Murals Near and Far - San Francisco Version

So murals are one of my favorite photo subjects, so of course I take the opportunity everywhere I go to take pictures of them.

Roughing It

So, to continue the theme of John's birthday, this year we spent the weekend at his family's cabin in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Pennsylvania. He has been wanting to go for some time now, so this was his special birthday treat, considering I'm not too partial to no indoor plumbing. It wasn't so bad, but 3 days is definitely my limit.

My Mad Baking Skills

So these are old pictures, but just bear with me here. Last year, John's birthday happened to fall on 7/7/07, so we decided to throw him a 7th birthday party, complete with pin the tail on the donkey, Sega Genesis, party favors, party hats, the whole works. As the pièce de résistance, I decided to try my hand at making a themed cake, and John chose Donatello, of the teenage mutant ninja turtles. So, after browsing the internet for pictures, I spent the day in the kitchen making the cake. It was going well, until I decided the cakes were cool enough to take out of the pans, and I flipped them over. "What in the world are those round white things?" I wonder. Turns out, doubling a cake recipe isn't necessarily a good thing, as it means the eggs are much less likely to get mixed into the batter. So instead of a deliciously moist, beautiful chocolate cake, I had a deliciously moist, beautiful chocolate cake with a couple of fried eggs thrown in. Luckily, I was able to sculpt them out and it tasted just fine without them.

Flowers, Con't

So I realized I had a picture of the actual garden from yesterday's flower pictures, as well a few other good ones, so I might as well post them as well. Enjoy!

Flowers, Yet Again

Since it's completely uncharacteristic of me to go this long without posting any flowers, here you go. These were from a garden that John and I wandered into a couple of streets over from Lombard Street.

The Second Best Bridge in the U.S.

So, since I'm almost finished putting together my San Francisco album, I guess I can finally get around to posting more of the pictures on here. After weeding through about a bazillion pictures of the Golden Gate bridge, these are my 5 favorites. It was pretty cool that we had a convertible when we went over the bridge, because the pictures turned out amazing, if I do say so myself.

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head....in the Rainforest

Laundry Day in Chinatown (San Fran)

Salt

This is one of my favorite photos that I've ever taken, I think, for many reasons. One of which happens to be that I love salt.

A Pictoral Record of Laura Losing her Sunglasses

Today's story is particularly near and dear to my heart, as it is the story of me losing my favorite sunglasses ever....for the third time. Well, technically the second time, because the first pair broke, so I replaced them, and the second pair went missing in a non-remarkable way, but I have photographic evidence of me losing the third pair.

So after a long hard day playing at the beach, we're just about ready to go, but I decide to go rinse off one final time. There's no need to take off my sunglasses, because it will just take a minute.

Let me just play for one more minute....I'm almost ready to leave, I promise!

And this is where the scary movie music comes in...Da Dum, Da Dum, Da Dum, as the approaching wave grows larger and larger, while meanwhile, I am completely unsuspecting, just playing in the water.

Bye-bye Laura.

I throw my hands up in disbelief, as I realize the full enormity of my loss.

Where, oh where, can you be, my beloved sunglasses?

Luckily though, the story has a happy ending. Target has a seemingly unending supply of my favorite sunglasses, so I now possess pairs 4 and 5, just in case.

Old San Juan

Rumble in the Drain

So last night I battled my garbage disposal and won. I’ve always had a healthy respect and fear of the unknown of the garbage disposal, as I did not have one until I think my junior year of college, so I tend to be on the cautious side when it comes to putting stuff down there. Unlike Bill Bryson, who has a fantastic article about his exploration in the boundaries of garbage disposal functionality in his book, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, but that’s another topic entirely.

Anyways, I’ve had some issues in the past with my current garbage disposal, due to a clog in the pipe in-between my next-door neighbor’s apartment and mine, which caused considerable trauma, but has since been resolved. This incident led me to believe that my garbage disposal wasn’t quite right though, as it was coughing up bits of smelly black rubber, which obviously did not come from say, a red pepper, or something.

Well, all has been fine for about a month, except for the odor wafting suspiciously in my kitchen the last couple of days. I just chalked it up to the fact that I hadn’t taken out my trash or done my dishes recently, but last night it was just too gross, so I investigated a little. I took out the trash and that didn’t seem to help matters. The dishes weren’t overly disgusting, at least not enough to cause that smell. I leaned a little closer to the sink, and whew, sure enough, it was coming from the drain. I hadn’t put anything in there in a while and I know I hadn’t run it in quite a while, so I got out the flashlight and took a look. There, lying amid a few vegetable remains and staring back at me was something that resembled a human organ, perhaps a heart or a liver. Something that very clearly would not have fit down the drain and had no right to be in my garbage disposal, at the very least. I retreated to the living room, to avoid it leaping out and attacking me, to plan my strategy, or at least figure out what it was.

The obvious course of action would be to run the garbage disposal, but what if it really were some sort of weird growth that got mad and decided to take over my apartment? I eventually made myself realize that it was obviously just a bacterial growth of some kind, although the fact that was in my sink didn’t really comfort me either. So I ran the garbage disposal for a minute or two and took another look. There was still a chunk or two of my nemesis remaining. Man, he was a stubborn bugger. I had to reach even deeper yet into my arsenal, oh yes, for the Drano. Luckily, in Drano the quivering mass lurking in my sink finally met his match, and I now have a pleasant, spic and span clean kitchen.

Carribean Color

So I've always been inspired by a coffee table book my mom has of Carribean architecture, and I just realized today that I have some pictures of my own that match. What's the point of taking hundreds of photos on vacation if I don't ever do anything with them? So I might as well post them here, because the chances of me ever finishing my photo album are looking mighty slim at the moment.

Musical Musings

So, I was running along yesterday, be-bopping along with my ipod, and a song came on that got me thinking. The song in particular was “Never Let You Down” by the Verve Pipe. Whenever any songs from that album come up on my ipod, I am immediately transported to running through East Grand Rapids, primarily because that CD never left my discman for sophomore through senior years of college, and consequently, that’s what I listened to for the vast majority of my running in college. So this got me thinking about music and its power of association. There are several songs that will bring to mind memories, like any time I hear Garbage, which isn’t very often, granted, I remember the SS Badger, the ferry across Lake Michigan as we started our family road trip out west Freshman year of high school. Or Brushfire Fairytales takes me even further away, to my interim trip to the Netherlands, riding around in the vans on our daily excursions. Fields of Gold, my favorite song ever, reminds me of grocery shopping in Meijer at Christmas time, for some inexplicable reason. I can instantly picture the big red bulbs they would hang from the ceiling, but I’m not quite sure why that association is there. Bob Marley is a reminder of all-nighters pulled in the SE basement for no reason whatsoever freshman year.

To further my musical contemplations, the next song to come up on my ipod was Get Free, by the Vines. This was my angry music for the summer after sophomore year, when my car continually decided to have problems (some of which I inflicted, I will admit), I had the crappiest job ever (opening word files and saving them under a different name for 8 hours a day, anyone?), and my first serious relationship was disintegrating. Another summer which had its own soundtrack was the summer after junior year, when I was in Germany. I happened to hear Mad World last weekend, and it reminded me of the bus station in London, after we had just arrived from our second all-night bus ride in a row. Unfortunately, my CD I burnt with all of my memorable songs was stolen the first time my car stereo got stolen in Austin, so I don’t get to listen to them as much, but if I happen to hear any of the songs I instantly think of Germany.

As I was wrapping up my run, I was feeling exhausted and was contemplating walking the last 2 or 3 blocks, when what happens to pop up next but Wonderful Waste, another song from the Verve Pipe, which keeps me going until I get home. Ah, the power of music.

Down It Goes

So, I've already done a post on DC demolition here, but the heavy machinery has just moved on down the street.


I know these next two pictures aren't technically demolition, as the building has been this way the entire time I've lived in DC (1.5 years), but it still makes for interesting photos. It's basically just a facade propped up, which is for sale, in case anyone wants it.

Grande?

So, I know 3 posts in a morning is a bit excessive, but hear me out. I was looking through pictures, and this one reminded me of a great story, so since I have no exciting stories in my life at the moment, here goes.

I have always professed my deep love for Meijer grocery stores, but unfortunately I have had to stray, as they don't exist in DC. When I was about 8, I found out they were only in Michigan, and a few surrounding areas, and I was dumbstruck, as I had no idea where I would buy my groceries if I moved away. Well, I did move away, and now I have switched some of my loyalty over to Giant. It's nowhere near as good as Meijer, but it is a heck of a lot cheaper than the Whole Foods, which is my other viable option. So, to sum up that part of the story, Giant is a common grocery store in DC.

The next portion involves our trip to Puerto Rico. So John and I were driving along, and, lo and behold, there is a grocery store called Grande on the side of the road. John just thinks that's the greatest thing ever. "I want to shop at a grocery store named big!" he says. I then, not so gently, remind him that he shops at the Giant.