intelligence software I've been using at work; I'm also looking forward to seeing old friends, and having a change of scenery. I'm not looking forward to being away from my Honey-Muffin on the Hallmark Holiday Valentine's Day, or really being away from him at all; and I'm not sure about making the 2½ hour drive to Columbus alone for the first time.

I'm a big girl. I can go on a big bad business trip by myself.

Right?

Girlie Day With Sheryl!

Yesterday morning, I headed up to Michigan to hang out with Sheryl for the day. We had a great time shopping, eating, hanging out, and talking girl talk.

At my request, our first shopping stop was the Clinique counter at Macy's. I really don't know much about choosing cosmetics for myself, and I figured I deserved to treat myself to some nice makeup for once. The nice Clinique lady — Jill from Jersey — matched me up with a foundation color and put it on for me, then selected some powder and blush for a natural look. I already had eye shadow and lipstick at home, but I did let her sucker me into buying some brushes and some foaming face cleanser. I was splurging anyway, so what the hell.

The final total was an embarrassingly, staggeringly high amount for anyone to spend on makeup in one shot. But I now have oil-free foundation, powder, blush, three brushes, face cleanser, and some moisturizer samples.

As a side note, I put on all of my makeup when I got up this morning, just to see how long it would take me. Total time: 25 minutes. This is a major change from the two minutes it usually takes me to line my eyes and run out the door. I'm doubt I'll be putting on my entire face every day for work; I'm sure I'll get quicker at it as time goes on, though.

Our next stop was lunch at Baja Fresh. It's a Mexican fast-food place that apparently has no franchises in the Toledo area. According to their website, there are a bunch in the Detroit and Columbus areas, but none in Toledo. Anyway, I got a steak quesadilla with peppers and onions, and it was quite yummy. Like Sheryl said while we were there: it wasn't the nicest place we could have gone to eat, but after spending so much money already, cheaper was better.

After lunch, we headed off to Canton to shop at IKEA. We both went in with an agenda: Sheryl needed a file cabinet. I wanted to get kitchen organization stuff (as mentioned earlier), a Billy bookcase to replace the plastic shelving unit in the basement, and a couple of Japanese-inspired lamps for the bedroom. In addition to those things, I ended up getting a Lack endtable to use as my meditation altar.

All in all, I spent only $20 more on my IKEA haul than I did on my Clinique purchases.

Sheryl and I managed to Tetris everything into her SUV, although we were doubtful whether the bookcase would fit in the Kia for my trip home. Surprisingly enough, when we got back to her place and put down the back seats in the Kia, the bookshelf fit perfectly. Granted, we had to put the front seat all the way forward, too, but it worked!

After IKEA, we decided that we'd spent enough money for one day, so we hung out at her place and watched Princess Mononoke and snacked on some Sun Chips. Then we went to dinner at Claddagh; I ordered fish and chips, and she ordered shepherd's pie, and we split our entrees between the two of us. I should totally do that more often.

After dinner, Sheryl and I swung past Best Buy and met up with Santa so he could give me one of Aaron's Christmas gifts. Then it was time to go.

Once I got home, around 9pm, Mark and Rocky were here, playing Killer Bunnies with Aaron. They started their game over so I could join in (after Mark helped me bring in my loot from the car). So, the fun social day continued with a game of Killer Bunnies, then a game of Apples to Apples.

It's not so much the shopping that I like about my Sheryl trips, although that is a big part of it. I really like just hanging out and talking and feeling comfortable and just being with Sheryl. Sometimes I forget how awesome it is to have girlfriends.

The only thing that's weird is that I sometimes feel self-conscious about my weight when I'm with Sheryl. She's lost a lot of weight and gotten a lot more fit over the years, and even though I lost fifty pounds myself (though I keep regaining and relosing that last ten), I'm still very aware of the fact that I'm teetering on obese, BMI-wise. I guess it's just the fact that the Sheryl in my head is the post-Atkins Sheryl, and when I'm reminded that the current Sheryl is actually the post-everything Sheryl, I'm all, 'Wow. She looks good.' Which inadvertently reminds me that I don't? I don't know exactly what my brain's doing, but I wish it would stop.

Again, I digress. I had an AWESOME day with my Sheryls, and I look forward to doing it again soon. Yay for girlfriends!

Calm, Cool and Collected

Attended Eric's wedding reception in Columbus (photos to come) on Saturday. 2+ hour drive each way, but worth it for the multiple-course meal at Brio. Not to mention the adult contemporary pre-dinner musician. Hearing live covers of massive amounts of Jim Croce, Barry Manilow, Elton John and others was totally classic. Tells you how much of a goober I am that I could name title and artist for most of his repertoire, though.

Seriously, though, the food was the highlight of the evening. That, plus seeing Eric (whom I hadn't seen since we moved into our house in spring 2004) and meeting his wife (whom I'd only ever talked to via blog comments). Even though we were the only people representing BG, and we didn't know anyone there except Eric, we still enjoyed ourselves. And we enjoyed the yummy spice cake. Major kudos for having a cake that was neither white nor chocolate.

Sunday afternoon was a seminar on the basics of Zen meditation. We discussed our respective reasons for attending the seminar, learned about proper posture and options for sitting positions, and did a few brief sessions of zazen (seated meditation) and kinhin (walking meditation).

After both of these weekend events, I'm feeling refreshed and revived. Calm and alert. I think that, if I can maintain a daily zazen practice (and remember that I really do have friends, and keep in touch with them in a meaningful way), I'll be able to keep this stillness in reserve for when I need it.

Camping at Harrison Lake

Sunday night's camping trip almost didn't happen, even after booking the campsite two months in advance.

Eight o'clock Sunday morning, Aaron and I were awakened by the most amazing thunderstorm. By 10am, the rain was still going strong. By noon, the rain had abated to a drizzle, but still wasn't letting up.

We'd already assembled everything we'd need for outdoors cooking and sleeping the night before, and had been planning to head out to Harrison Lake around 2:30pm to get there after the check-in time of 3:00. By 3:30, though, we were playing Wii Baseball and had resigned ourselves to an evening indoors, and to making our preplanned foil dinners on the grill instead of a campfire.

At 4pm, though, the rain let up and the sky started to clear. Just a little. Enough to permit camping, at least, if not swimming. So, we packed up the car, and off we went.

We arrived at Harrison Lake an hour later, after a minor detour on County Road M (props to Aaron for knowing how Fulton County roads work, and getting us past the roadblock with no problem). Located our general camping area, then headed up to the main office to check in. Bought some firewood at the camp office, and headed back to our campsite to set up.

I had been very deliberate about which campsite to reserve online; I wanted as few close neighbors as possible, plus a view of the lake. Seeing the site in person, I felt I had chosen well.

The sky was overcast, so we started pitching the tent as soon as we got situated, anticipating an early dusk. Luckily, our dome tent didn't hold too many mysteries, and we got our shelter going on without too much fuss. It took us a little while to figure out how to assemble the fly (aka the cool tent cover thingie), but it all worked out eventually.

Shelter, check. Next order of business: fire.

We assembled the smaller pieces of firewood in the teepee formation, got out some newspaper to light the fire, and went for it. Tried log-cabin-style when the teepee didn't work. Flopped everything in a pile when log-cabin didn't work. Doused the logs with lighter fluid. Repeatedly. Bemoaned our lack of tinder. Felt generally inept.

Little did we know that the camp office was selling "green lumber." One well-meaning passerby let us in on that little tidbit. "Look at that," he said. "That ain't even cracked. Good luck getting that to burn."

Hmm.

We pilfered some more likely-looking wood from abandoned campsites -- people leave it, after all, since transportation of firewood across county lines is illegal due to the spread of the emerald ash borer beetle. The additional firewood was a little help, but not much, as it was still damp from the rains. Aaron even left briefly to try to buy some better firewood elsewhere, but the local minimart had already closed.

Finally, two hours after we'd first started trying to build our campfire -- yep, that's TWO HOURS of fighting with Mother Nature -- our camping neighbors presented us with a starter log. They were using a camp stove, they said, and had never used a starter log, but kept one with them just in case. They must have been watching us fight with our campfire (or lack thereof) for a couple of hours, and finally took pity on us.

The starter log did the trick. Loads of fantastic fiery chemicals made both our green lumber and our damp pilfered firewood stay lit. By this point, it was reaching dusk, and we had to wait for the fire to burn down enough to present us with sufficiently hot coals for foil packet cooking. We roasted a couple of hot dogs in the meantime; we hadn't eaten since lunch.



Just after dark, our chicken and veggie foil meals were ready to eat: chicken breasts, mushrooms, onions, asparagus, summer squash, and green peppers cooked in a foil packet. We ate in the dark at our picnic table, wishing for a lantern. Afterward, we made some s'mores (with Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bars) and sat around the campfire, talking and drinking bottled water (no alcohol allowed in state parks).

I'm not sure what time it was when we finally let the fire burn itself out and went to bed -- sometime around midnight, I think. Aaron had bought a new air mattress and battery-powered pump for the trip; I'd ended up underinflating the bed due to my unfamiliarity with the airbed/pump combination, so whenever one of us got up, the other person's ass touched the ground until they came back. That was the only real downside of sleeping in the tent -- that, and the massive amounts of dirt we tracked in on our sandals. All night, Aaron kept waking up at unfamiliar nature sounds, and I kept waking up just wondering what time it was.

Finally, just before 8am, we heard the very loud sounds of a tanker truck pulling up and emptying the port-a-johns across the way. I couldn't get back to sleep after that, and was up and around at 9am to try to stoke the fire. No luck, and we weren't about to spend two hours trying to get a fire started again. We skipped breakfast and opted not to trek down to the shower house. Instead, we packed up, took a leisurely walk around part of the lake, and left around 10:30am.



On the way back through the country, we saw a billboard for The Barn Restaurant at Sauder Village, which wasn't far from the campground. Since we hadn't eaten breakfast, we decided to take a little side trip to The Barn for an early lunch. They opened at 11am -- only a couple minutes after we pulled into their parking lot -- at which point we went in and proceeded to have the best lunch buffet I'd had in quite a long time. Roasted and broasted chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad bar, taco bar, baked beans, rolls with apple butter, and quite possibly the best peach cobbler I've ever had. Ever.



And that was our first camping trip together. No swimming, very little walking or hiking, but there was s'mores and campfire cooking and sleeping in a tent. I think we're going to try this again sometime... hopefully, when the weather will be a little more agreeable. And when we'll be armed with a starter log.

T-minus 28 days and counting

We bought luggage at TJ Maxx this past weekend: two large 29" Dockers suitcases for about $60 apiece. We're still contemplating whether to purchase a new carry-on or two, or just use our backpacks and shoulder bags as carry-on.

Since I expedited my passport, it arrived a couple of weeks ago. Aaron's still waiting for his to show up, even though he applied for his much sooner than I did mine. As soon as his passport arrives, we'll reserve our Ghibli Museum vouchers, since we need passport info to get those.

Due to an incredible stroke of luck, we managed to book a room at the Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu during the Sanja Festival. The Shigetsu is practically across the street from the Sensoji Temple and Asakusa Shrine... well, OK, maybe a couple streets and a park away. At any rate, we'll be in Asakusa, in the thick of things, during the Sanja Matsuri. Could be crazy. Will definitely be a new and fun experience.

I've completed the Pimsleur Japanese Short Course, all eight lessons, and am going to continue with Japanese I tomorrow. (From what I understand, the Short Course is basically the first eight lessons of Japanese I, so I'm starting with Lesson 8 tomorrow.) Vocab from JPod101 is starting to dovetail with Pimsleur, which tends to make my Pimsleur lessons feel less difficult... or less meaningful. When I already know all the new vocab except the word "lunch," I tend to feel a little jipped, I guess.

I have the feeling I'm still going to either have to consult Aaron's phrasebook or look up some words online before our departure. After I'm done here, I may take a few minutes to look up "water," "menu," and other daily vocabulary I might need. Honestly, though, I'm fully expecting not to need my meager Japanese skillz in Tokyo. I expect that the person at the front desk of the Tokyo Prince Hotel is going to greet us in English, rather than saying, "Tokyo Purinsu Hoteru e youkoso irashaimase!" So, I'm probably not going to have to remember about nimei being the honorific term for "two people," or roppaku being the word for "six nights." It might be polite of me to give it a shot, though, and I'm still not convinced that we won't need my fantastic *scoff-scoff* Japanese skillz somewhere along the line.

I'm afraid I might try to get too fancy if I try to speak too much Japanese, as I'm basically doing the language version of learning to play piano from that crazy infomercial guy. I don't know all the underlying grammar and structure; I'm learning phrases on the fly and picking up some structure along the way. The particles are still eluding me a bit, and there are words with similar meanings that confuse me. I'm afraid that if I try to put together new sentences with words I know, I'm going to fuck the grammar all up and end up sounding like... well, like a foreigner, I suppose. Go figure.

[Hmm. I'm a big word nerd. I just cleared up some of my confusion by reading the Wikipedia article on Japanese particles that I just linked to. Just tell me that "o" indicates a direct object, and it clears things right up. Wikipedia makes everything clearer...]

OK, off of the Japanese language rant.

At any rate, things are starting to come together. We'll start being a little more methodical about planning the things we definitely don't want to miss, and listing things in the same vicinity that we could squeeze in around the biggies. Like, Nakano Broadway is a must. The Ghibli Museum is a must. The Ramen Museum... OK, that's really high up on the list. The Parasitological Museum is a free oddity that would be fun to check out, but is not necessarily a must-do. ;-)

What's the Japanese word for OMGEXCITED!!!111 ?

T-minus 10 Weeks and Counting

The plane tickets have been purchased. The hotel reservations have been confirmed. The Dynamic Tokyo Tour is a go.

OMFG, we're going to Japan!!

Wednesday, May 16: Arrive in Tokyo. Limo-bus to hotel. Check in, get our culture shock going on. Locate dinner.
Thursday: Guided tour. Begins at 9am. Ends late afternoon in Ginza. First major task: getting "home" from Ginza.
Friday: Still open. Maybe Akihabara? Maybe Ghibli Museum?
Saturday: Also still open. Perhaps book Saturday night at the Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu.
Sunday: Visit Harajuku and the Meguro Parasitological Museum?
Monday: Possibly a day trip to Nikko, or just catching up on whatever we haven't done yet.
Tuesday: Check out, have lunch, and catch the limo-bus back to Narita Airport for our flight home at 4pm.

As Sheryl would say... ::flail::

...

WTF am I going to do with the 2500 WorldPerks Bonus Miles I'm going to earn from this trip?

Planning the Ultimate Schnuth Vacation

Former travellers to Japan, please complete the following sentence:

"I can't believe you're planning a trip to Japan and you're not planning to go to                !"

That's right, fellow readers, we're taking the plunge and heading off to Japan, most likely in May. My lowest APR credit card just so happens to be able to swing airfare and hotel for a week in the Land of the Rising Sun. It's not the best financial decision we could make, but it's one of those things that I think we'd regret not having done when we had the chance.

We're going to sit down soon (probably this weekend) and think about things we really MUST do while we're in Japan, particularly Tokyo. We may have to forego our tour of southern Japan, just due to funding issues. We'll see. At any rate, we already have some destinations on the potential to-do-in-Japan list:

• Akihabara (Electric Town)
• The Ghibli Museum
• Eat at a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi-ya
• The Tokyo Tower (conveniently located adjacent to our current hotel of choice)

I'm sure there's a lot more we'd like to do, including visiting a shrine and just walking around the city, but that's all I can come up with right this moment. Anyone have any additions, especially within a decent subway-ride of Tokyo?

I've also heard that it won't matter that we're not fluent in Japanese. Actually, only Sheryl has told me that, and she's one of about three people I know (other than friends of friends) who have been to Japan. Who else wants to chime in on this one? Will I be OK asking how much this costs, how do I get to [insert place here], knowing my right from my left, counting to ten (and higher if I think really hard), and basic shit like that? Has everyone else had Sheryl's same experience of dealing with English-speakers in all the important places? What words do I need to be able to *read*, if any?

(Aaron's not too good with languages, and I'm cool with that. If one of us has to go take a crash course on Japanese, I'm it. Bring on the vidcasts and websites and CDs.)

I am SO stoked for this. I haven't been this excited about a trip in a long, long time.

Ohayocon7 Retrospective, Part I: Fried Bologna Sandwiches

[Posted on Flickr by dianaschnuth].

I haven't blogged about the last few cons Aaron and I have attended, mainly because I prefer to save my opinions and narratives for Aaron's podcast. This time, though, there are enough other random, un-anime things that deserve mention that I think I'll go ahead and blog about the weekend. And I will begin at the beginning, with fried bologna sandwiches in Waldo, Ohio...

read more...

Ann Arbor Art Fairs

In lieu of a full rundown of the day, I present to you: The Dancing Man.

This guy was dancing in an alley, and attracting quite the crowd. It took me a moment of gawking in amusement before it occurred to me that my digital camera can record video. So, here is a little slice of fun for you, direct from the Ann Arbor Art Fairs.

My Step-Philip's Graduation Weekend

On Friday evening before he went to work, Aaron asked me if I'd heard anything from my Mom or step-Gary about Philip's high school graduation. When did we need to be where, did we have tickets to the actual graduation, et cetera. I didn't know yet, as Mom hadn't called me to confirm the final plans, and I told him so. His parting shot was, "If I come home tonight and find out I have to get up at 10am," followed by some sort of consequence I can't exactly recall. Something like, "I'll be pissed," or "I won't be happy," or something along those lines.

Guess when we had to get up Saturday morning.

read more...

Ohayocon5

I'm still working on a weekend review, but I did manage to finish my Ohayocon5 photo gallery. (I've gotta come up with a new way to make slideshows for my site—besides Flickr.)

There is also a great collection of photos at fansview.com, in addition to an informative narrative on the weekend.

Edit:
OK, here's the overview I promised. Now, it's kind of cold in this room, so my fingers are a little stiff; plus, I didn't take notes during the weekend like I'd planned. So, I don't promise literary greatness here. But, hopefully, between my photos and my narrative, you'll get the general idea.

read more...

Home From Ohayocon

Ohayocon was a great time! Almost like a mini-vacation. Very cool.

I'm currently working on adjusting and resizing the 30+ digital pics we took over the weekend. Until then, here's a pic I just took of Aaron displaying his two prized purchases: his moogle hat and his Mr. Sparkle t-shirt.

Con pics and a review/narrative soon to come!

My Best Friend's Baby

...Well, my best friend from Middle School, anyway.

It occured to me that I have a backlog of lomographs that I haven't posted, including my visit to Carolyn's baby shower back in October (mouse over thumbnails for descriptions):

Carolyn's mom took the pic of me and Carrie, and had a little trouble with the lomo's shutter. It took me a while to master myself, when I first got the camera. Of course, I got some flak from Carrie for being a super web-goddess and bringing a cheap plastic camera. It was at this point that I made the fatal error of telling them how much I paid for my kitschy Lomo LC-A.

Then I got made fun of even more.

But, then again, a visit with Carolyn wouldn't be complete with a little humor at my expense, right? ;-)

Black Swamp Lomographs

Here they are, the photos of the Black Swamp Art Festival. Taken with my almost-trusty Lomo LC-A on Saturday, September 11, 2004 in Bowling Green OH.

Launch slideshow

Black Swamp 2004

This weekend, Amy came up to visit for the annual Black Swamp Arts Festival in Bowling Green. It's actually a good thing that Amy got hung up at home and showed up later than planned, because we easily scanned the art booths in an hour. Honestly, we weren't impressed this year. There was plenty of good art, but not as much that was so intriguingly different that we had to stop and look. Amy didn't even make any purchases this year, which is really saying something. In years past, we've easily burned through $100 apiece.

After the booths closed at 7pm, we (that is, Aaron, Amy, Mark, and myself) had dinner at Easystreet, then indulged on fair food (mmm, funnel cakes) and hung around to see Southern Culture on the Skids. We ended up leaving after about half their set, mainly because it was so damned loud. We didn't even stay to hear their one hit 90's song, Camel Walk. (They probably played it as their encore.)

So, all said, the festival was a disappointment, but hanging with Amy was cool, as always. I'm kind of embarrassed that I told my co-workers that the festival was cool enough to warrant driving down from Toledo to check out. *shrug*

Weekend In Dayton

Not really in the mood to write too much, but I figured I'd post a short update about my trip to Dayton this weekend.

Mom arrived Friday evening, shortly before I got home from work. We ended up going to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner after Aaron left for work, then getting some low-carb munchies at Wal-Mart before heading back home. —What did we do all evening? Hmm. Talked, pumped up the air mattress, played a little online. Crashed out around 11-ish, I think. Turns out Aaron came home from work early at 12:30am. (Damn... I hate it when I just miss seeing him by an hour or so.)

Left for Dayton around 9am on Saturday. Ate breakfast at a diner along the way. Arrived at Grandpa and Grandma Cook's house in Centerville (south side of Dayton) around noon-thirty. Talked, looked at photos, copied photos with the digital (which actually seems to have worked out well), went through some genealogy with Grandpa, ate dinner, played Scrabble, called Amy and Aaron, talked on the back porch, went to bed around 10:15pm.

Got up around 7:30am on Sunday. Had a small breakfast, relaxed and talked, and left for Union around 10:15—Grandpa and Grandma had to be at church by 11am, anyway. Arrived at Amy's house in Union (after a few missed turns) a little after 11am, to discover that Mom's allergies go absolutely haywire in a home with two dogs and two cats. Heh. Amy was the naviguesser as we headed for a hotel to check in, then on to the Air Force Museum. Saw lots and lots of planes, some of them pretty cool, and watched an IMAX movie (narrated by Tom Cruise) about the International Space Station. Pretty friggin' cool. Headed back to the hotel after a few hours and left Mom there to fend for herself while I went back to Amy's house. Grilled hamburgers and bratwursts, talked with her and her grandmother, left just before dark to make my way back to the hotel. Watched the olympics with Mom. Called Aaron on the cell. Went to bed a little after 11:00.

Got up around 8:00 and packed up our stuff. Mom checked out the continental breakfast and snagged herself a small piece of danish, bringing me a small apple. Headed out toward Toledo around 9:00am or so. Arrived home at 11am. Once Aaron woke up, we went to lunch—first attempt was Quizno's, which was insanely packed; next, we tried to get into the parking lot of the Garden Cafe on Reynolds, but the left turn just wouldn't happen during the lunch rush; finally, we ended up at Nick's Cafe, where Aaron and I hadn't eaten in years. The Nickburger is immense, even without a bun; I had to ask for a box for the last third of mine. Then we visited Low Carb Solutions, where Mom bought us a crapload of low-carb goodies, and some for herself. After that, we came back to the house, relaxed for a few minutes, and Mom left for Parma around 2:00pm so Aaron and I would have some quality time together before he had to leave for work.

Overall, this was a relaxing mini-vacation weekend. Pleasant, slow-moving, and generally non-stressful, even with the driving. I snapped at Mom a couple of times, but I think she knew I didn't really mean it. It was nice to have some real quality time with Mom, especially since she'll be moving to Texas in a month or so, and goodness knows when we'll make it down there for a holiday or a vacation. This could be the last quality time I get with my mother for a long, long time.

This Weekend

Yesterday: Aaron and I went to BG to meet up with Timmay for lunch at Campus Pollyeyes. Their salads are friggin' gigantic, so we weren't too sad about watching Tim eat his yummy breadsticks. It occurred to us that they always kinda sit funny in your stomach, anyway—not in any sort of "sour grapes" sort of way, but in thinking of how Aaron and I would react to so much bread right now.

We spent two hours there at Pollyeyes, talking and catching up. Tim told the best drunk story ever, including him passing out on the train and being awakened at the end of the line and having to walk five miles home while calling his passed-out roommate who's locked Tim out without his keys and then Tim eating breakfast at a local diner and finally breaking into his own apartment to find his roommate passed out in the bathroom. Classic story, and better than anything that ever happened at BGSU. I miss Tim. Heh.

After hanging out with Tim, we hit Goodwill and the Woodville Small, then went back up to Best Buy to purchase a scanner. Scanners these days are so cool. We got one that scans transparencies (most do now) and comes with this spiffy-assed scanning software that automatically detects where the pictures are on a strip of film and brings them up as thumbnails. Holy crap! Soooo cool. (Or maybe I've been away from cutting-edge technology for a while, having graduated college and all, and am just out of the loop.)

So, that was Saturday in a nutshell. Today involved me getting up and leaving the house around 9:20, getting ass-raped by the National City ATM (since the Sky ATM isn't exactly close to home), getting half a tank of gas, and driving up to Clawson. There I met Barb and Russ, and they drove the rest of the way to the first official LakeShoremen full-corps rehearsal in Montrose, Michigan. Basically, a three-and-a-half hour trip one way for me. Rehearsal was from 1:00 to about 4:00, and was quite productive and very cool. We got to rehearse in an Ensemble setting with the percussion, then put the colorguard with the group as we figured out a parade formation. It'll be interesting to see how the parade goes in two weeks—we didn't get to actually move the parade block outside of the gym, as outdoor practicing was noise-prohibitive. (The drumline tried it and got called by the superintendent within five minutes.) In other related news, I started getting that old familiar twinge in my middle back, below my shoulder blades—the one I get when I stand at attention with my horn up for extended periods of time. It's not an "ouch I hurt something" feeling; more of a "hmm I don't use that muscle much and it's really starting to feel hot and cold at the same time and it'll be sore later" kind of feeling. And, yes, it's sore right now.

Anyway, I finally got home around 7:15pm. Long day. Aaron had dinner just about done when I got home: barbecued chicken and grilled yellow squash. Mmm. He's off doing food shopping now. He did my job of laundry earlier in the day. He's so cool. I'm so lucky. *contented sigh*

Rollins in Ann Arbor

Need to get my shower and get to sleep, but I just felt the need to update. It's been a few days.

Went to see Henry Rollins do his spoken word thing in Ann Arbor on Sunday. I was worried that the drunk bastard sitting behind us would ruin the entire show instead of just the first 20 minutes, but he mercifully passed out and didn't wake up until the show was almost over, nearly three hours later. I swear, we can't get away from the drunken fucks even when we pay for reserved seats. —But drunken debauchery aside, Rollins was on top of his game, as always, with tales of his recent USO tour in Afghanistan and of a would-be burglar "running like a scared bitch," as one Abe-lover I know would say. :-) Gotta get a Rollins fix every couple of years, just like Clutch.

While we were in Ann Arbor, we stopped by the anime store (of course), a couple record stores, and a couple of book stores. I ended up buying Nichelle Nichols' autobiography, Beyond Uhura, a book on the making of Star Trek entitled Star Trek Lives!, and a trade-paperback edition of an Asimov-universe book that Aaron had already bought for me in small paperback form for Christmas. I felt kind of bad buying that one, but the size and artwork matched the two hardbacks I have for the other books of the set, and I just couldn't resist. I may eBay the other paperback, but I may not. It was a present, after all.

Incidentally, I am absolutely hooked on Nichelle Nichols' book. I can't put it down.

I ordered some new candle scents that should be arriving soon: ginger, chamomile, green tea... and marshmallow. I also ordered tealight tins and wicks, so now I can pour a bunch of little candles and burn them together to test-mix fragrances. I still need to get some additives and a couple more dyes before I get going full-steam again, but I'm looking forward to it.

OK, my 20-minute session of Pilates kind of whipped my butt again tonight, so I'm hitting the shower and going to bed. Of course, once I'm there, I'll probably read for a good half-hour before I actually go to sleep...

Ohayocon4

...was a lot of fun. Arrived at the Hyatt Regency Columbus at noon, got registered (after standing in line for a half hour), and ate lunch at the Subway in the hotel's food court. (FYI, the Atkins-friendly Chicken Bacon Ranch wraps are yummy, and the actual wheat/soy wrap itself is really quite good, but the portion size leaves a little to be desired.)

After lunch, we hit the Dealer Room to spend our respective wads of cash. Two circuits around the Dealer Room yielded:

• a Chibi Totoro plushie (the white one)
  
• a Chu Totoro keychain (the blue one)
  
• a deck of giant Totoro playing cards
  
• Warcry: a book of Berserk postcards / art
  
• a Berserk Dreamcast poster
  
• a Gamera toy
  
• an Aruru capsule toy (with Puyos—from the Puyo Puyo video game)
  

...and left us enough money for dinner later.

read more...

Gravity Games

Hey, remember this from the front page?

Week #1
9/7 - 9-13
No Dew Week

Week #2
9/14 - 9/20
No Pasta Week

Week #3
9/21 - 9/27
No Candy Week

Well, nix that. I'm joining Aaron on his full-on foray into Atkins, starting Monday. (That's tomorrow.) I've got my Atkins profile up on their website, and checked out some recipes. Aaron's gone full-force and bought the carb-counter book and the Atkins cookbook, and borrowed another low-carb cookbook from the library. He likes to eat more meat than I usually do, anyway, so I think the hardest thing for him is going to be cataloguing the carb content of everything that goes into his mouth.

Me, I've already broken myself of my Mountain Dew addiction, and I've pretty much cut out pasta. Those were the hard parts. Now I just have to get up early enough to eat breakfast, and remember to make myself a lunch before I go to bed the previous day (since I won't just be grabbing a frozen meal from the freezer on my way out).

So, we'll see how that goes. I'm looking forward to it myself.

Yesterday, Aaron and I headed out to Cleveland for the Gravity Games. For those of you who aren't big "Extreme Sports" freaks, the Gravity Games includes skateboard vert (ramp) and street (men's and women's), freestyle motocross, wakeboarding, inline skating street and vert, and bike dirt, street, and vert. We watch it on NBC every year, and it's been in Cleveland for the past couple of years, but we haven't gotten out to watch it live. This year, though, since we got the heads-up at the Taste of Cleveland, we went out and got tickets for this bad boy.

We left around noon, and got there around two-ish. Found parking for five bucks, walked the couple blocks to the Games, brandished our tickets, received loose-fitting wristbands, opened my camera case (for no one to actually search it), and we were in. We walked around the Festival Village, which was basically the marketing and merch fairway, and got some stickers and a sampler CD of some kind. Could have gotten more stuff, had we actually been able to approach some of the booths, but the stuff we got was pretty much shoved at us by booth attendants out in the middle of the fairway.

We wandered over and found a bike dirt venue, where kids were allowed to go down a ramp and do their best trick on a five-foot dirt hill. I finished up the roll of film that was in my camera by snapping photos of the kids, and of the one guy who was running the show, who would go down the ramp occasionally, to keep it interesting. He turned a backflip almost as soon as we got there to watch, so I didn't get that on film. :-(

One of the great things about the Gravity Games being in Cleveland (besides the fact that it's close enough to drive) is that your ticket gets you into the Rock Hall for half-price. So, we spent about an hour and a half, I think, wandering around the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. And we didn't even get upstairs! We decided that our little taste of the Rock Hall was just enough to make us want to go make a day of it sometime in the future.

Around 4:00, we headed out and tried to find a spot in the bleachers by the vert ramp. It took some patience, and several seat relocations, but we ended up on the top row of bleachers, right by the WKYC Channel 3 sign. (So, if you happen to watch the Gravity Games on some Sunday afternoon in the next two months, and watch the Men's Skateboard Vert Finals, look for us.) We ended up watching the Women's Skateboard Vert Practice and Demo, so we could have our good seats for the Men's Finals later that evening. I spent one roll of film on the Vert ramp, so we'll see how that comes out.

It was great being able to see some of the skaters live: Bob Burnquist, Andy MacDonald, Bucky Lasek, Pierre-Luc Gagnon, Rune Glifberg... Too bad there was no Tony Hawk, but I guess you'll have that when you retire. *shrug*
We headed out around 9:15pm — after the Finals were over, but before the scores were announced. Made it to the car, found I-90 West, and stopped for dinner at a TGIFridays in Westlake on our way home. Got home around 12:30am or so, which is early for coming in from an out-of-town excursion. Usually it's 3am. :-)

So, good weekend. Yeah. And Aaron's got the next four weeks off of work, so he'll be home when I get home from work every day. w00t! That makes things a little better, too.

Yay, Computer!

Thank you, Sheryl! Thankyou-thankyou-thankyou! *big sloppy kiss*

My computer works! It runs Windows ME at 1.8 GHz and with 256 megs of RAM. Oh, yes. Aaron says he may start downloading some of the videos that his computer won't play properly, and watch them on mine. And I'm OK with that. :-)

I only have had to reinstall Photoshop and Dreamweaver — and this gave me the opportunity to get off my sorry ass and upgrade to Photoshop 7 and Dreamweaver MX, supplied months ago by Kris. Thankfully, I did figure out how to save all my messages from Outlook Express before I wiped the HD the first time, and I found how to re-import them, so I didn't lose any important messages. I think I might have lost my address book, though, but no biggie. Anything I really needed is saved in my various messages, I think.

So, I bid a fond adieu to my Mac, as I'm sure it will sit and once again gather dust until I need to do some genealogy or print something on the laser printer.

In other news, I have to work tomorrow at 8am. Yep, Aaron's got the day off and I have to work a full fucking 8-hour day. WTF. But back to general happiness...

Yesterday, Aaron and I headed out to The Taste Of Cleveland festival to eat lots of food and watch P-Funk. Such a great day. Beautiful weather, fresh breeze off the river (this isn't the fiery Cuyahoga of yesteryear), festive atmosphere, all made for a perfect day trip.

Traffic on the turnpike was smooth on the way, and we found our way to the venue parking with little incident. Parking was six bucks, but that was an expected expense, and the traffic flow there was carefully managed. Parked in the Tower City garage, walked across the street to the venue (with the assistance of traffic cops), and found ourselves at the top of a hill overlooking the entire festival. Tents, booths, games, food, and a large tented ampitheatre area. Oh, yes. This looked promising.

We headed down the hill to the ticket booth: five bucks apiece to get in, with the $2 coupons Aaron found online. That done, we went in and bought our initial batch of food tickets for $20. (That's where they get ya.) After wandering around agape at all the food — ribs, Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, BBQ chicken, burgers, sausages, almost anything you could want in festival food. We opted for the gyro booth, and the Seafood Delight, which was indeed delightful. Shrimp and imitation crab chunks were sauteed with sweet onions and squash in a delicious saucy juicy liquid, then slopped onto a flatbread pita with some shredded lettuce, wrapped with foil, and served to us with a plastic fork and napkin. Oh, so good. Those cost six tickets apiece, so there went most of our food stash. The rest was gone with two Mountain Dews from the booth next door.

We wandered over toward the ampitheatre to find a neutral place to eat our Delights, and found one of the tall tables for standing and eating at. I managed to dump the delicious sauce down my front during the course of the meal. :-) After dinner, we decided to take a closer look at the displays and booths, since we had been so hungry when we arrived that we'd beelined for the food. Overall, the most interesting thing we found was the booth for the Gravity Games that we'd already visited on our way in, and the setting sun was totally beaming us right in the eyes. Gah. So, we bought some more tickets and went to enjoy some frozen custard. Mmm... custard. If you've never had it, get some whenever you have the chance. Oh, so good.

(Damn, I should be getting to bed... It's 1:00am and not even really today anymore...)

All right, I'm going to stop here and continue tomorrow. I don't want to be totally dragging when I finally get home to Aaron after work on everyone else's day off. Sigh. I'll tell all about the show (that quite possibly could be the best show I've ever attended) later.

Sunday Easter Sunday

So, who's morbidly curious about what I did for Easter?

...Thought so. But I'm going to tell you, anyway.

Headed out at 9:45am. Made it to Lakewood (about 5 miles west of downtown Cleveland) in less than two hours. Lakewood Hospital, where Memaw's staying, is on the same street as Aaron's grandparents' house, so we drove past their place first, thinking maybe we could just walk from there. Alas, it was closer to five blocks than the two Aaron had originally thought, so we drove down and found a parking spot on the street (to avoid paying for parking in the parking garage).

Walked into the hospital, asked the receptionist what room Jessie Lowe was in, and followed her directions (hitting the restrooms that were conveniently located on the way). Since Mom had asked me to get hearing aid batteries for Memaw, we stopped by the nurses' station on the way to her room to drop them off, and ended up conversing with Memaw's personal nurse. She gave us a run-down on how Memaw was doing: her hearing aid had just plain died, she wasn't eating, and she was generally groggy and in "what she perceives as pain." The nurse said that if Memaw doesn't start eating, she won't have enough strength to make it much longer. I thanked the nurse, then mentally steeled myself and led Aaron into the hospital room.

The greeting was much different than the warm welcome of Tuesday. This time, I got, "Oh, it's you." She was much more confused this time around, and I only managed to converse with her at all by hovering two inches from her ear. We only stayed for about 15 minutes, because I saw no point in being there. Maybe it sounds callous. I don't know. I'd just rather minimize the Memaw-as-a-confounded-invalid memories and stick with the Memaw-as-a-good-cook-and-strong-woman memories. I'm glad I came up on Tuesday, because if this had been my only "last visit" with Memaw, I would have been much more upset. I didn't cry when we left this time, but I know I'll be haunted by my (assumedly) final image of her watching me go and dazedly repeating, "I love you, too. I love you, too. I love you, too..."

With the depressing part of the day behind us (I know, I know, I'm being crass and callous in the face of family tragedy), we drove back down the street to Grammie and Poppa's house. We were the first to arrive, and sat and talked with Poppa for a while, since Grammie was still at church. Five minutes after we got there, Aaron's dad showed up in his new SUV (who'd have thunk Bob would buy an SUV?). We talked about the wedding and Aaron's job and everyone's various medications and unions and on and on... Grammie came home from church and joined the conversaion. it was pleasant. Then Pete's clan showed up.

If I haven't explained Uncle Pete's clan, let me clarify for you. We've got Pete, who is Aaron's uncle — his mother's brother. (Poppa and Grammie are his mother's parents.) Pete's first wife, Peggy, the mother of his children, died some time ago. I want to say about 9 or 10 years, but I'm not sure, since I never met her. The oldest child is Megan, who is 17-almost-18. Then comes Alex (15?), Natalie (13?), and Joey (10). (I'm sure Aaron will tell me if I got any ages totally wrong.) That had been interesting enough, but there's a recent twist: Pete just got remarried. His new wife is Deanna (yes, our names were confusing to the grandparents at first), and she has two children from her previous marriage: Sophie (16?) and Gabe (14). Most of the kids are old enough that they're "real people" and aren't too annoying anymore, but Joey still likes to watch Spongebob and those bizarro Dexter-type cartoons on Nick and the Cartoon Network that make me stare in confusion.

So, this should provide a better idea of the immediate insanity involved as soon as the Bura Clan arrived. ...Not that I would have it any other way. A holiday at Grammie and Poppa's wouldn't be the same without Pete's family.

After Aaron and I talked with Megan and Alex for a while, food was ready. We had ham and twice-baked potatoes and kielbasa and paska (polish raisin bread) and green bean casserole (a Bura family staple) and Poppa's famous salad and there was horseradish and we had a lamb-shaped cake for dessert. Grammie forgot to put out the sweet potatoes, so we all divvied them up and took them home afterward, along with all the other leftovers.

We stayed until 8:00pm, just talking and watching TV (and being bored while Joey monopolized the television with weird cartoons). Aaron and I ended up being the last to leave. Overall, it was a good time, as usual.

I guess maybe I always took my family for granted, since we were always together, anyway. We had big meals on special occasions, but never had any other family over. Mom, Memaw, Aunt Sammie, my cousin Michael, and I all lived together, and rarely lived close to other family, so that was it. No cousins or other grandparents or other aunts or uncles to visit or invite over. Now I'm finding that I enjoy this "visiting family" thing. Even going to visit Mom and Gary for a day is enjoyable (to an extent — the less Gary, the better, I'm afraid).

Now, just to be sure to end the entry on a down note... when we got home at 10:20pm, Mom had left a message on the answering machine not 15 minutes earlier. She was upset that, when she went to go visit Memaw, "the lights were on, but no one was home." She asked me to e-mail her, which I did, pretty much detailing what I detailed here about my visit. I told her it made it a little easier for me, seeing Memaw like that. That way, when she goes, I won't feel like she could have had a few more good years left in her. I'll know she was ready to go.

When Mom e-mailed me back today, she had this to say:

"You look into the eyes of the first person you remember, the friend you had before you had friends, the one who taught you all the basics from how to go to the bathroom, get dressed, eat, talk even, and the body's there but she isn't. When I worked in the nursing home, I used to think the families of those folks were so cruel to not visit more often; now I understand, it wasn't that they didn't love them, it was that they loved them too much to see them that way."

The Obligatory Thanksgiving Narrative

9:00am: The Schnuth/almost-Schnuth one-car caravan headed to Lakewood (the northwest side of Cleveland, that is). Arrived at Aaron's grandparents' place in roughly two hours.

11:15am: First to arrive on-location. Chatted with Poppa and Grammie. Had quality time talking about plants and wedding plans and the Thanksgiving schedule. Also had quality time with the cat, Sid.

12:00pm: Aaron's dad arrived, sans Aaron's brother. (sans means without, for all you non-Latin-speaking types.) Seems Matt stayed home, puking and feeling generally ungood. Had more quality time talking about wedding plans and rib restaurants and the Thanksgiving schedule.

1:00pm: The Eschbach minivan arrives, bearing Aunt Elaine, cousin Nathan, and Nathan's 21-month-old daughter Caitlin. Cute as a proverbial button — she started chasing the cat as soon as she saw it. Had even more quality time talking about Caitie, antiques, jobs, wedding plans, and the Thanksgiving schedule.

1:30pm: The slated time for dinner. Uncle Pete called to let everyone know that he and his clan would be a little late (surprise). The turkey came out of the oven right on time, despite dripping juices and much smoke. The table was set, and 15 chairs were somehow located and brought to the dining room. All that was left was for Pete and the clan to arrive and bring the green bean casserole.

2:15pm: Pete and his new wife Deanna finally arrived, with Pete's four kids and one of Dee's two kids. (The other of Dee's kids was at his dad's place for the holiday.) About half a dozen people crammed into the kitchen to finish preparing food. Had yet more quality time talking about choir, Lord of the Rings, Caitie, and wedding plans. Studiously avoided mentioning the Thanksgiving schedule.

3:00pm: Food was ready. Aaron and I sat down promptly, while the rest of the clan milled about wondering where to sit.

3:15pm: Dinner started. Finally.

4:00pm: We excused ourselves to go visit my family, as mentioned to his family multiple times while discussing the Thanksgiving schedule. Drove about two miles to the nursing home where my grandmother has recently been admitted.

4:10pm: Located my Memaw in the Aristocrat nursing home in Lakewood. The chemo thinned her hair, and she looked ten or fifteen years older than her actual age of 70, and she went off on bizarre, almost-senile tangents a few times, but she's still my Memaw, and it was still good to see her. Shocking, but good. Gave her the birthday presents I forgot to send three weeks prior, and showed her a picture of her grandfather that I found online. Lots of hugs. Promised to write more often.

4:30pm: Left Lakewood for Parma. Ended up combining Mom's set of directions with my step-Gary's set, and got there just fine.

4:45pm: Arrived at my folks' place. Ate another dinner. Watched the Cowboys play the Redskins. Ate sweet-potato pie. Had quality time with my cat. Talked about how big my step-brother Philip has grown, about wedding plans, about weird commercials on TV, about my long-ass hours at work, and about crap in general.

9:00pm: Gary walked Philip back to his mother's house down the street. Mom packed us a bag full of Thanksgiving leftovers (especially appreciated since we had to bail from Aaron's family so fast we didn't get any there). Once Gary got back, Aaron and I got our stuff together, said our goodbyes, and headed back to Bowling Green.

11:15pm: Home again, home again, jiggity-jig. Off to bed for Diana — I had to be at work by 9:00am the next day. No four-day weekend for me. Overall: a fun day, a good day, but a busy day.