I haven't done a personal post in ages. I get behind. It happens. Actually, I've just yesterday evening come back from a trip to Madrid and I leave next week for The Netherlands and England! I thought to myself: self, put up those Madrid photos before you get slammed with the next batch of travel photos. Except, I have three months' worth of other crap from various travels and adventures that I haven't posted. So instead of "hey, I just got back from Madrid!", you get a bunch of random stuff. Enjoy!
In chronological order, just cuz:
George was gone for a big chunk of time at the end of March, so I decided I would take a little trip somewhere. Kayak (with its very helpful Explore engine) told me Grand Cayman had a decent flight. I did a tiny amount of Googling and decided - what the heck - I'd spend a few days on Grand Cayman. Several weeks later, I picked up the tiny Frommer's guide to the island, and when I started reading more, I realized that people basically only go to Grand Cayman to scuba dive. So, again - what the heck - I decided I'd get certified. I crash-coursed the online tutorial (this was supposed to happen in New Orleans but the system wouldn't work on my iPad). I did my confined dives (in a swimming pool) the weekend before I set out for the island.
Only... womp womp, I injured my ear during the confined dives and it was still messed up when I got to the island. So I couldn't dive! But it was OK. We were still in the middle of the godawful can't-take-any-more-snow winter (remember?) and I was so so so happy to be in the sun, walking on the beach, drinking pina coladas. I didn't take many photos. I was just chilling the hell out. It was really nice. And the snorkeling was exquisite. In fact, even if you don't dive, I highly recommend Grand Cayman. It's a heck of a place.
These are some random images from when George and I took a little hike/walk around Great Falls. Turns out my x100 had flipped over to manual focus and I didn't notice... for like, a month. I am a brilliant photographer. And an even more brilliant blogger, because I'm posting these terrifically out-of-focus images.
More walks with George - random things around DC.
This is my very best friend David. He's a big shot doing IT and when the remote wouldn't work in his conference room (over massive amounts of Lebanese food), he tried hacking it - with pieces of a server. He's a handy guy to have around.
I get excited about thunderstorms.
A buddy of mine, John, and I went down to the Mall when a bunch of cosplayers were attempting to break the Guinness Record (of having the most cosplayers in one place). They didn't make it (by a loooooong shot) but it was fun anyway.
This is my husband, doing his physics thing. We went to San Antonio in April - him for a conference, me to check out the city. I really liked San Antonio - lots of stuff going on. They do a lot better than many other Texan cities by actually embracing their Mexican heritage, rather than trying to shove it under a rug. A rug made out of Walmarts and Applebees.
Then we crossed the state to visit our favorite miniature person.
And we spent one day in Austin. They have a great turtle pond and there were scads of baby turtles. This is a baby turtle resting on another turtle!
Later in May, we went to Savor - a ridiculous, enormous, expensive craft beer festival held in the National Building Museum. It was cool, but it was way too much beer to try to choke down (more than 100 different kinds!) and it was pricey as shit. It was a fun experience for one night, but I can't imagine we'll be back. This picture of a bunch of plants has absolutely nothing to do with Savor, except that I took it at the event.
More hiking. Following Greece, I've been trying to get out and walk about amongst trees more often.
I don't remember why we were way the hell out in Herndon on this particular day, but we stopped by the Frying Pan Farm and there were tons of baby animals!
At World of Beer. I don't remember why, but there was good light on George.
A photography meetup with some buds. This is staged, but the others are not.
And that's it! For now. I'll get those Madrid and in-between photos up... eventually. You know how it goes. And for friends and relatives and people who enjoy posts like this, I've been doing snapshotty, don't-care-what-it-looks-like, document-my-life type stuff over on Instagram. If you care what I'm up to on a daily basis, that's a much better medium. I obviously can't be trusted to post anything here regularly about my actual life.
It's been a long time since I posted something personal that wasn't travel-related (and yes, I still owe my loyal and legion readers the last Greece post). I should do it more often, mostly because a huge chunk of my readership are friends and family. (And as another side note, it's always flattering when someone I know from long ago or someone I rarely see tells me they read my blog - especially considering it's almost entirely strangers' wedding photos! So thanks those of you that fit that bill.)
Getting on with it! Today I am going to share just a very small bit of what I am up to every week, sometimes multiple times a week: ceramics. I don't know why, but as a kid, I always wanted to learn how to throw pottery ("throwing" is what you do on the wheel - "hand building" and many other terms are what you do on a table or with various tools). It may have been the damn scene in Ghost that spurred this interest (shame), but it was there gnawing at me for a good 15 or 20 years before I finally sat down at a wheel about a year and a half ago.
My first class was with the Arlington Public School System. I had a lot of fun and walked away with a few pieces, most of which I realized were made almost entirely by the instructor. He is used to teaching middle school students, and therefore giving them quite a hand with their work. It wasn't until I started taking classes at the Torpedo Factory that I really started to gain some skills. I highly recommend their ceramics program to anyone. Each class I've taken has had a great mix of beginner and extremely advanced students - so that everybody can learn from each other. The facilities are excellent and there's tons of open studio time to come in and work.
It's really great for me to have something to do with my hands, away from any screens, and really get focused on creating something physical. My world - photography, editing, emails, phone calls - is all digital, ethereal. It's really nice to get my hands dirty. I was never very good at meditation, but I can make a pot.
And now a giveaway! Of sorts. Because I have given away tons of my pottery, to basically anyone that will outstretch a hand. In the course of learning to make pottery, I have made tons of it. Scads. And it has filled up my house and I don't honestly know what to do with all of it. I've made crocks, numerous small bowls, lots of "flower pots", mugs with ugly handles (still working on handles) and even a few pieces I really like. For a while, I was focused on building small cylindrical objects and managed to create a set of five tumblers. I glazed them all to match and I really like them. They're a set, and they should live together. Hence, a giveaway! I'd love to see these tumblers - great for serving cocktails, I think - off to a good home. If you're interested, leave a comment. The only catch is you'll have to pick them up or pay for shipping - ceramics are not light. I hope somebody wants them. My ceramics babies. They deserve a nice life on somebody's bar stand.
And PS: the dents are not mistakes - they're thumb prints for easier holding. Theoretically you could put hot beverages in them, but they heat up pretty quickly so I wouldn't recommend it for scalding stuff or tea you're brewing in the cup.
This recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen, where she takes prettier pictures in her light-filled and not a total disaster-area kitchen and also gives more of a damn. Things not to judge me about on this post: the dirtiness of my stove; the dirtiness and lack of put-away dishes on my counter; the fact that we had no paper towels on this day so I drained my fritters on a lunch bag. Things to tell me are so great about me and my cooking: I'm using a cast-iron to deep-fry things in; I made this shit from scratch; I used a paper bag to drain my fritters.
Zucchini fritters! They are so goddamn tasty.
I will go ahead and say zucchini fritters are the yummiest things you can do with zucchini, and I don't hate on zucchini or anything. They are just that good. They're also really hard to screw up. You need just a few things:
George was gone for a big chunk of time at the end of March, so I decided I would take a little trip somewhere. Kayak (with its very helpful Explore engine) told me Grand Cayman had a decent flight. I did a tiny amount of Googling and decided - what the heck - I'd spend a few days on Grand Cayman. Several weeks later, I picked up the tiny Frommer's guide to the island, and when I started reading more, I realized that people basically only go to Grand Cayman to scuba dive. So, again - what the heck - I decided I'd get certified. I crash-coursed the online tutorial (this was supposed to happen in New Orleans but the system wouldn't work on my iPad). I did my confined dives (in a swimming pool) the weekend before I set out for the island.
Only... womp womp, I injured my ear during the confined dives and it was still messed up when I got to the island. So I couldn't dive! But it was OK. We were still in the middle of the godawful can't-take-any-more-snow winter (remember?) and I was so so so happy to be in the sun, walking on the beach, drinking pina coladas. I didn't take many photos. I was just chilling the hell out. It was really nice. And the snorkeling was exquisite. In fact, even if you don't dive, I highly recommend Grand Cayman. It's a heck of a place.
These are some random images from when George and I took a little hike/walk around Great Falls. Turns out my x100 had flipped over to manual focus and I didn't notice... for like, a month. I am a brilliant photographer. And an even more brilliant blogger, because I'm posting these terrifically out-of-focus images.
More walks with George - random things around DC.
This is my very best friend David. He's a big shot doing IT and when the remote wouldn't work in his conference room (over massive amounts of Lebanese food), he tried hacking it - with pieces of a server. He's a handy guy to have around.
I get excited about thunderstorms.
A buddy of mine, John, and I went down to the Mall when a bunch of cosplayers were attempting to break the Guinness Record (of having the most cosplayers in one place). They didn't make it (by a loooooong shot) but it was fun anyway.
This is my husband, doing his physics thing. We went to San Antonio in April - him for a conference, me to check out the city. I really liked San Antonio - lots of stuff going on. They do a lot better than many other Texan cities by actually embracing their Mexican heritage, rather than trying to shove it under a rug. A rug made out of Walmarts and Applebees.
Then we crossed the state to visit our favorite miniature person.
And we spent one day in Austin. They have a great turtle pond and there were scads of baby turtles. This is a baby turtle resting on another turtle!
Later in May, we went to Savor - a ridiculous, enormous, expensive craft beer festival held in the National Building Museum. It was cool, but it was way too much beer to try to choke down (more than 100 different kinds!) and it was pricey as shit. It was a fun experience for one night, but I can't imagine we'll be back. This picture of a bunch of plants has absolutely nothing to do with Savor, except that I took it at the event.
More hiking. Following Greece, I've been trying to get out and walk about amongst trees more often.
I don't remember why we were way the hell out in Herndon on this particular day, but we stopped by the Frying Pan Farm and there were tons of baby animals!
At World of Beer. I don't remember why, but there was good light on George.
A photography meetup with some buds. This is staged, but the others are not.
And that's it! For now. I'll get those Madrid and in-between photos up... eventually. You know how it goes. And for friends and relatives and people who enjoy posts like this, I've been doing snapshotty, don't-care-what-it-looks-like, document-my-life type stuff over on Instagram. If you care what I'm up to on a daily basis, that's a much better medium. I obviously can't be trusted to post anything here regularly about my actual life.
Getting on with it! Today I am going to share just a very small bit of what I am up to every week, sometimes multiple times a week: ceramics. I don't know why, but as a kid, I always wanted to learn how to throw pottery ("throwing" is what you do on the wheel - "hand building" and many other terms are what you do on a table or with various tools). It may have been the damn scene in Ghost that spurred this interest (shame), but it was there gnawing at me for a good 15 or 20 years before I finally sat down at a wheel about a year and a half ago.
My first class was with the 
I will go ahead and say zucchini fritters are the yummiest things you can do with zucchini, and I don't hate on zucchini or anything. They are just that good. They're also really hard to screw up. You need just a few things: