Hidden treasure

On Friday I went to get my hair cut at Carly's new salon. I turned down the next street past the salon, and noticed that the parking lot was reserved for "MAHA residents". And so was the next one. So I found a place to park on the street. As I walked back up to the salon, I noticed that on the next street over, there were some interesting houses that all looked very similar. So after my haircut, instead of going straight back to the car, I turned the other way and found myself on a pedestrian street lined with small but beautiful houses, mostly brick, decorated with gingerbread. I was in the Milwaukee Avenue Historic Area, and a sign said there was a home tour on Sunday.
So today Russ and I rode the light rail to Franklin Avenue and then walked over to Milwaukee Avenue. We discovered that this area had been slated for "urban renewal" in the late 60's. The houses were built in the 1880's mainly for low-skilled immigrants. By 1970, most were dilapidated and plans called for them to be razed, but a group of activists managed to save the street. The houses that were structurally sound were jacked up so that basements with all new mechanicals could be constructed, they were gutted and rehabilitated. They also chose to make the narrow street a pedestrian walkway. Most of the seven houses open for the tour are similar on the outside, but each is unique and interesting in its own way. Some have extremely steep stairs with shallow risers and detailed woodwork, one has 4 different levels and no interior doors, one has a back staircase that can be lifted up to make room for a dinner table underneath, and one has had no major restoration at all. Most do not have garages, thus the parking lots I noticed on Friday. The tour has a blog with pictures of each house and comments by the owners.

By the way, the salon is nice. Not as funky as either of the other locations, and nowhere near as much space as the last one. But as Carly said, it is much cleaner.

Fortune cookie of the day:
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Rain, rain, go away

So they were supposed to put in the glass block windows today to solve our problem of water coming in through the window wells. But it rained. All day. So they couldn't do the work AND we got water in the basement. I was watching for it, though, and vacuumed it up with the wet/dry vac as it came in. By the time Russ came home, it had stopped. I'm hoping the rain is pretty much over for the night.

And when the rain let up a little earlier in the evening, I went out to walk Bravo. THAT is when they chose to call to re-schedule the windows. And of course, no one answered the number they left on the machine, because it was after office hours. Not the best evening I've had in a while.

Ducks and geese better scurry

We were taking a tour of the lake in the Hendees' boat on Saturday. There were many many ducks and geese on the lake and the shore, and most of them took off when we went by. It's a nice little lake. Convoluted shoreline, spring-fed, no wake, and when we were there, the water was very clear.

Before we went out on the boat, Russ cast a fishing line off the pier. One cast, one fish! There were no barbs on the hook, and the fish went right back into the lake.

After the boat ride, we had home-made BLTs for lunch. They were SO good. I may have to learn to make them at home. Later in the afternoon, we went by an elk and buffalo ranch, and I got some great pictures. Then we wandered the shops in Princeton and had dinner in Wautoma.
We got back to the cabin just in time for sunset. That's the bench at the end of their dock. After I took the picture, we went back out on the boat and had some wine while the sun went down. I wished I had the camera to capture the moon in the water, and when it was full dark, the stars out there were magnificent.

Sunday morning we spent some time talking politics before we left for home. It was a great weekend.

More photos here.

Fortune cookie of the day:
A small act of charity will go a long way.

Of this and that

I was at the library tonight and just started thinking about having recently read a discussion of whether listening to an audio book counted as reading the book. In my opinion - absolutely. Yes, you can say that many people who listen to books don't really hear all of it as they are distracted by other things. However, the same is true of many people who read by looking at the pages - there are people out there who skim. (I know - it's heresy!) There are people who are more aural than visual, and a good narrator can really make a book come alive. I've "read" several books by listening to them, and I usually feel I got at least as much from them as if I had been turning pages. And if the audio book is narrated by Simon Prebble, I got more. I absolutely love his voice. I like the Bill Bryson audio books, too, because he reads them himself - I think they are funnier in the audio version. I admit I sometimes realize I have drifted off to other thoughts. But the biggest problem I have with audio books (especially CDs) is how to put in the bookmark.

On the way back from the library, I stopped at a light behind one other car. When the light changed, the other driver got started so slowly that the light turned red before I made it all the way across the 4 lane highway. Did I mention it was only ONE other car? And they never did go as fast as the speed limit. Which was 35 mph. Now you are probably asking yourself why I am mentioning such a mundane occurrence. Solely because the car .... was a CORVETTE! I had to ask myself if the driver really deserved such a car.

Fortune cookie of the day:
You will inherit a large sum of money.

Maybe I can use it to buy that Corvette....

Another sunset

I went to the barn tonight. Lark made me walk far, far out into the pasture to get him. He didn't try to avoid me though. I gave him a peppermint, hoping he will remember that he gets treats when I go to get him.

I lunged him in the arena for about 20 minutes. He was pretty good. Karis called while I was in the arena with him, so I held the phone to his ear and let her talk to him. He cocked his ear and listened.

So a short visit, but still a visit. On the way home, the sunset was beautiful.

Fortune cookie of the day:
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

On Golden Pond

On Friday, Russ and I were walking down to Bush Lake when we saw the golden light through the trees from the sunset over the pond. So today I went back and tried to capture it. I liked a lot of the photos, but this one really popped out at me. This is the pond where we used to play ball with Beta in the winter, when it was frozen over.



Fortune cookie of the day: You will live a long time, long enough to open many, many fortune cookies.

Recommendations

Today I have two recommendations - a book and a movie.

The book is Blame It On Paris, by Laura Florand. It's the story of an American in Paris, who is not enjoying the city and looking forward to moving on until she meets a cute French waiter. My favorite parts of the book are the culture clashes. It is wonderful to see them from both sides - the beginning and end are in France, but in the middle, the French come to America. I greatly enjoyed this book, and I look forward to the next one.

Laura has a wonderful blog. However be warned - if you are a chocolate lover living in the U.S., many of the posts will make you weep with frustration and plot to spend all your savings on a trip to visit chocolatiers in France until your money runs out. She very cruelly posts lots of pictures and descriptions of chocolate and ice cream that are not available on this side of the pond. And other food as well, but that doesn't affect me since I'm not a foodie. Just a chocoholic.

My other recommendation: Russ and I went to see Stardust last night. It is a terrific fantasy movie based on a Neil Gaiman book. Great people in it - Michelle Pfeiffer is a witch, Claire Danes is a star come down to earth, Peter O'Toole and Rupert Everett are a king and a prince respectively, and the most amazing is Robert de Niro as a sky pirate. So for those of you who have seen the movie AND read the book, tell me - how does the movie compare to the book?

Footnote: I must be in a French phase, because I moved on from Blame It On Paris to Hotel Riviera, by Elizabeth Adler.

Fortune cookie of the day:
Good news will be received in a letter

Back in the saddle again

Tonight I rode Lark. Such a simple declarative sentence. And yet for me, at least, there has never been anything simple about riding Lark. (Actually, come to think of it, that is probably true for most of the people who have ridden him.) It's been about a year and a half since I rode at all, and then the horse was my sweet, steady Athena. I figure it's probably 5 years since I was last on Lark.

He was still out in the pasture when we got there (Rae and I - and we met Crystal there). He was actually the closest horse in his pasture, and he stayed where he was calmly grazing as I walked up to him, looking up occasionally when I whistled or called his name. He walked to the barn like a gentleman, only once attempting to nibble more grass on the way.

In the arena, he wasn't terribly good at standing still while I mounted, and even worse while I tried to get my right foot in the stirrup - somehow that is always difficult for me. I know that part was my fault, as I could not seem to keep my leg off him while hunting for the stirrup. He set off at a very fast walk and seemed to be wondering who in the world was on his back. We walked in circles for quite a while before I asked him to trot. Then we didn't trot very long at all, because he was at his bounciest. We walked a lot, and trotted a little, and did some circles to try to get him to bend more. (I figured circling in the middle of the ring would be ok at this point in his career - but I'll try not to do it too much.) I figure we were probably out there about half an hour. And three or four times, I got him to set his head and do a nice sitting trot - for about 5 seconds at a time. Once or twice I must have inadvertently cued the canter, but each time he took a couple of very nice slow canter steps and then settled back to the walk or trot.

All in all, I thought it went very well. I wasn't even really nervous. I was wary of the times when we passed the open door, but though he looked that way, he did not really move to leave the arena. So I was pleased. And oh yes- it's his birthday today! Happy birthday Lark! I took him an apple to celebrate.

So today, instead of a fortune cookie, I offer the slogan from the t-shirt I bought to give myself courage after the accident:
I do not intend to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death.

A good day, forsooth

Russ and I went to RenFest yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny day, if a little hot. Jason seemed to be having a great time, of course. We watched a little of the Dew Drop Jugglers when we first got there, and then went back later in the afternoon to catch the full show. They are quite good this year. They seem to be making full use of the new juggler.

We left the first show to get to Vilification Tennis early. I'm not sure it is possible to get there early enough to get a seat in the shade, though. I annoyed Russ by wanting to leave the seat we did get because I couldn't hear very well (we were behind the judge). I love the concept, but I'd think it was funnier if there were fewer sexual jokes. But then, I suppose, that's Vil Tennis. I did think Pander was very good. I also think it's funny that they have trading cards this year.

When we went to see the second Dew Drop Jugglers show, we found that the schedule had been changed, and they were having King Henry's birthday. I thought the queen was so cute when she was kicking her feet in time to the music. I'm impressed that all of these people in their heavy costumes can look so happy when they have to be dying of heat.

Several of the kids' friends were there, and I also saw Jenny Miller, who had a great costume. I have fun just looking at all the people who come, and the costumes they wear. I'm a little envious of the self-confidence some of them must have, and their ability to ignore the heat. I always have to dress in short sleeves and shorts just to get through a few hours there.

I had to go see the sheep-herding show - it's always one of my favorites. I just love to watch border collies work. After that, we'd had enough. We went home and I pretty much crashed for the rest of the day. There are lots more pictures, though.

Fortune cookie of the day:
You have a chance to help someone out right now in a big way.

Daily Photo Theme

Yesterday was the monthly Theme Day at City Daily Photo, and the theme was Street Lamps and Street Signs. I couldn't resist posting this in honor of theme day. My caption for this photo is The Journey that is Life - yes, Karis, I know you think that is depressing.

I follow quite a few of the City Daily Photo websites. To name just a few: France-Arradon, La Antigua Guatemala, Hong Kong, London, Sydney, Seattle, Monte Carlo, and Minneapolis. I really enjoy the vision of the photographers from all over the world.

By the way, you should read this post about upcoming events in Sydney as they relate to our dear leader. Also note the comments.

I've forgotten my daily fortune cookie lately. Yes, these are all real fortunes I or a member of my family received.
Fortune Cookie of the Day:
Take that first step today.

Just sittin' and thinkin'

I don't know what it is with me and porches. I've only once lived in a house with a porch - back on JPA in Charlottesville, for about 2 years. And I don't recall that we sat on it much. I certainly don't spend much time sitting outside now, either on our front stoop or our back deck. People who do have porches don't seem to use them that much - at least, I rarely see anyone sitting on one. Yet somehow, I feel that a house ought to have a porch. This evening, we went for a walk on the east side of Lark Harriet, and I looked for all the houses with porches. As my children will attest, it's usually my first comment about a house - "nice house, but it needs a porch", or "oh, I love that house with the porch".

This is one I pass almost every day when I walk Bravo. It is everything a porch should be, down to perfect use of color. Every time I see it, I want to go plop down on those gorgeous red cushions with a book and a glass of iced tea. The only thing I think I might add is a swing.

Today we worked a little on the basement - neatening the TV room and clearing out the hall. Then we will tackle the "computer room" in preparation for the workers who are coming in a couple of weeks. They are going to put in glass block windows and new window wells, and we hope that will solve the problem of water in the basement. But in the process, there will be lots of dust.

I watched Kinky Boots on DVD tonight. It's a fun little movie about a man who inherits a shoe factory in financial difficulties and finds a new niche market - boots for drag queens. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Lola, who designs the boots. My favorite scene is between the little old lady who runs the rooming house in a small conservative town in England and Lola, who is staying there:
- Can I just ask, are you a man?
- I am, love, yes.
- Ah, that's fine. Just so's I know how to leave the toilet seat. I'll get some biscuits.