I'm leaving for camp this afternoon, and shall be off the Internet until Tuesday at least. :) This year's theme is outer-space-like, so I'll be dressing up as Nurse Chapel from the old Star Trek episodes for the Sunday night family fun carnival-type thing. Everyone will be dressed as an alien or an astronaut or something of the sort. I'd rather not be an alien, y'know? Of course, I'll also do my reading, as I mentioned. And photographing things, and playing guitar, and having lots of fun... :) So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen. Pictures up next week.

I used to play this one once in a while at the radio station I volunteered with. It's relatively new--last year, at the oldest--but first time I heard it, it struck me as retro.

Hooray for camp! It's coming up this weekend, so I will be away for a few days. Nothing like a little rest, relaxation, and unplugging-time (quite literally; I intend to leave my laptop at home). I intend to do lots of reading, to work with Mom on a Wacky Boat, and to enjoy the little cabin and the lovely lake air. :)

My sister had her graduation party, as did another good friend of ours (well, friend mostly of my brother, but we've known the family for ten years, probably). So Saturday was filled to the brim, and Friday was taken up planning for Saturday. And Sunday, of course, was Father's Day. :) My daddy got to watch "Live Free or Die Hard," the only Die Hard that's not rated R (and consequently it's acceptable in our house). I enjoy it almost as much as Dad does, to be honest. The script/characters are quite amusing. So, come Monday, and I find out that several books are waiting for me at the library! :) These books were: --Jane Austen's "Emma" --Jane Austen's early works --Jane Austen's "Sanditon" and other short novels (more early works) --and "A History of the Ancient World," by Susan Wise Bauer. Can you tell I'm on a Jane Austen kick? :) (By the way--if you're an Ohioan, call or e-mail your legislature and the

I wish our local newspaper had a much bigger world-news section. Then maybe I'd be learning a little more about the whole hullabaloo in Iran lately. As it seems a lot of Iranians are unhappy (to say the least!) with the elections, the Iranian government has been cracking down on information transmission... the Internet, and foreign journalists, too . (Thanks to my cousin for the link.) Eyewitnesses are reporting that fully-credentialed foreign journalists are similarly being detained all over Tehran today. The deputy head of the Ministry of Guidance just told me on the phone that other journalists have also been beaten, and that the official permissions no longer work. Also, foreign journalist visas are not being extended, so all of those people who were allowed in to cover the elections are now being forced out in the messy aftermath. Nobody is going to believe that the election wasn't rigged. Not when the government is responding like this.... Mild rant: I just want to yell

So, my dad does real estate. On Sunday he was holding an open house at a rather interesting home. This house had been owned by a Japanese man who had moved here and was moving back to Japan. In this house were a few amenities less common to Americans, but familiar in other countries. One of these was a bidet in the bathroom. Apparently it was an odd-looking bidet. It had a lot of Japanese characters on it, telling what each button does, et cetera. Not an English letter on the whole thing. A sightseer wandering through the house stopped in the bathroom and asked what it was, and Dad told him. This sightseer, however, was well-traveled. He had been to Spain. Therefore, he said with authority that it didn't look like a bidet. Dad just let it pass... but then the sightseer wanted to see what it did. "Can I push this button?" "OK." "What about this one?" "Um...." So the sightseer pushed it. Little did he know (because, notwithstanding hi

OK. As you may remember , I have a pretty good-sized hat collection. In 2007 the number of hats was somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty , including my graduation cap... I think. I'm not exactly sure. Now, it is up to thirty-six. And I'm very sure this time! Well, come to think of it, it ought to be thirty-seven... I didn't include my graduation cap in that tally. (I'm pretty sure it's still around here, somewhere!) A slideshow of the pictures: You'll probably be able to see the pictures better at the source .

*yawn* I'm very tired. The only reason I'm still up and online is that my family isn't home quite yet. So, on to the news of the wedding! It was beautiful--the bride wore this lovely dress with some very nice beading. The groom was so funny. The two of them did a "sand ceremony" in place of lighting the unity candle; I liked that very much. At the reception we started with some desserts (little cookie things, mostly) as an appetizer... it was odd. But once the dinner was actually served (after the wedding party got there), it was quite delicious. The rolls were the best part... but I've observed that the rolls are generally the most appealing thing at a catered dinner, anyway. Not to say that the other food isn't great, of course; but the rolls are just--well, they're rolls. And rolls are wonderful. The best part was seeing my friend get married, of course; the next best part was seeing all my other friends that got to come see our friend get

Three gerunds in one--must be quite the topic! But it is because I've made (or had made for me) several purchases in the last few days. 1. I have shoes!! Well, I've always had shoes, I guess, but these are new shoes. They're waterproof, and steel-toed (that was accidental), and they lace up... and they're two sizes too small. Literally. (Well, in a way. They're a men's shoe, if one can say that and still be grammatical, and men's sizes run differently than women's sizes.) Their purpose is to keep my feet dry while studying abroad this fall--I'll be in the tropics, or close to it, and since it rains there every day (right when we'll be walking to class, wouldn't ya know) the waterproof factor is imperative. 2. I bought a wedding gift a couple days ago. A nice little thing for a friend of mine who's getting married Saturday--it was on her gift registry over at Kohl's, and it's something my mom has used time and again so I kno

This weekend was spent with my cousins and their cousins--my cousins' cousins, or CC's for short. Anyhow, this was due to my one cousin's graduation and the attending festivities! We had a lovely time, complete with kittens and a party and just plain fun with the cousins and CC's (whom we have not seen in two years). And I'm attempting to upload pictures to Facebook... but it hates me.

So I've been on a reading kick for the past two weeks, or so. Ever since I got home from college and discovered the immense amount of free time I had! 1. I just finished The Phantom of the Opera a day or two ago. It's quite interesting, and rather different from the movie/stage production. Well, you recognize portions of the play as almost straight from the book, but the tone--the whole tone of the book is a bit different. I enjoyed it well enough. 2. I read several Agatha Christie short stories, which I enjoyed very much. The Miss Marple stories, in particular, are fascinating. Miss Marple always deduces the solution to some puzzle using a sort of psychological approach--though I'm sure she wouldn't call it that. It's just "oh, this old man was just like my Uncle Henry, and I know this is what Uncle Henry would have done." 3. I'm reading Dracula now. Just started it today, and won't have time to read much more. I leave for work in about

I wanted to title this one "Observations upon the economy, engagement, and work environments" but that's just a little too long for my taste.... but observations they are, notwithstanding any title change, and here they follow. 1. My itty bitty town's largest employer announced today it will close in a year. This little town practically subsists upon the tax revenues from this particular business. And now... the town's already facing deficit issues, and this will only exacerbate the problems. Not to mention the twelve hundred or so who will soon be unemployed. Throw in a union and you have quite a little mess. 2. My pastor's daughter got engaged to her boyfriend of... three or four years! I knew it was coming, and probably this summer was my guess, but his asking her on the top of the Eiffel Tower at night was a perfectly lovely way to do it, in my opinion (and in probably everyone else's too!). (She was on a school trip in Europe, and he flew there f