April 27
[Taken 23 July 2004 | Sarah Getting Ready | Henry Ford Estate, Deerborn, MI]
I had possession of Sarah's wedding albu over the weekend, because she wanted "a few" (which turned out to be almost half of the album when I had her mark the ones she meant) of the photos scanned so that she could email them to various people. This ended up being quite a bit of work, and the whole time I was worried that I was going to accidently do something to damage the album. Like break the spine what with all of the flopping around I had to do to get things positioned on the scanner just so and the fact that the album spent most of its time in my possession open and face down (on said scanner). Or maybe spill coffee on it. Anyway, it was a lot of work, but, you know, friends and stuff...
It made me think about the photos that I shot at the wedding, so I pulled them out again and started to go through them. I grabbed this one and decided to work with it a little bit, ran it through a program to reduce the grain (it was pretty grainy - high ISO), and adjusted the levels a bit. And now I really like it... reminds me a lot of Degas's paintings of dancers.
April 26
[Taken 17 April 2005 | Wildflowers | Centerville, OH]
Work is crazy and I am tired. Just a picture today.
It is spring outside, even if the weather is not particularly congenial.
April 23
[Taken 17 April 2005 | Willow tree and reflection | Centerville, OH]
Last weekend I was wearing shorts and sitting on the balcony reading and sipping a lightly alcoholic beverage. This weekend it snowed.
When John and I were out on Saturday, one of our errands took us to the neighborhood liquor store to pick up a bottle of merlot. We had just rented "Sideways", and, going by the commercials, it seemed like merlot was the appropriate accompanying drink. While we were there, we also decided to replenish our vodka supply. John wanted to get the larger of the two bottle sizes, his rationale being that A) we would use it all eventually and B) it was less expensive, volume wise, than the smaller sized bottle we had been getting. Very good points, but I couldn't help feeling that getting the big bottle was crossing over some alcoholic line, going from "We enjoy the occasional martini." to "Hey! We drink!"
We have been thinking about getting a house, and just recently moved from the “thinking” stage to being a little bit more proactive about the process. So today we went to see one of the houses that we had found on one of our internet forays, and agreed looked like it was very nice. Ahh, the gentle deception of the internet! It was a nice house - cute in a doll's house kind of way – but certainly not what we, who had only read the online description and seen the carefully edited photos, were expecting. For one thing, the second floor and the basement seemed to have been designed for someone not much taller then myself. John had to stoop way over in order to look around. Though there were other things 'wrong' with the place, in the end it was the height (or lack thereof) of the ceilings that was the biggest problem. Lesson learned: don’t trust the website. Not entirely, anyway.
April 21
[Taken 16 April 2005 | Iris | Centerville, OH]
My hammer-swinging arm is really sore. I am heartily glad that I don't need to make a living from manual labor. Though I expect that if I did, I would quickly get used to it and would no longer be in pain.
The spate of nice weather seems to be over, and it is back to being cold and rainy. If it gets too much colder, all of the plants on the balcony will have to be brought inside for their own good. And I will have to try to figure out how to keep Merlin from trying to eat them.
April 20
[Taken 16 April 2005 | PurpleTulip | Centerville, OH]
Another flower from the Cox Arboretum.
Today was a long day. Instead of work as usual, I volunteered at a Habitat for Humanity house. All day (almost) in the sun nailing tyvek to the outside of a house. Then bellydance class. As a result, this is all for tonight. I need to go lay on the couch and watch Alton Brown on TV, and then go to bed.
April 18
[Taken 16 April 2005 | Daffodill No. 1 | Centerville, OH]
Instructions for how to make and enjoy a mojito.
You will need:
2 sprigs of fresh mint
1 shot of light rum (1.5 oz)
3 tbs lemon juice
3-4 cubes sugar (sweeten to taste)
ice cubes
soda water
Put the ice cubes, mint, rum, lemon juice, and sugar cubes into a martini shaker and shake it all up. (You need to shake it enough to crush the mint and break up the sugar cubes.)
Pour out the shaker into a tall glass, and top it off with the soda water. Give the concoction a light stir.
Take the mojito and a good book and retire to the comfy canvas chair on your plant-filled and sun-drenched balcony. Sip the mojito while reading.
Repeat as necessary.
All things considered, Sunday was probably the closest you can come to a perfect spring day. I got up early (for me) and did a workout while I ran my laundry. I went to the Cox Arboretum to explore and admire the spring flowers (and get a slight touch of sunburn). I followed the above mojito regime in the afternoon.Later, John and I went to dinner at Thai 9 in the Oregon District.
We have come to the conclusion that while Dayton might not have the sheer saturation of restaurants that Ann Arbor does (you cannot throw a stone on Main Street in Ann Arbor without hitting at least five excellent restaurants) it does indeed have its share of good food.
A small gripe about my trip to the arboretum:
I like going to the arboretum, but I would like it a little bit more if some
of the other people who also go to the arboretum were a little bit more considerate.
These are the parents who let their screaming children run through flowerbeds
– despite signs everywhere that warn visitors how delicate the plants
are and implore them to "please keep off". These are the people
with their dogs – despite the sign at the arboretum entrance that clearly
states "no pets". These are the lunching families who can't be bothered
to clean up their tables – despite the many conveniently located garbage
cans. Granted, not everyone acts like this, but the few who do eclipse the
many who do not. *sigh* It just irks me. Is it SO HARD to … for lack
of a better term … behave?
April 16
[Taken 15 April 2005 | English Daisy | Centerville, OH]
This is one of the plants on my new and improved balcony garden. For useful plants we have sweet basil, oregano, mint, and catnip. I also wanted to get some flowers, so I have some English daisies and Jacob's ladder sharing a long planter. Should the remaining seedlings from the original set continue to hang on and prosper in the face of adversity, I will have marigolds and forget-me-nots as well.
Since the weather has been so nice lately, John and I took our bikes out to Ceasar Creek Lake this afternoon. I wasn't quite feeling up to what was described as a "challenging" mountain bike trail after going all winter without biking at all, so we went on a trail that was used for cross-country skiing in the winter. Next time, I think we should stick to a trail that is specifically for mountain biking. Actually, for our next trip I want to try out the Little Miami River bike trail.
On the way back from Ceasar Creek Lake we stopped for a late lunch in Waynesville, which is the self proclaimed antiques capital of the midwest. And since every store on both sides of the street on the five block or so main drag through town was in fact an antiques store of some sort, this proclaimation cdoes have some merit. It was a pretty neat looking place, and one that rates a trip back for some more prolongued exploring at some point. I know that my Mom would get a big kick out of it, so maybe I will go back with her. Waynesville is also the home of the saurtkraut festival. You can bet that I will not be traveling back there for that event.
It is kind of interesting how quickly this part of Ohio turns to farmland once you leave Dayton, or, really, any reasonably sized town (like Centerville). Driving out to the park, after we had gone about ten minutes down the road from our apartment you would swear that we were in the middle of nowhere.
April 14
[Taken 30 Jan 2005 | Mike and Clay having coffee | Ithaca, NY]
First off, I owe some congratulations to Mike and Clay, some good friends from Cornell, who recently had a baby. Okay, so they had the baby about a week and a half ago now, but I figure belated well-wishes would be just fine.
In other PlantWatch 2005 news, the plight of the seedlings has gone from bad to really bad. When I checked on them today at lunchtime, most of the flats were covered with fuzzy grey mold. As Gir (Invader Zim) would say... "Time to sing the doom song!" I cut free the seedlings that I thought could be salvaged - two squares of basil, two of marigold, and one of (finally sprouting) forget-me-nots - and threw the rest away. So much for my botanical skills... I had such high hopes for these when I planted them a couple of weeks ago. How hard could it be? Well, apparently it can be pretty hard and there is a lot that can go wrong, especially when you are starting from seeds.
Sarah and made plans to to Lowe’s or some other garden store this weekend. I need to get some older seedlings that I have a smaller chance of killing by accident, and she wants to make a make on the lawn of her new house by choosing some flowers to plant around the back deck. Speaking of Sarah... when I went to her house the other day to pick her up so we could go out to dinner, I finally saw the peacock that lives in her neighborhood. This huge male peacock was just casually wandering across someone's lawn... apparently, this peacock has been living wild in that area for about seven years, and no one knows where it came from.
April 12
[Taken 02.10.2005 | Looking up at a 1920's building in downtown Minneapolis | Minneapolis, MN]
Well, I am back from the conference, which I think went well indeed. However, I must say that I was completely unprepared for the sheer amount of standing that being an exhibitor at a conference entails. All that standing around is pretty exhausting. I was glad that I thought to bring with me a pair of emergency comfortable shoes. The first day of the conference I was out of my heels and into the comfortable shoes by lunchtime. The second day of the conference I didn't even bother with the heels. (And the heels are perfectly comfortable in their own way - as long as I am not constantly standing or walking around in them.) It was nice to finally meet face-to-face (and go out to drinks with) some of the people I have been working with.
The Elsevier booth at the conference featured a blinking, neon sigh advertising our latest-and-greatest product, as well as people in sky-blue, 1950's style high-school letter-sweaters to hawk said product. Very retro. Who says that vast publishing empires have no sense of fashion or fun?
Minneapolis was a nice city, a typical city. Good restaurants, friendly people, interesting buildings and by-ways. When I had a couple of free hours one afternoon I walked to the historic/park area on the Mississippi River. The park in question is called Mill Ruin Park, and contains the remains of the business (with help from the Mississippi) that made Minneapolis flourish - the Gold Medal Flour mill. The old mill now houses a museum. The new mill is also on the river, and still makes use of its vast hydroelectric power. I wish that I had had more time to explore the city, but I was pretty busy all weekend.
Travel is fun, but it is always nice to be home.
SproutWatch 2005: Disaster strikes! The catnip, which showed such early promise, was completely blasted when I got home. I really can't tell whether the fragile little shoots were fried by too much sun, or whether I over watered them and rotted out the roots. In some sense, it doesn't really matter, as figuring out what went wrong will not make them any less dead. Some of the marigolds and basil died out as well. I can only hope that there are some seeds which survived and which will make a comeback. Still no forget-me-nots, mint, or lavender either. I think that this weekend will probably find me at Lowe's (or some other gardening store) perusing their trays of seedlings.
April 6
[Taken 02.04.2005 | Yellow Buds | Centerville, OH]
Allergy season is upon us. I can tell by the tickle in my throat, the itch in my eyes, the need to constantly clear my throat, and the occasional urge to gag and hack uncontrollably. (It's that darn post-nasal drip thing.) Back in Ann Arbor, I would be like this for about a week, and then I would adjust to the pollen levels, only occasionally needing a booster of some over-the-counter antihistamine in order to get me through the summer. Here in Dayton, however… the Dayton area is in the Miami Valley, which I have heard referred to as "Sinus Valley". The obvious implication is that if you thought that you had allergy problems before, just wait till you get here. I suppose that the weather patterns in the Miami Valley collect and concentrate the region's pollen, much as the weather patterns and geography around Los Angeles serve to collect and concentrate the smog.
SproutWatch 2005: More sprouts! Now I can see lots little sprouts for the marigolds and basil, as well as catnip. I forgot how thrilling it is to see so much change in seedlings from day to day. Still lagging are the lavender, forget-me-nots, and mint. (Get with the program, guys! Grow!)
Tomorrow I head out for Minneapolis, MN, to attend the ACRL conference as an exhibitor. That ought to be interesting. My first conference as an exhibitor rather then as an attendee. Time for, as Chuck says, "the old 'grip and grin'".
April 5
[Taken 02.04.2005 | Sarah's Orchid | Centerville, OH]
I house-sat for Sarah and Mike while they were in the UK this past week... showed up ever day to take in their mail, water plants, and feed and play with their cats. They have some great flowers blooming in their front flower beds - hyacinths, daffodills, forget-me-nots, some tulips... the works. I can't wait until I have a yard to do with as I please. For instance, I have always admired Japanese landscaping, particularily the koi ponds with all of the carefully placed decorative stones and flowering trees. Until such time as I have a yard (and the house to go with it) I will have to be satisfied with my small balcony-gardening efforts. Speaking of which, I have my first sprouts! Not surprisingly, especially when you consider how well it grows and spreads in the wild, the first sprouts are from the catnip seeds. Merlin should be well pleased.
April 4
[Taken 02.04.2005 | Last Season's Cattails | Washington Township resreation center, Centerville, OH]
Some of my co-workers suggested trying Lowe's for plants and other garden stuff. I think that if my seeds fail to germinate, then I will swing by there and see what they have to offer. I never would have thought of going to Lowe's for plants... I have always thought of it as strictly a hardware/home improvement place. Though I suppose that home improvement can be extended to include yard improvement, i.e. a garden.
April 3
[Taken 05.03.2005 | River Stone | Cox Arboretum, Centerville, OH]
This flat rock was in the middle of a semi-dry streambed. I liked the patterns that running water had carved into its surface. It kind of reminds me of a zen garden, where monks use rakes to trace elaborate patterns to mimic waves in beds of white sand - only done here in stone.
I have been planning on having a little herb/flower garden on my balcony for a little while, so this afternoon I went to Meijer to get the necessary supplies. I sadly underestimated the quality of the garden department of the Meijer near my apartment. The Ann Arbor Meijer must have an exceptional garden department, because I was always able to find what I needed there... Anyway, I wanted to get some flats of herbs (rosemary, basil, mint, catnip) and some flowers (lavender and marigolds) for my balcony. The Meijer had very few flats of plants, and those that were available were all of the edge-your-driveway variety and rather sad looking. I was only able to find seeds for (some of) what I was looking for... so I ended up getting just the seeds, as well as a tray of starter flats and some seed-soil. Hopefully I will end up with a few sprouts out of all of this. But I really think that I will need to find a real nursery or garden store somewhere in the area in the future.