41...

12 August 2018: My birthday included checking out awesome Lego sculptures, seeing the big shark movie (which I refuse to call anything other than CHOMP!—and which was such stupid fun), dinner at Kazu, ice-cream at Nutter’s, and messages/calls from all kinds of wonderful people. So far, 41 is pretty darn cool.

Slender Man

11 August 2018: Headed to the movies today to see The Meg, which I refuse to call anything else but Chomp!, and by the time we got to the theater, it had disappeared from the MoviePass app. So we saw Slender Man instead. It was so bad, but we still had some fun. Here's an exchange I had with Amy:

[Something happens on screen--something scary--but I missed it.]

Me: Did I miss something?

Amy: Yes.

Me: What was it?

Amy (with just a touch of "duh!" in her voice): Slender Man.

Me: Oh. Right.

Bourbon in the morning...

10 August 2018: Before heading home, we checked out the Town Branch Distillery and Brewery, another really impressive facility.

All in all, a fantastic trip.

Kentucky Horse Park

9 August 2018:

[Catch-up post]

Thursday found us in Lexington, at the Kentucky Horse Park, a place Amy wanted to check out because she loves her some horses. It's a really impressive place and quite enjoyable.

Me checking out Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, Funny Cide. He ignored me.  

Waiting for the "Hall  of Champions" show to start.

I really dug this Puerto Rican dancing horse (I think it is called a Paso Fino?) that we saw at the Parade of Breeds.

Bats + Gatsby = Batsby?

8 August 2018:

[Catch-up post]

Some pictures from Day One of a short vacation to Kentucky. Just one from each major stop...

First, from the Louisville Slugger Factory...here's me holding Mickey Mantle's bat!

Then, from our awesome hotel, here's the bar where Fitzgerald used to drink, in the hotel that helped inspire The Great Gatsby. 

Hosting, Week 2

7 August 2018: Another week of trivia hosting in the books and it went pretty well again. A couple of problems with the technology, but we are learning/adapting and have some great teams showing up.

Better Call Saul

6 August 2018: “Well, Howard, I guess that’s your cross to bear.” -Jimmy, on tonight's season premiere of Better Call Saul.

Just about gasped out loud when Jimmy uttered these words. I almost watch this show through through my fingers knowing what will happen to Jimmy and not really wanting to see him make that transition.

Summer Sunday evening...

5 August 2018:

"And I'm beginning to feel the years
But I'm going to be okay
As long as you're beside me along the way
Going to make it through the night
And into the morning light" --Brandi Carlile, "Beginning to Feel the Years"

Art Soiree

4 August 2018: A long but good day, capped off by attending a fundraiser for a local theater with some friends. Exhausted but happy.

Movie night!

3 August 2018:

[Catch-up post]

Hannah, Cory, and I decided to re-watch two of our favorite films from last year, Phantom Thread and Call Me By Your Name. When it came to dining options, rather than leaning into the theme and keeping it classy, we veered in the opposite direction. So the theme was “watch beautiful movies featuring beautiful people in beautiful places wearing beautiful clothes while you eat trash food.” It was gosh-darn delightful. Not pictured: Domino’s pizza. Oh, and us.

Eighth Grade

2 August 2018: What an achingly beautiful film this is. The writing, the acting, the images--all just wonderful. It is very clear that technology and social media has made much of what it means to be an eighth grade girl different from what it meant back when I was that age.

But what this movie captures so well is that the emotions are the same. Almost painfully timeless. There's a scene where Kayla, the protagonist, gets dropped off at a party (a pool party, to make it worse) to which she's only been invited because the host's mom insisted. Those first moments--she walks into the house, steps into the bathroom to change, steps outside, gets into the pool and sort of hangs out on the side--are just perfectly done. So familiar and loaded.

At another moment, Kayla and her father have a conversation in their backyard that left me sobbing. The camera pans out to reveal her old swing set in the yard off to the side. It's a reminder that not that long ago, she was just a little kid. It killed me.

What a film.

Onto The Moonstone...

1 August 2018: "We have already had specimens, as many as are desirable, of what the detective policeman can do for the enlivenment of literature: and it is into the hands of the literary Detective that this school of story-telling must inevitably fall at last.” --Margaret Oliphant, writing about The Woman in White in 1862.

My preparation for my nineteenth-century British novel class has gotten as far as The Moonstone. An article I read today pointed out that when Oliphant wrote those words, The Moonstone--often called the first great detective novel--hadn't even been published yet. Beyond being intrigued by that, I also laughed to myself thinking about what Oliphant would say about our contemporary obsession with all things forensic.

Trivia hosting...

31 July 2018: Tonight Amy and I took over hosting trivia at Cafe del Sol. Our own trivia team was sort of dying down and it was harder and harder to field a team every week. This keeps us in the loop, gives us something to do on a weeknight, and is still (so far) lots of fun. The first night went pretty well as the restaurant was packed and I only made the mic make that awful screechy noise once (ugh). On to week two!

Payback! (The best kind...)

30 July 2018: When I owed Jane money for theater tickets, I sent her a check in a silly card. When she owed me $50 for tickets, she sent me 10 cards over ten days (not counting Sundays), each with $5 in them. She wins this round of "which friend is more fun."

Sunday morning blueberry picking...

29 July 2018: Amy and I went to Frog Eye Blueberry Farm this morning. The season is wrapping up so the pickings were a bit slim, but we still had fun. And when we went to pay, the woman didn't charge us because our hauls weren't that big, a lovely (and unnecessary) gesture. The patch was full of butterflies, too, which made it all even nicer.