nanovivid

I’m a little late on getting around to this, but whatever. The weekend before last, we took a trip to Pennsylvania for Bryan’s sister’s wedding. The wedding was lovely, the food was amazing, and the hotel was… odd. We stayed at the Golden Plough Inn in very country Peddler’s Village. Our room had a lovely farm animal theme, complete with a wood cutout of pigs suckling. Confusingly, even though we were in room 108, there were two flights of stairs required to reach the actual quarters. Even though the accommodations were a bit strange, it was a nice time. Since Bryan was in the wedding, I took a bunch of pictures with his fancy camera which he’s going to post at some point. However, the camera was apparently in the wrong autofocus mode, so a lot of them didn’t turn out so well. Here they are anyway. Oh, and there was a massive thunderstorm during the outdoor reception, so that was exciting.

After the wedding (and breakfast at the Cock ‘n Bull… no, seriously), we drove on to visit Dave and Olivia. They already posted a nice summary of our activities and some pictures, so be sure to check those out. It was great to see them again and to finally get to experience firsthand the amazing work they’ve done to their house (even if the fact that it’s a row house lead Bryan to remark that their neighborhood was “like The Wire”).

We also took the opportunity to visit IKEA, where I picked up some white DIODER lights for my desk, replacing the halogens I had previously. Even though the LEDs are a little flourescent-ish, they put out barely any heat and are wonderfully diminutive.

The trip was very enjoyable and I definitely want to get back to Philly at some point in the future. Due to poor planning and research, we missed out on all the museums, so that’s at least one reason arrange another visit. I could probably pass on a second Peddler’s Village experience though.

♫ Sigur Rós - Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur

We made it home safely today without any deadly shampoo or toothpaste incidents on the plane. I’m glad the government is protecting us from that threat.

Best part of being home? Escaping the 80-plus percent humidity that plagued St. Louis while we were there. The trip was super fun, but the heat was a bit intense, to say the least.

Bryan has posted some pictures of the trip. I might put some up later this week. We’ll see.

Hanging out with Eric and Kristin was a lot of fun this weekend. It’s good to be home though!

Hey look! Shiny things! I took these pictures weeks ago and just never got around to mentioning it.

Bryan’s birthday is tomorrow, so wish him a happy one. We went out with some friends to Dave & Buster’s last night to celebrate. It’s quite the fun place. As I like to tell people, it’s exactly like Chuck E. Cheese’s, only replace the pizza with booze. The only disappointment is the lack of an adult-sized ball pit (well, any ball pit at all). If you were wondering, we all only had one drink each, but still had fun, so it must be a decent place. I mean, kids, you can have fun without alcohol!

♫ The Music - Bleed From Within (Thin White Duke Remix)

Yesterday (and today) we’re having a rare phenomenon for an Ohio winter… sunshine and blue skies! I snapped a crappy picture with my camera yesterday:

The unfortunate side effect of blue skies, however, is bone-chilling cold. As I write this, it’s a balmy 5°. So while it looks pretty outside, it’s just a trap to lure us into a frosty demise.

The new work schedule has been treating me pretty well. One very nice aspect is that I don’t have to change my sleeping times so I don’t get all screwed up when I switch back to normal hours in another week. Working late is definitely different, but it’s kind of fun too.

Excuse me as I begin layering clothes for my venture into the outside world. Yes, I don’t have to leave for several hours but it never hurts to start early. Especially when the only way to stay warm is to wear every single piece of clothing I own. The whole not being able to move afterwards thing is a bit of a bummer, but hey, at least I’m not getting frostbite.

♫ Bloc Party - Banquet

Today, Bryan went out to Costco to attempt the purchase of some canisters for flour and other such kitchen-y things. I, being the sane soul that I am, decided to stay home in the warmth. There were several things that made this a sad trip for Bryan. First of all, right after he got on the highway, a blizzard descended on him. Then, once he got to Costco, there were no canisters. And of course, I wasn’t along, so that clearly made it less happy. Overall, a very disappointing trip.

However, there was one redemptive happening. While scouring every store in the shopping complex for canisters, Bryan happened across a very cute stuffed animal that he bought for me. Bryan christened him Mr. Lamb. Here’s a picture of Mr. Lamb on my shoulder from earlier tonight:

So cute!

♫ Howie Day - Bunnies (Live)

I have a camera phone. It takes shitty ass pictures. I shall now force the shittyness of said photos upon your eyes. Muahaha!

Bryan will probably kill me for this because he doesn’t like pictures of himself, but I think it’s a neat photo.

See more in lofi goodness… or perhaps badness… in the cameraphone gallery.

♫ Audity - Haute 2 Trot (Vocal Mix)

Even though we desperately missed Bryan’s presence this weekend, Ryan, Courtney and I had a pretty good time. I’ll let the pictures tell most of the story for me.

One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing Napoleon Dynamite. It’s a wonderfully simple movie full of quirky, memorable characters. Jon Herder does an amazing job of creating the character of Napoleon. By keeping the story uncomplicated, the film focuses the attention on the day-to-day lives of these very unique people. Definitely a movie to see.

But now you need to go check us out. No, seriously, check us out.

♫ kap10kurt - Die Sleeping (Ulysses EBM Mix)

From Quinn’s wedding, it’s me with the groomsmen.

L-R: Dan, Me, Ry, Logan

♫ Bic Runga - Election Night

I’ve spent some time the last few days setting up and configuring (read: hacking to hell and back) Coppermine Photo Gallery. Now I have an easy way to upload pictures whenever I so desire. Major thanks to Matthew for suggesting Coppermine.

What is in these galleries, you ask? So far, I’ve migrated the cd labels. I’ve also added a brand new feature — the webcam archive so you can see me… lots of me. It’ll be updated with new shots every so often. So go indulge your curiosity… and my ego. :-)

I’ve also tweaked some of the colors in the site design… see if you can notice any difference. If anyone gets it, I’ll be impressed, because the changes are pretty subtle.

♫ Paul Oakenfold Presents (12/21/03) [on Trancesphere Radio]

Around 1pm, Martha IM’d me to let me know that Ben was coming to visit for the afternoon. It had been about two years, maybe more, since I had last seen him, so I put away my previous plans and ended up spending time with those two. The afternoon was fun, and it was really great to see Ben again. I even got a webcam shot with him and Martha in it. Check it out.

On a completely unrelated note, I found out yesterday that the boys from Paradigm Shift (a "trip house" duo who has only released one album to date) are still around and producing music. They have released some tracks on their new site, wrightandreyes.com. Definitely go download Antigravity, it’s a quality track.

♫ Paradigm Shift - Requisition