Entries from July 2009 ↓

How does the summer fill up so quickly? I’m trying to keep on top of things in my little corner of the internet, but I keep getting distracted. Tonight is perfect for catching up, though. I’m watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix tonight in preparation for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince tomorrow night. Since I’ve seen tonight’s movies before (I just need a memory refresh on what happens), I can be a little distracted by Flickr and photo sharing.

(Ooh, Hermione just arrived at the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum.)

On Thursday night I’ll be babysitting Hannie with my friend, Erin, and on Friday I’m headed up north to Goodland, MN with a few friends. I don’t think I’ll have a chance to share photos of my BLUE bathroom with you until next week. I’m very happy that it’s finally done, though! The blue is more blue than I originally envisioned, but it’s a very lovely color. With the white trim, and when I finally touch up the white paint around the door and window and repaint the ceiling (also white) it will look so much cleaner than it was when I moved in! And also less hideous. Less hideous is important.

I have to get the painters tape down before I take photos of the mostly-finished project, but until then I have one photo to post here.

This was after the first coat of paint was up—I’m glad the kitties seem to approve of the new color!

(By the way, I’m still a little sad about what happens to Cedric Diggory.)

Last friday I had my first big get-together in my apartment. I hosted a monthly movie night that Ann has been organizing since February. Theme: Alfred Hitchcock.

We watched Rope and most of Rear Window. I use the verb “watched” very loosely because we chattered through most of both of the movies. We stopped Rear Window before it ended so as not to ruin the movie for Vani. (She came over the next evening and we watched it without as much chattering.)

The kitties handled all of the company pretty well, though Ampersand is usually always a bit skittish. She watched the party from the kitchen most of the night.

And look—even a BOY came! (Okay, so Jon and Mark were over earlier before I broke out my camera. And another fellow, Nick, had come over with his friend, Greta.)

Anne (not Ann, mind you) brought over Hitchcock Clue, so we had to play it, of course.

It was Miss Scarlet in the farmhouse kitchen with a seagull! (I won the game.)

For some reason or another, the conversation turned to David Bowie so we had to watch various scenes of The Labyrinth.

It got to be quite late and my guests started to get a little sleepy.

Vani stuck around after everyone else had left and we caught up for a bit. Somehow it was 3 a.m. when I finally went to bed—it was such a fun night, though! I’m so glad everyone could come and hang out with me. I hope to have everyone over again soon!

There are a few more photos on Flickr.

I don’t understand why or how people view my Flickr photos like they do. For instance, this photo of my mom and me from my RAZR a few years ago (2006) is my all-time most-viewed Flickr photo:

Why? I like this photo, but I don’t understand why so many people have viewed it. It’s been viewed almost twice as much as my all-time second-most-viewed photo:

I understand why this photo gets a lot of views: Fiona Apple. It’s a similar reason for my all-time third-most-viewed photo:

Liz freakin’ Phair, man. That was such a good show.

I decided to invite myself along to fourth of July festivities on White Bear Lake. Jared’s friend, Courtney, and her family have an amazing lakeside house with a little beachfront cabana.

The water in the lake was really low, which gave us an extended beach on which to play badminton, ladderball, and build sand castles. In the afternoon, Noah took Kristi and me wading and we caught tadpoles. Kristi caught a tadpole that had whiskers—of course, it was actually a baby bullhead. It was cute (and not slimy yet)!

It rained lightly for about 10 minutes. We all took shelter under the beach umbrellas and a few of the smarter people went in the cabana. The umbrellas leaked and we got a little soaked, but then the sun came out and dried us off. So it all worked out.

I was disappointed that I couldn’t find more critters in the lake, though I probably would’ve been grossed out if I had.

The family that hosted the party had decorated the house with a lot of red, white, and blue. Even the deer head in the office had some glittery, patriotic garlands strewn around its antlers.

Stella was rockin’ the ladybug swimsuit. She even had a ladybug beach robe to wear over it. She was the most fashionable lady at the beach that day.

I’m not sure I ever knew how to play dominoes, but I caught on pretty fast. I think I did pretty well, though we only played three rounds before everyone wandered off in different directions.

Kristi and I walked down the street to the park and public beach. There was a big band getting ready to play, and the fireworks barge was getting final, explosive details together.

There is something on my lens, but I keep forgetting to clean it. Do you see it? It’s a hair in the upper left-hand corner. It’s annoying.

There was one morning at Sullyfest when I woke up and asked my mom if I should wear blue or blue and then literally pulled three different blue shirts out of my bag. I’m starting to think I own too many blue shirts. It was just fate that I happened to get a blue M&M ice cream treat for this photo.

Things that flew over our heads:

1. A boat airplane
2. A Blue Heron
3. A Bald Eagle (cliché, but also pretty cool)

It was fun to see all of the tiny explosions of fireworks around the lake, and Brad made sure we had our own little display before the big show started.

After the fireworks everyone started roasted fancy s’mores—they put a marshmallow and a caramel on their sticks for roasting. I’ve never seen that done before, and I didn’t try it this time but wow. Genius.

Jared and his friends have had an annual Third of July party for over 10 years. Jared hosted it in the back yard this year, so I decided to “co-host” even though Karyn, Bryan, and Hannie were my only guests.

It was a good excuse to clean my apartment, even though no one saw it.

My camera’s batteries died after this photo and I was too lazy to go upstairs to get a different camera. These photos are the only proof that I had guests at the party, too.

Jared bought this nice game set for the party. One side was a washer toss, and the other was a bean bag toss. It provided good activity between dinner-eating and firework-igniting.

The windows about the net lights are mine. I think Ampersand watched the party most of the night.

Ava’s shirt reads “Daddy’s Little Firecracker” and her version of hula hooping was spinning herself in a circle, pulling the hula hoop around with her. Too cute!

Sarah is about 4 months pregnant. She was the hula hooping star of the evening—at one point hula-ing two hoops; one was around her upper baby belly and the other was around her lower baby belly. Color me impressed! I bet the baby was having a good time, too.

Then someone decided we should be lighting fireworks out in the street.

Why do boys seem to turn into zombies around fireworks?