Crossing One Off the List

Shane and I are in Florida looking at houses this weekend. Shane had
high hopes for this abode he found on the web, but we quickly crossed
it off our list. It does have a beautiful view of a canal in the
back, but the house was a disaster. It said it needed a kitchen, but
it needed much more than that. it was completely gutted inside, had
rotted wood, broken windows (including a bullet hole through a front
window), and was a general mess inside and out. It was priced at
$95K, which is a pipe dream. The view is the only thing it had.

Hump Day Art - Beever Chalk Drawings

Julian Beever is an English artist who is famous for his anamorphic chalk art on the pavements around the world. Beever gives an amazing illusion to his drawings, so that the objects appear to be 3-D (at specific angles) rather than flat as they actually are. See more at his web site here. He also does nice oil paintings, such as the one below.

Back to the Grind

This is all the stuff I took and brought back from the beach. I spent the week at Bethany Beach, DE, and since Shane drove the car home Sunday (he had to go back to work), I didn't have a car. I had to depend on the kindness of strangers... well, actually, my sister. She drove me to my mom's on Friday evening and Shane came up to fetch me on Saturday.

Today was my first day back at work in more than a week. It was also my first day commuting with my new Kindle. Shane got me a Kindle for my birthday. I wasn't totally sold on whether I wanted a Kindle, but I have to say I'm loving it. And, technically, I haven't purchased anything for it yet. I did get a Washington Post subscription, but there is a 14-day free trial before I have to start paying the $9.99 a month. I've also downloaded about a dozen books, but they were all from the web site http://www.manybooks.net/. You can get various classics (and many not so classic) books with expired copyrights for free. So far, I've gotten Wuthering Heights, Emma, Pride and Prejudice, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, among others.

New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #203

I haven't come up with a caption for this one yet. Since I'm posting this from my iPhone, I don't know how to include the link to the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest. There is a link to the site from my web site links in my sidebar. I'm on vacation.

Beach Drag

On Sunday, we went to Rehoboth Beach to see Eyecons, a drag show by Christopher Peterson. He is an amazing performer. He may be most famous for being one of the Lucys in the movie Rat Race. In the show, he performed as Lucy, Marilyn Monroe, Cher, Judy Garland, Liza, Eartha Kitt, and many others. This is not a lip synch show. He is doing their voice and look. He changes costume on the stage before your eyes. If you ever have the chance to see him perform, I would recommend it. He is very good.

The original plan was for Shane, my Mom, sister, and myself to see the show. But, because Shane had to go back to work early, he had to miss it. It ended up being my sister and two of my nieces and me. In the end, my Mom elected to stay home. I offered to get more tickets so we all could go, but the one niece didn't want to go and my Mom didn't want her to stay home alone. We were having bad storms and a tornado warning. Fun times!

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Lucille Ball was born August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. The clip above is just one example of her genius. It is an edited down version of the classic Vitameatavegamin Commercial episode. Though Lucy died in 1989, she will live forever.

The Gang at the Beach

From left to right -- Kelly (niece), Shane, Megan (niece), my Mom, my sister, and Nicole (niece) -- this was from Sunday, prior to Shane's departure later that day. It was a cloudy, windy day, and we had to leave after less than 2 hours because a storm started brewing. Poor Shane didn't get much beach time. He had to go back to DC for work.

Hump Day Art -- Beach Sculpture

This was near where we were set up on the beach at Bethany Beach, DE. I was not involved in its creation. The artist is unknown. It is about 5 feet long and the medium is sand. The model, placed on a towel in front of the sculpture, may have been purchased at a dollar store.

Old-Fashioned Wrapping Paper

My wonderful husband got me a Kindle for my birthday. He wrapped the cover, which he also gave me, in this antique paper that had clowns smoking on it. Very cool!

A Bad Influence

My mom shows her granddaughters proper smoking techniques. My niece, Kelly, on the far right, purchased the fake cigarettes. Megan, on the left, looks like a natural. It is wholesome fun here at the beach.

The Best Pizza Ever

I'm on vacation at the beach and tonight we went to Grotto Pizza for dinner and had the Baker's Choice. It consists if pepperoni, sausage, sweet peppers, mushrooms and extra cheese. OMG it was good! I love their sweet peppers.

Let Me Eat Cake

We celebrated my birthday yesterday because Shane had to go back to DC. He got me a cake and gave me my gifts.

Off to Bethany Beach

Me on the beach at Fenwick Island, DE, earlier this year.

Shane and I are off to the beach. Shane is only going for the weekend because he has limited leave. However, I am renting a house for a week and my Mom and my sister, along with my triplet nieces, are joining me for most of the week. Shane, my Mom, sister and I have tickets to see a drag show (Christopher Peterson's Eyecons) at Rehoboth Beach on Sunday evening. Shane an I saw her perform a few years ago and we never laughed harder in our lives. I can't wait to see my Mother's reaction.

Running Music: The Beloved's "Your Love Takes Me Higher"

I know it's very 1990, but I love to run to this song.

Hump Day Art -- Colin Barclay

The Sea, Twillingate

oil on panel

8"x18"

Gros Morne, Newfoundland III

oil on linen

26"x26"

After the Burn

oil on panel

12"x24"

Frenchman Bay, Morning

oil on panel

12"x24"

The works above are by Colin Barclay. We saw them at the Leighton Gallery during our recent trip to Blue Hill, Maine. Once again, I apologize for the photo quality due to me using my iPhone camera. To see many more examples of Barclay's work and much better quality examples, click here. You can also visit Colin Barclay's website at http://colinbarclay.blogspot.com/. He also has much better photos of his work there.

Solving the World's Problems a Beer at a Time

In chatting with my Mom on the phone recently, we began discussing the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. for disorderly conduct. I had written a blog posting about the incident and was curious to know what she thought about it.

Nobody is a bigger fan of Barack Obama than my Mom. She has a 16-year-old girl crush on the man. She has told me that she gets tears in her eyes when he speaks. But beside being sick of hearing too much about the Gates arrest on the talking head shows, she also was not happy about the remark.

Now, I'm not talking about the remark about how the police acted "stupidly." I'm talking about the let's get together and talk this out over a "beer" remark. Her exact quote was, "How does he know they even like beer?"

The poor president can't win. There must be a sizable part of the population that thinks it is terrible that he is promoting alcohol consumption. Now, if he would have offered to have the guys over for a glass of iced tea, my Mom would be a groupie again.

New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #202

What's the SPF on this sunblock?

The above is the cartoon for New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest for week #202, along with my entry for the week. Let me know if you come up with a caption too. Click on the link above to enter.

Eastern Market is Back!

Historic Eastern Market

Is Shane going to buy me flowers?

Above are some photos I took today of our walk over to Eastern Market on Capitol Hill. Built in 1873, the market burned down a couple of years ago. They had a temporary building there for a while, but now the old building has been revamped. It reopened a few weeks ago and this is the first chance Shane and I had of seeing it. It looks great! It is so much cleaner looking than before.

We had lunch at the famous market grill. Shane, as usual, had a burger. Though they are famous for their crab cakes, I had the North Carolina BBQ with coleslaw. My sandwich was messy, but delicious.

Take a few minutes to listen to this National Public Radio report about the reopening here. As the reporter notes, going to Eastern Market is like stepping back in time.

If you live around DC or come for a visit, it is a great place to spend a few hours. There is lots of interesting art, crafts, food, and more.

Name that Book from the First Sentence

Shane and I were goofing around this morning trying to stump each other with figuring out book titles by reading the book's first sentence. I got this one immediately:

"You exposed your penis on national televison, Max."

Any guesses?

Professor Gates Controversy -- A Teaching Moment

Photo by Justin Ide, Harvard University Gazette

I started writing a blog entry 2 days ago about the recent arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by a Cambridge, MA, police officer. He was arrested for disorderly conduct after the police were called to his home for a possible break-in. It seemed to me at the time that Prof. Gates had over-reacted -- that if the police came to my door because of a reported break-in, I wouldn't be yelling and screaming like a crazy man -- that he probably deserved to be arrested. I decided not to post it then, because I didn't feel like I knew enough about the incident to make the judgement.

Two days later, I've read the police report, heard what the president had to say, and watched some of the coverage about the incident. I have changed my mind a bit. An African-American law professor from American University was on CNN making a good point. In the police report, the police officer stated he was trying to persuade Gates to go outside, because the acoustics in the house made it difficult to have the discussion since Professor Gates was yelling so much.

The acoustic? Really? Bad acoustics? The American University professor pointed out that to arrest Professor Gates, the officer needed to have Professor Gates be in a public place. You can apparently yell and scream all you want to in your own home perfectly legally, but the police officer knew he needed to get Gates outside to arrest this man accusing him of acting racist.

I still think Professor Gates probably was out of line and should have been more cooperative. However, the officer should have let the matter drop once he established Professor Gates was in his own home. I think the officer lured Professor Gates out of the house so he could arrest him as punishment for being accusatory and uncooperative.

This incident once again displays the brilliance of President Obama. He screwed it up at first with his comment that the police "acted stupidly," when he also didn't have all the facts. Then he very smartly turned it around, calmed everyone down, called on this to be a teaching moment. His statement today on the matter was a good resolution. I know a president from not so long ago that would never admit to any type of mistake, like starting a war with the wrong country.