Bloom

How can it be the last week of August? This summer has flown by. I guess that's what happens when you're done with coursework, and you just have to keep writing and researching during the summer.

Since I last wrote, John and I attended a wedding, and spent about 10 days in Bloomington. My parents moved there in the beginning of August, so we went down to help them get settled.

Let's start with a single pic from the wedding. Our friends got married in Port Stanley, and the bride's daughter baked these fun, beachy cupcakes. Each of those shells is actually a chocolate truffle.

The day after the wedding, we drove down to Bloomington, where I took about 5 random photos.
My parents' new house is in the southern part of town, with lots of green spaces and big, shady trees. That landscape has proven to be too appealing for the large deer population in the area. This buck belonged to a whole deer family we found munching on the neighbors' foliage, and licking their mailbox. They were seriously everywhere, and it was a little disconcerting to see how unafraid they are of people and cars.

As promised, John took me to FARM for brunch on my birthday. We've recently been making things out of one of the FARM cookbooks, so I was especially excited to try the restaurant.

Above: John enjoying his mocha, served in a Guinness glass. Below: my very spicy Bloody Mary. I love the little tomatoes they used as a garden! This was a great drink.

 

John had an omelette, and I chose baked eggs with the sausage omitted: eggs, potatoes, roasted tomatoes, and lots of parm on top. It was delicious, and I took half of it home. Before the entrees, we shared the Biscuit Basket - which was maybe my favorite part of the meal. The biscuits were HUGE, flaky, and came with apple butter that reminded me of taking trips to Little Nashville with Kelly.

So far my dad's favorite retirement activity seems to be finding new places to walk the dogs. We explored Olcott Park, as well as the near-by Jackson Creek Trail. It's kind of a perfect place to run.* Dad and I took the dogs over to the Hoosier National Forest and hiked around on the trails for a little while. Tobey has had an especially difficult time with the move - so much change in such a short time seems to have heightened his anxiety. But as you can see, all the walks in new, exciting places help wear him out.

I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures of all the time we spent with friends who still live in Bloomington. John and I visited Mark often, and went out to a couple of bars that have opened since I left town. Places like Atlas, the Root Cellar, and the Bishop seemed to have a slightly older crowd, and appeal more to graduate students. Back when I lived there, I spent a lot of time at the Vid, and at Bears, but I don't feel like we had anything quite like those newer bars, and it was fun to try them out.

And, of course, any late night bar adventure should conclude with a trip to our favorite 24-hour spot, Crescent Donut. John and I are still trying to figure out a way to work Crescent Donut into our post-wedding-reception plans, since it's the kind of place that's best to visit after you've already been to party. They tend to give away donuts at that time of night, and we always have the counter to ourselves.

So here's to the end of summer! Even though it went by quickly, I'm ready for the new semester to begin, and for fall to arrive. Today I had to restrain myself from buying a pumpkin scented candle. I have to wait until September for pumpkin-anything, since I want to savor the end of the summer before I start to savor fall. If I "start" fall at the end of august, then I'll have an even harder time waiting to "start" Christmas until after Halloween.

I hope your summer ended as well as ours did!





*I need to write a separate post about running, since I've been doing so much of it lately! Our first half marathon will be Sept. 29th, and I have some other fall races planned. 

100 Year Old Spoilers

At some point during Dave and Carla's visit, we started talking about old books, like Pride and Prejudice, and how there should be a statute of limitations on spoilers. If you haven't read Pride and Prejudice, then only you are to blame for having the ending spoiled. The same is probably true for Harry Potter or The Sopranos at this point. Dave kept bringing up older examples, like Sherlock Holmes (as in, the original stories), and how those were 100 year old spoilers, and couldn't really be spoilers. In response, I said that he should write "100yearoldspoilers.blogspot.com." He could give away the endings to various bits of literature. 

 

We tried to keep our guests entertained with activities like: shopping, planning meals, beer, and "Let's go renew our license tags! It'll only take a second!"
That turned into "Let's go walk around Canadian Tire for an hour while we get our emissions test renewed!" They looked as bored as they do above the whole time they were here.





I keed, I keed!

We also went down to St. Thomas to try out the Railway City Brewing Co., and then we headed down to Port Stanley to drink beer at The Wharf, overlooking Lake Erie.



























We walked around Port Stanley a bit, and stopped by Sweet Beach. Dave stated in advance that he wasn't much of a beach person, so I love this picture of him pretending to enjoy the beach, while Carla and I pose for the camera. We stuck our feet in the lake, and it was like an ice bath, so the beach portion of our visit was rather short.

The car ride down to St. Thomas was probably my favorite part of the trip, and I laughed so hard that we nearly had to pull over so I didn't kill us. At one point Dave read the name of the Forge and Anvil Museum* off of a tourism sign, and, assuming he wanted to go there, I did a U-turn to follow the sign. Carla started saying that Dave didn't even necessarily want to go there, and that sometimes  he just "says words," that people take seriously. For instance: when I decided to become a vegetarian, it was partially because of a conversation in Summer 2009 between Dave, Carla, Kira, and myself, about knowing where your meat comes from, that ended with Dave shouting, "MAYBE YOU SHOULD STARE DEATH IN THE FACE A LITTLE MORE OFTEN!" The thing is, he was right. But Carla hated/was amused by the idea that it's Dave's fault that I'm a vegetarian, because he just "says words" and people think he knows what he's talking about.

Other highlights included Dave's impersonation of John's southern accent, that sounded something like Cletus the Slack-jawed Yokel on the Simpsons. I also overheard Dave say the following: "Anything can be gay if you want it to be."

In somewhat related news, we got new neighbors who we already love. We made them cookies as a sort of "Welcome to the building!" gift. Two days later, while we were having dinner with Carla, Dave, and two other people, our neighbors showed up with, as John put it, "a whole goddamned pie." The two undergrad girls who live there baked us a double-crust apple pie! Goddamn.




*Unfortunately, we never made it there. Put it on the list for next time! But seriously, click here to read someone else's account of going there and a bunch of other places in our area.