category: roadtrips
Apple Butter Festival 2008I 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.
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.
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.
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