I forgot all about the parade, so when I overheard the next guy getting his haircut mention it, I got all excited. My ever-patient husband acquiesced and gave me approximately seven minutes of quality parade time. There is perhaps an equation to describe these situations in our marital life. One factor is my enthusiasm and the other is his reluctance. There is some maximum "benefit to couple" relationship between these two factors that allows us to optimize our time at the parade. Today, factoring in such things as cold weather, threat of rain, and remaining errands and chores, our time at the parade was approximately seven minutes.
I don't mean to say that my husband is a buzz-kill, but I definitely represent the overly-enthusiastic side of the relationship, particularly concerning parades and the like. Then again, I probably just like them because there are lots of interesting people to photograph.
George was really in his element today. I volunteered as a photographer for the USA Science & Engineering Festival, a massive science fair that basically took over all of downtown Washington this weekend. I cannot think of a single field that was not represented. I'm talking huge - this festival not only took up three blocks' worth of the National Mall, but spilled with impressive size into Freedom and Wilson Plazas and over a sizable stretch of Pennsylvania. It was a sight to be seen.
Also, kids love science. It's awesome and they know it. So does my husband. Yeah, that's him with the bubbles. I think he might have had more fun than the children.
Okay this was really cool. The people in this booth used a cement mixer to get 10 pounds of corn starch into each gallon of water! The resulting liquid has an enormous resistance to lateral pressure - in other words, you can walk on it. The kids were having a blast doing this.
Yeah, you read that right. "Maggot Monet" consisted of the booth staff putting drops of paint on the paper and then letting maggots roll around in them and create streaks across the page. None of the kids thought it was gross and I suppose one maggot, totally isolated from garbage or rotting stuff is kind of an okay thing.
It was pretty awesome. We'll definitely be back next year.