The Big City

Things have been slightly manic around here for the last couple of weeks.  First I was getting ready to head out of town, then I actually was out of town, and then I was playing catch up from the out of town.  So basically a 4 day trip ended up having two weeks worth of effect.  But it was totally worth it!

Leslie, friend since the first day of college, is getting married, and so a group of us head to NYC to do some wedding dress shopping.  Because that's how she rolls.  Ok, that's a lie.  Heading to NYC to shop is kind of the opposite of how she rolls.  But her sister lives nearby in Pennsylvania, and there was a designer that she liked with a showroom in NYC, so off we went!  Like we were living someone else's life.  Which is totally fun every once in a while.

Here's what Lancaster, PA looked like when we arrived.  I'll be honest, I wasn't quite expecting this.

But then by the time we got to NYC on Saturday the weather cleared up and turned beautiful.
We hit the Northeast-in-February jackpot.  

After the (successful!) wedding dress shopping, we went to dinner at Becco.  Best.  Food.  Ever.  Then we went to see Kinky Boots.  I am not known for my great love of theater, but it turns out I made a major discovery.  I don't hate theater, I just hate bad theater.  Since this show just won a Tony Award, and featured actors that also won Tony Awards, this was not bad theater.  And so it was great.

Then, on Sunday, we headed to Philadelphia to see Leslie's nephew's band play.  If you would like to feel very, very old I suggest you go to a college bar.  But before we went to the bar we went to a very good Mexican tapas restaurant.  I can't remember the name, but I did take a picture of their impressive collection of Mexican wrestling masks.

And then it was back to Lancaster for a run on Monday morning before we flew home.  In the distance is an Amish farm.  I was a little surprised to see the Amish family unloading groceries from Costco out of a friend's Prius, but apparently that's a thing.  The Prius doesn't negate the Amish-ness if it belongs to a friend and not to the Amish themselves.  Convenient, yes?

Lancaster is beautiful.  Better than the first picture.

With the bride-to-be.  We are expecting to do our hair just like this for the ceremony.

Picture Day

This post was going to be entitled "The Year in Pictures (Or, My Mom Finally Downloads her Camera)." But then I was over at Leslie's perusing her pictures and added a few more. So now it's "The Year in Pictures, Plus a Few Older Ones that Entertain Me." Here goes, in no particular order except that which blogger establishes in its very arbitrary way.


This picture is from a couple of years ago, and is noteworthy not only for the fact that I hiked a skirt up over my chest and called it a dress, but also because pictures of me in this skirt/dress can now be found popping up in weird places in architectural renderings. Seriously. A friend of ours owns a company that produces architectural renderings, and he needed pictures of random people to drop into them and hired Leslie to take these random pictures. And I've seen a few samples that feature me in this dress. Weird, eh?


A few years ago Leslie and I helped a friend who was taking photographs for an art exhibit/fashion show (seriously). This endeavor culminated with me submerged in Beaver Lake wearing a lycra dress and a series of braids on my head that made me look like a teletubby. Not kidding. (Also note, the ranger at Beaver Lake was Not Amused.) To thank everyone who helped with the show, the women in charge had a cocktail party at their house - Leslie and I attended, and were apparently Very Amused by something going on at said party. This picture actually showed up in one of the Citizen Time galleries. It's one of my favorite pictures of Leslie.


One of my favorite knitting creations ever. Our friends, who are huge Johnny Cash fans, had a baby. Leslie really wanted to give them something unique and Cash-like, so I took the album cover from one of Johnny Cash's Greatest Hits albums and turned it into this sweater. Cool, no?


How Sam and his first cousins spent their summer at Camp Nana. They're having a whale of a good time, but I must confess that water doesn't look like much compared to all of the crystal clear pictures on the hawaii blogs I've been reading. Still, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Proof that Sam is probably the most spoiled boy in Asheville. For his birthday his grandmother got him a. . . real knight's helmet. He LOVES it. It weighs about 10 pounds and is big enough for an offensive linemen to fit over his head. It sits in a place of honor beside his bed, but so far hasn't been pressed into actual duty.


How first graders at Isaac Dickson celebrate the last day of school. I can tell you we never got to go to Lake Powhatan and run around like maniacs when i was in elementary school.

The only picture I have from my first triathlon. Seriously. It was just me and Mum (Clark was running market that day), and the battery on her camera died right after taking this picture. Apparently I was just staring at my transition area hoping it would all suddenly make sense.

One of my favorite family portraits. This was right after the Asheville Tri in July.