A Little Project

So last year, there was magically a very large pile of things across the street. We speculated that the old lady that lived there was moving into a retirement community or in with her kids, but it's actually most likely that she died. And while that is pretty sad, she did have a few cool things in her junk pile.

One of which was an old chair covered in naugahyde. The back was teal and the bottom was cream, and it seemed like a fun project. Now I acquired this little chair in the summer of 2009, and it is now closing in on the end of October of 2010. And in over a year, I didn't take any pictures with the chair in it other than this one.

The chair is there on the left and you can't really see it, which is a shame because I love a good before and after. Apparently I was in such a hurry (a 15+ month hurry) to get the chair done that I couldn't be bothered to take a good picture.

But, here we are at the after.

After borrowing tools from several different people and building a new back for the chair, this project is finally done :)

Tuba

This was my view leaving campus last Friday.

It also happens to be at least the fourth time that I've witnessed this particular person walking up the street with his tuba. I wish you could see a little closer, because there's actually a license plate taped onto the back of the tuba that says (quite appropriately) "TUBA."

I just wish traffic wasn't always so heavy and that I could pull over and chat and find out his story.

And while on the subject of Tubas, check out this story about Harvey Phillips, the "Paganini of the Tuba."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130732198

Number 94

Number 94 on the list for this year was the Thrift Store Prom. I'd been thinking on the how's and the where's and the when's for a while now and then we finally decided to do it for a ward activity.

Things got off to a little rocky start since the music was about a half hour late.

But then we got the Eurythmics and Oingo Boingo and Vanilla Ice going and it ended up being a pretty good party.

Here is the prom king and queen, it was the tight white pants that sold it for the judges.

A Visit

So by now you already know that the parents came out to visit me last weekend. But I'll just let you know that we did do a few other things alongside the horse races.

We got to go to the Newseum, which was pretty fascinating and very well done. I particularly liked all the Pulitzer Prize winning photos that were exhibited. I'm pretty sure that museums have actually gotten better than when I was a kid, and it's not just that I have a somewhat longer attention span now.

We also took a little trip to the National Cathedral which is very, very large. We got to sit in on the Evensong service and listen to the choir. . . . . we left halfway through because they kept making us stand up and that was interrupting Dad's nap.

Then we also made a nice little trip to Monticello. Thomas Jefferson was a pretty cool guy and I don't blame him one bit for wanting to hang out there.

Thanks parents for coming to visit me and helping me to knock two things off my list! Only 37 to go......

The International Gold Cup

Last Saturday was yet another outing to Great Meadows for the International Gold Cup. I just think days that you can spend outside wearing ridiculously large hats are pretty fantastic.

Here's part of the group between races.

The horses rounding the corner and getting ready for the next jump.

And look who else got to join the party! My parents, who kindly packed hats for all three of us all the way from SLC to visit, and then promptly bought new hats at the races.

Sadly, Greg did not wear this hat the entire time.

St. Louis

I went to St. Louis last week to present at the NACAC conference with two colleagues from Oregon and Utah. I was just there for one night, but it was still a good time. If you want to see my presentation, you can find it here http://www.nacacnet.org/EventsTraining/NC10/Educational/Documents/B207.pdf.
It was a great experience to present at a professional conference, and I'm really glad I was able to go.

And no matter what anyone says, conferences are not just about work. We got to go to a party with free drinks (I'm always very popular when that happens, because I'm able to bestow my drink tickets on the person I think will entertain me most when they get a little tipsy) and this amazing view of the city from the rooftop.

I also have a few pictures of my coworker attempting cartwheels in our room- I'm reserving them from public consumption in the unlikely event that I need some blackmail leverage in the future. I say attempting, because although the room was quite long, there were some beds and dressers with granite tops that made the space very narrow. You'd be surprised at how scary, yet hilarious, attempted cartwheels can be in that sort of situation.

Then on Friday after our session, and before my 5pm flight, my fellow presenters and I went to Pappy's for some highly lauded bbq.

The dry rub ribs and sweet potato fries were absolutely fantastic! If you ever find yourself in St. Louis, you owe it to yourself to go there. It was definitely worth the 45 minute wait in the line that snaked through the building and out the door. I'm still a little iffy on whether or not it was worth losing my wallet on the cab ride over there.

Sadly, the wallet remains in St. Louis, but luckily I didn't. I made it on my flight with the help of a copy of my passport that I have saved online and as far as I can tell none of my accounts have been hacked, but now I need to work on getting a new driver's license and Costco member card- I wonder which one will come first?