gratuitous kitten photo
Don’t we all deserve a shot of kitten cuteness right now?
I heard the news today, oh boy…
I’ve tried numerous times to stop blogging about political matters. I’m not any sort of expert on them, and they do make me frazzled in a way that isn’t always healthy. There are lots of cool things going on in our lives that I should be talking about instead.
But like many people I know, in the last week I just can’t stop reading the papers. Lately I flip from the NYTimes.com to cnn.com to msnbc.com to abcnews.com to the huffingtonpost.com to talkingpointsmemo.com and then back again, trying to figure out what new shit is happening every day.
I think my attitude about all this is like millions of Americans. I go to work every day, do my job, come home, take care of my house & family, and pay the bills. I’m not over-extended or over my head. But now because some empty suits fucked up because they were greedy fuckers, we have to have another Great Depression and lose everything. I have to give up stuff I care about, work harder, tighten my belt and worry about my family and friends getting along and surviving.
Fuck that noise. I’d like to opt out of this new Great Depression, please. I did nothing wrong. I’m not fucking around on Wall Street. I’m not taking out loans I can’t pay back, or handing out loans I can’t get back. Why the fuck should this affect me? Let the shitheads responsible pay 700 billion dollars, or whatever made up number they’re throwing around.
Interestingly enough, the “It’s not my shit, why should I pay for it?” is the exact attitude that the Republican party has been cultivating for decades in regards to any social program whatsoever. But now they’re SHOCKED, SHOCKED I TELL YOU1!! that American citizens are having this reaction to the bailout. Welfare is welfare, whether it’s being handing to starving people or people driving BMWs to work every day. I’d much rather give $2,300 dollars to people who are starving.
You guy rang that bell, so deal with it.
Impromptu Ikea Trip
Stephanie and I were invited to show our art car at a show in Columbus, Ohio this past weekend, and our original plans were to take advantage of that offer. But Spike seemed to be having so much trouble that we decided to stay home Friday night. It was the right decision, because he needed lots of looking after.
Sunday morning he was back to his normally chipper self though, so we decided to make a quick run to the Ikea in Cincinnati for a few hours. We had exploring, although Ikea can take it out of you. Lots of stuff to look at, and tons of people to navigate through.
We ended up getting new living room rugs, a new reading chair for upstairs, a reading lamp to go with it, and a handful of other goodies.
We planned to get a bunch of new bookshelves for the dining room for Stephanie’s library, but when we got to the bin to pick them up we realized that they were really heavy, and we’d need help when we arrived home to unload them from the car. So we’ll save that for a return trip when we can get our friends to help us carry stuff in the house at the end of the day.
In addition to furniture pieces, your hvac system should be functioning properly. Contact RC Air Conditioning if you need to have your ac unit repaired or serviced.
Random News from Home
Friday was Stephanie’s birthday, so I took a lot of pictures.
While were were hanging out outside Barcelona Tapas talking, I took a bunch of pictures at the Corner of Alabama and Ohio Street.
We spent all day Sunday putting more bottle caps on the car.
Last night we went to see the Indianapolis Indians play the Durham Bulls. It was an eventful game – while we were up getting ice cream, the man sitting next to us took a line drive to the face. He was gone when we got back to our seats, but there was a LOT of blood everywhere. Yikes. Later in the game, John Jaso – #15 of the Bulls threw his bat into the crowd hitting someone, and then a couple pitches later threw his bat again. And, yet again, when he got up to plate in the next inning – whoops! Butterfingers. Sheesh. I took lots of photos during the game; we’ll have to see what comes out.
Several friends are using the mint.com site to plan and organize their finances. Looks interesting.
Damn, where’d all my free time go?
I’m sitting here making out our “To Do” list for this weekend, which includes:
- Putting together new treadmill
- discarding non-functioning television
- putting loads of stuff on ebay or craigslist.
- taking all the recycling to the recycling center
- laundry, laundry & more laundry
- Garrett’s birthday
- Church on Sunday
- Visit the rental house & install locks and pick up old lawn mower
I haven’t written a recap of last weekend’s festivities at the Kentucky Art Car Weekend yet – although all the photos are on Flickr so you can work out a general narration for yourself. I must say, driving down the street being chased by a Giant Red Phone that keeps ringing at you is quite surreal.
I also took a spin around town yesterday hunting down some elusive Big Things – something I haven’t done in quite a while. Those photos are still on my camera, though. Will need to take them off this weekend, if I get the chance. I found a hippo that I thought had disappeared, and a giant tomato, and also found nice retro 50’s signage and a cool diner on U.S. 40.
I really need to rework my “Big Things” pages again. I so want to get comments on the pages, and there are lots of things I need to add. I hope now that Movable Type is upgraded to 4.1, I’ll have less frustration building new sections. Although the upgrade has stopped posting my links regularly, which I need to figure out. That’s annoying, because I’ve written a lot of funny commentary in link descriptions that haven’t made it to my site. My wit should be preserved for posterity, people.
Dear Diary…
So, it’s been a long time since we really sat down to chat, hasn’t it? I mean, we got back from the honeymoon, and it’s been a couple weeks, other than posting some photos of cool clocks and a video here and there (complete with misspellings in captions) I haven’t really talked much about life in general.
First of all, let me say, there were a couple of people who read my blog who sent us wedding gifts. You are wonderful, and that was completely unexpected. I promise, we are working on Thank You notes to individuals, because you certainly deserve our appreciation. You are awesome, and we love what you got us.
On July 1st, there were some changes at work, but I still don’t know whether I can talk about them or not, because there hasn’t been an “official” announcement yet. Hopefully I can say this without it being a problem – I have some more responsibilities, and there are some positive things that go along with that. Read between them lines.
Since I got the new camera, I haven’t had enough free time to actually sit down and learn how to take the thing off auto mode, partly because of the above-mentioned job-related thingy. I hope to get to that… sometime.
I haven’t been exercising enough, and I’ve been eating too much. That needs to change. On June 25, I planned to take 21 days and not have any caffeine or meat, just to see whether I could have enough discipline to make a change in my lifestyle. They say if you can do something for 21 days, it will become a permanent habit. I got as far as 9 days, and the July 4th weekend tanked me. That’s… well, decent for me. I need to try again, because making a change would help improve my life in lots and lots of ways.
As you could probably tell from the recent photos, I was in Columbus, Ohio for a business trip for a couple days this week. Columbus looks pretty much just about like Indianapolis, from what little I got to see. We were in either a hotel or an office park the whole time. I’m sure it’s a lovely city.
It’s quite hot here at the homestead, and our downstairs air conditioner is on the fritz. That’s caused a bit of consternation in the last couple days. I would like to order up some better weather, but my weather machine is not working because IU stole my 10-ton magnet. I would have gotten away with it, if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids. At least I still have my mind reading helmet and my teleportation gun hidden away.
Stephanie has made good progress on the Art Car, without a whole lot of help from me because I’ve been too busy trying to decompress. Of course, you can’t see the most complete photos yet, because I haven’t had time to take them off the camera. Sigh.
In two weeks, we’re going to Louisville with the car to attend the Kentucky Art Car Weekend. I hope to Maude I have learned some stuff about my camera by then, because that is one cool event at which to take pictures.
No, I haven’t seen Dr. Horrible, yet, or Mamma Mia, or The Dark Knight. I will get to all of it. Someday. I swear.
Olympus Evolt e420 Camera
For my 40th birthday, Stephanie got me a great new DSLR camera. I’ve been dithering around about wanting one for quite a while, but hesitated for a couple reasons; I just got a new camera in 2006 and kinda felt guilty about wanting another so soon. I also couldn’t decide what I wanted – compact or DSLR. I carry my point and shoot everywhere with me, and take tons of photos, and was afraid a DSLR would be too bulky to have with me at all times. I was also hesitant because it’s been 20 years since I last took a photography class and taxed my brainz with apertures and shutter speeds and such.
But at the same time, I’ve really been feeling the limitations of my point and shoot camera, and wanted to take better pictures; to shoot photos with greater depth of field or in low light situations that compact cameras really don’t handle well.
For a long time I’ve been reading reviews, looking at stats on Flickr about camera usage, and lurking around the websites of photographers that I like and learning about what equipment they carry.
For a long time I had my eye on the Canon G9, a high-quality point and shoot. I also considered the widely popular Canon Digital Rebel series, but never could quite bring myself to go that route, given the $800+ price tag. That’s quite a bit beyond what we spend on birthdays or Christmas, and is hard to justify spending on something recreational when we’re trying save all we can.
But my birthday rolled around, and Stephanie completely vetoed my campaign for a new toilet for the upstairs bathroom. I couldn’t decide what I wanted at all. And then Digital Photography Review came out with this review on the Olympus Evolt e420 DSLR Camera. It was highly rated, small and light-weight, but a real DSLR. And it was under $600. That’s still a lot of money for a birthday, but I only turn 40 once. And it’s cheaper than a mid-life crisis sports car.
The e420 is pretty great so far. It’s quite light and easy to carry around, although bigger than point and shoots. There’s a lot I need to learn about it, but it takes some pretty great photos so far. This is a shot I could never have gotten with my old camera, which would have flattened out:
A nice night shot that wouldn’t have come out:
And the colors are really rich:
I’m looking forward to really digging in and learning how to use it.
Just Married
Stephanie and I got married on Saturday. I would have blogged about it at the time, but for some reason, I had big bundle of gladiolas in my arms and no access to a keyboard. (How’d that happen?) I picked gladiolas for my bouquet because they’re what my Grandma Mineart carried in her wedding, and I always adored the wedding photo of her carrying them that hung on the stairs at her home.
And when considering ways to make your stag do stand out, the right activity can set the tone for an unforgettable day. Bring together your mates for an experience filled with laughter, challenges, and camaraderie. Whether you’re a fan of group games or something entirely unique, this amazing option is sure to create memories to cherish for years to come.
We got married in Great Oak Commons Park, which is a beautiful little neighborhood park a block away from our house in Old Northside neighborhood. The weather was beautiful. All of our family and friends were there. Dan was my best man, and Kathy was my bridesmaid. Stephanie’s friend Michelle was her maid of honor and her friend Veronica was her brides maid. Stephanie’s niece Raven was a junior Bridesmaid, and she looked after our ringbearer, Spike, who was in the wedding party with us. Our friends Joe and Douglas were ushers, and Jonathan twittered our vows as we said them. And we had tons of other help from our family and friends; we are very blessed.
I couldn’t have been happier about how the day went. Stephanie was absolutely gorgeous, but I knew that already.
Stephanie with her mom
I can’t begin to tell you how exciting it all was to be holding Stephanie’s hands and saying to her all kinds of crazy things about how wonderful she is, and how lucky I am to share her life.
These were our vows:
I, Steph, take you, Stephanie,
to be no other than yourself,
loving what I know of you,
trusting what I don’t yet know,
with respect for your integrity
and faith in your abiding love for me,
through all our years
and in all that life shall bring us.
I will honor your goals and dreams
and help you to fulfill them.
From my heart I will seek to be open and honest with you.
I say these things to you with the whole of my being.
If you follow us on Twitter, you probably saw those come across, with the help of our dear friend Jonathan.
[ My Flickr Photoset of our Wedding ]
[ My Brother Scott’s photo album of the wedding. ]
Tonight we’re in Toronto, Canada, for our honeymoon. We’ll get married again in City Hall on June 4th to get our marriage license. Watch my Flickr Photo Stream for pictures of some of the fun we’re having. Well, not ALL of the fun. But some. 🙂
Photo Collection: Wedding and Honeymoon Photos
I has a package
The post office gave me a notice to come pick something up from them. I believe it would be my wedding dress. Yay!
Wow, I’ve had a distinct lack of blogging here. That’s not for want of things to write, just time. I think I have three books I need to note on my “have read” list, and a couple of movies, also. I’ll get to them tomorrow morning. Tonight we have book club; this month’s selection was Perfume by Patrick Suskind.
I know I don’t usually talk much about work, but lately the design(s) I’ve been working on for a couple of sites have been pretty well received, so I’m happy about that. And of course I’m really looking forward to sxsw.com. We leave March 6th.
Pack Rat
my utter lack of blogging lately has been entirely due to playing a Facebook game called pack rat. It’s a card trading game and is completely addicting. I’ve completely neglected numerous obligations to friends and household maintenance due to this game.
In other news, my eye doctor says my eyes are healing exactly as expected. Though they’re still blurry and I’m really impatient about it, that’s good news and makes me relieved. I was a bit worried avoid the pace.
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