Into the Sunset

Here it is, kids...the end of the line. As I leave you to your adventures, and me to mine, I just want to say thanks for coming along for the ride with me. For my last parting thoughts, here are a few good pictures that I took a long time ago, and felt like sharing.

International Travels, Part One
International Travels, Part Two
Loving Parents, of the Dad Variety
Loving Parents, of the Mom and Step-Dad Variety

So until next time, remember: enjoy the little things, and always carry a camera with you, because you never know what you're going to see (or do, or eat....).

A Holiday How-To: So the Oven Broke on Turkey Day...

Well, it's Thanksgiving...which means family, food, and football on TV. Just before the holiday could kick off, however, Mama D's oven broke down. Not to be deterred (and having a turkey large enough to feed a small army), she figured out how to grill out bird on the gas grill, cook the stuffing in a crock pot, and still have dinner on the table by mid-afternoon. Here she is checking out the turkey's progress.

Update, 12:05 pm: Mama D says the turkey takes 4 hours on the grill, and is turning out so brown and lovely that she may grill the turkey every year from now on. You heard it here first, friends: necessity is indeed the mother of delicious invention.

Where have you been?

My cat was waiting for me when I got home to Mama D and Chris' house for Thanksgiving...this is her doing her "I'm so cute and adorable when I stick my paw out, why don't you pet me?" look.

Embarrassing Birthday Trip

Some parents like to really embarrass their children when birthday time rolls around. And some people really enjoy helping their friends' parents plan that really embarrassing birthday experience. This past week, that's exactly what happened when the mom of my friend Chris enlisted our help to plan a spectacularly embarrassing birthday dinner for Chris and his younger brother Joe at Organ Piper Pizza in West Allis, otherwise known as the Music Palace of Metro Milwaukee.

Joe, on the left, and my friend Chris on the right, look plenty embarrassed. And although the pizza is pretty solid, the real attraction is the old-school organ, which is attached to several rooms of organ pipes as well as other sound making devices attached to the ceiling and walls, like sirens and train whistles. An ancient old man named Ralph plays old standards, show tunes, and songs from movies. Below, old Ralph unfurls the American flag for a rousing rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

Best part of the evening was when my friend Ben joked that the place-with its families with small children target audience and loud, cheesy music-made it a great place to take a girl on a first date if you didn't really like her. Classic stuff.

Another Buggy Picture

This was really taken on the 1st, but it shows a grasshopper that decided to take up residence in Mama D and Chris' entryway for a few days. As a side-note, I feel like my blog is being overtaken by a preponderance of photos of bugs and food. What does that say about me?

Mama D's New House

This is a picture of the living room and dining room in my mom's new house. Can I just stress that it's huge? I actually had taken a video tour of the whole house to post here and show you, but the file was so large that Blogger, Google, and YouTube all refused to let me upload it....and that should give you an idea of how big this house is.

Mom will probably be a little put off that I'm posting this, since they aren't unpacked yet, but that's a chance I'll take.

Chris and the Klondike Bar

One more picture taken in our lovely apartment living room! This one features Chris Timmel and a damn good Klondike Bar...he's making that dessert sandwich look rather sophisticated, don't you think?

Vacation Recap

Another photo essay, courtesy of the vacation to Hawaii I'm still jetlagging from. To make the pictures full size, just click on them.

A philosopher's chair...rarely sat in but often pondered.


My step-dad Chris enjoying a sunset at the beach.

Obligatory sunset picture number 2

My step-grandmother Susan refusing to sit correctly

A Bare Looking Tree

A Beach View

A Sea Turtle swimming away from me (I probably looked scary. Figures.)

The Big Island: just a bunch of lava rocks, connected to some trees, sitting on the ocean.

More Beachy goodness.

Attack of the radishes! (Mom loves restaurants with big plates and small portions of brightly colored food. This particular restaurant had lotus root on the menu, which is pretty ridiculous if you think about it.)

A couple enjoying the surf and turf on the seaside at the afore-mentioned fancy restaurant.

One last sunset picture...

I mostly took this picture to prove that the Big Island is mostly not beaches, but looks like this...almost like some parts of California....

...or like this, with fields upon fields of lava rocks. The white rock you see is a tradition: people write their names and messages with the white rocks so they are visible from the highway. I'm not positive, but I think it's partly for good luck, and partly so people can advertise that they've been here.

A view from the mountainside down to the sea at Susan's house. Off to the left are where I saw the sheep, and down to the right were some cows. Felt kind of like I wasn't in Hawaii.

Mom's creme brulee, which she cooked for Chris' family one night...anything Mom cooks deserves a picture.

An avocado tree in the orchard at Chris' parents' house...

And a baby avocado, on the tree. I wonder what it dreams of being when it grows up. A regular avocado? Or does it have pipedreams of being, say, a grapefruit?

Not quite all the way to the orchard, Chris' parents have a lawn made of not-native grass. It is as thick and plush as shag carpeting, people. My very pale foot is here, sinking into the cushy blades.

A view from the highway of the wind turbines down by the sea.


Butterfly close-up. I'm not going to lie, I chased this thing for a good 20 minutes before it would settle down and stay put long enough for me to get close to it.

And lastly, Sheep!