Last weekend in photographs

On Friday evening, we went to Trina O’Connor’s solo photography show at the The Language and Culture International Gallery. 158 East 14th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202. More on the show here. Trina is part of the “Indy Women in Focus” Photography group that I participate in. She has moved from being a professional photojournalist to art photography and her stuff is really beautiful. It’s very cool that I get to participate in a group with people at a skill level far better than mine; I learn a lot just by hanging around them.

Trina's Solo Gallery Show

Trina's Solo Gallery Show

Trina's Solo Gallery Show

After visiting her show, we popped into the The INDIEana Handicraft Exchange at the Harrison Center, which was a block away. I’ll let them tell you about the craft fair:

The INDIEana Handicraft Exchange is a contemporary craft fair that consciously celebrates modern handmade goods, the relationship between creator and consumer, and local, alternative economies. The IHE began in 2007 as a way to highlight local crafters and artisans as well as to expose Indianapolis to some of the best vendors on the national indie craft fair map.

We had a blast there; tons of fun cool ideas for things we’d like to make, and everything was very reasonably priced – we dropped some bills, but we got a lot in return. It’s a bit different than the craft fairs my parents took me to as a kid; lots of contemporary art and design. And fun, quirky, interesting. I’m afraid I don’t give you a lot of detail in my photos of the goods for sale; I was afraid to walk right up and take photos of people’s goods for fear that they’d be offended. I really need to learn to be more bold in talking to people.

INDIEana Handicraft Exchange

INDIEana Handicraft Exchange

INDIEana Handicraft Exchange

On Saturday, Stephanie’s dad came down from Valparaiso to bring Stephanie her mom’s 1930’s typewriter, which we’re going to be using in an upcoming event to be described later. He’d taken it to be refurbished. Photos of that will be coming soon. While he was in town, he helped us repair our refrigerator door, and we installed a shelf in our laundry room. Dunno why I don’t have photos of that; I need to get Stephanie’s dad in engineering action. He’d be one of those folks that don’t understand why I’m taking pictures though.

Saturday evening we went to the Morris Butler House Museum for a Halloween progressive mystery play called “From Dark Pages” based on gothic, horror, and mystery literature. That was a lot of fun; most of my photos didn’t come out all that great because of the lighting (no flash photography allowed) and my best ones were spoilers that outed the villain. Here are a couple I can safely show you, though.

From Dark Pages Progressive Mystery Play

From Dark Pages Progressive Mystery Play

Throughout the weekend, Stephanie and I puttered around the house getting stuff ready for cold weather and knocking out many October To Do Items. We harvested the last of the vegetables, put flower pots in the garage, unhooked the hoses from the house and generally bustled around getting work done. I spent some time hanging hooks on the porch for Christmas lights. It was way too cold to do that last winter in December, so I thought I’d knock that out while the weather was warm this year. While I was out pursuing that activity, this guy came to visit.

The Visitor

He seemed really cheerful.

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This weekend’s to do list…

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Things we want to accomplish this weekend…

  1. sign up for green power through our local electric company – estimated $2, addition to our bill, considerably higher peace of mind.
  2. Sign up for a local food coop delivery service to get fresh local food.
  3. finish adding addresses to address book
  4. finish sending out “save the date” cards for our wedding
  5. register somewhere for our wedding. Target? Macy’s?
  6. finish making baby blanket for Annabelle, so we can mail baby care package
  7. vacuum
  8. change the sheets
  9. celebrate Jennifer & Carolyn’s birthday
  10. work on Chi’s website
  11. rip more CDs
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Balcony Finished

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The contractor we hired to re-deck our balcony finished in two days flat, which is pretty impressive. This was a new contractor we hired, because the guy who’s been working on our gutters for eight months couldn’t manage to get to the balcony job, and we’ve had water coming into our kitchen all winter.
But now we have to paint the new balcony floor, post and rails, which we started on today. We need to get the wood covered so it doesn’t get warped and wet, but the off and on rain/snow keeps getting in the way. And I’m leaving Friday for sxsw.com, so we have to fit the rest of the painting in with not much time.
And regarding my old house, most of the repairs are done. We seem to still have an offer on the table as of today, as well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I’m cautiously optimistic.

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Fireworks

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We discovered last night that we can’t see the downtown fireworks from our backyard, but if we drive four blocks south we can see them on the other side of the overpass. We parked on 10th street, hopped into the back of the truck and had a perfect view. Which means we could host a cookout on the 4th next year if we feel like it. There might be other good vantage points in Old Northside, because on the way back, there were tons of people from the neighborhood walking back home carrying coolers and blankets. So they must have walked to wherever they saw the show from. I know we have at least three parks in the neighborhood; one of them might have a good vantage point.
We also spent some time at my brother Paul’s yesterday afternoon. He cooked out burgers and we got to see his house (I’ve never been) and Scott’s new puppy, Pickford.
We spent a large part of the holiday weekend moving and unpacking. David and Garrett helped us move some of the bigger furniture from Stephanie’s house on Sunday (in 96 degree weather!) With some slight mishaps. We lost a set of wooden shelves from the back of the truck at one point. We did manage to get her grandmother’s dresser to the new house intact, though, which is mostly what I was worried about. There’s still lots to move, but I think we past the tipping point of getting major stuff from the house, and now there’s lots of little trips left. At this point we’re trying not to kill ourselves by overdoing it.
If this seems like it’s taking forever — imagine how we feel. Heh.

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