a trio of sunrise shots

By some random chance, I happened to wake up just in time to catch the tail end of sunrise. I snuck outside, snapped these shots, and went back to bed. These shots go from left to right, taken just seconds from each other:

A misty morning:



The sunrise:


Purple mountains:

This was a little vista from our hike through Newport State Park, just up on the northern tip of the peninsula. Really beautiful. Gorgeous expanse of water on one side bordered by dense forest.

travels in the midwest

It's official. My camera's dead. :-( So after this entry, this blog is officially on hiatus till I get a new one. Hopefully it won't be too long. It was only meant to last the summer anyway, though!

So here's the start of my last string of pictures. These are all from a couple of days spent in Door County, Wisconsin. Beautiful countryside. Green Bay on the west side, Lake Michigan on the east.

This was our cabin. It was a crappy cabin, but it had a spectacular view.

shaker art

This is what greeted me on table 2 when I came in to set up the the cafe this morning. Apparently, Ed had a slow night...

sadness

Pictures are gonna get fewer and farther between. It seems my camera is dying. A slow and pitiful death. It will only take one or two pictures with a pair of batteries. If it turns on at all. So yeah - I'll take 'em when I can, but I don't think a new camera is in my immediate future, so we may have to put this blog on hold for a little bit.

*Tear*..

you said it!

This is a page from my page-a-day calendar. It's not from today, but it's statement is applicable to today. You probably can't read it from the photo, so let me recreate it for you. This, apparently, was a sign that was sitting on every table in a Chinese restaurant in New York:
WARNING: Tips for waitress not privilege off customer, and it not opshinul to do! Is custimmary and IS THE LAW for leave tips, otherwise is possibul to face prosecution by law! Please be responsivele, leave tip and no go jail. Have a nice day!

Hey Mr. Tambourine Man

Today the No. 9 Lounge hosted Bobby Thompson & Eddie H. Bobby played the guitar and Eddie was a one man percussion kit. As such, he got creative with his instruments. Note the tambourine strapped to his shoe...

too much cuteness

I visited a house tonight that a friend of mine is housesitting. The house itself is pretty spectacular in and of itself, but I felt weird posting pictures of the interior of someone's house when I don't really know them. So here instead are pictures of two of the sweetest and cutest pooches a family could hope for. :-)

Meet Rosie:


And Petey:

sanctuary...

...is a yoga studio.

This is the yoga studio in my building. Open 24 hours. Bliss.

stupid stubborn camera.

My camera wasn't working today. I couldn't even get it to turn on. Not even with brand new batteries!! :-(

So let's see what I can pull from the summer archives...

Oh! Here's a magnificent tree I ran across in early June (June 6th to be precise). I think it's pretty breathtaking.

up on the roof

My new apartment complex has a rooftop deck. It's spectacular at night.



To the left, you can see the Washington Monument. On the horizon, just left of center, is the dome of the Capitol Building. The low lying wall of a building on the center left side is the Pentagon.

DC's awesome. :-)

another double day

I worked all day. There wasn't much worth photographing today. So I will feature another photo snapped in my cubicle yesterday. It's a Dilbert strip I found when we were cleaning out tons of crap in the Global Unit. I enjoy it. So I kept it. I know it's blurry, but I think it's still legible.

flashing back

So this may just look like a simple ordinary sandwich to you. And so it may be to you. But to me, this sandwich represented a return from years of foregoing a childhood favorite. This was probably the first PB&J I had made or eaten in...I don't even know how many years. 10? It was much more satisfying than I had expected it to be.

(And for the curious and astute observer, the glitteriness behind and beneath the sandwich is a sheet of metallic and sparkly smiley face stickers. I am using them to track my progress through the dozens of reports I'm poring through at work. For every African country I get through, a smiley face goes on the map. Woohoo!)

a storm's a-brewin'

They called for crazy storms today. This is what the sky looked like by about 1:30pm:



(Ironically, all we got was your average rain. Nothing huge at all.)

(Also, click on the picture to enlarge it and get a better representation of the sky's color...I don't think this small picture quite captures it. It really was pretty remarkable.)

what gentlemen..?

What happens when a groom-to-be and his best man try to decide who's gonna pay the check...

happy birthday, evening star!

Today was the 10th anniversary of the Evening Star Cafe. Technically these pictures were taken in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. I'll have a picture from Monday night proper when Amanda sends me the one she took, but for now, these'll just have to count as overlap.

This was our upstairs bar at 1:30am Monday night.


(Usually, this bar is closed by midnight. This is what happens when you provide free food and a semi-open bar for your devoted regulars.)

And this is what happens when people try to dance on a bar that is 2 feet from the ceiling:

dead batteries :-(

My camera batteries died today. I'll have pictures when someone sends me theirs.

pittsburgh town

Today was my friend's bridal shower and bachelorette party in Pittsburgh. Good times. This is the bachelorette crew by the waterfront:


This was my martini flight with dinner. 3 mini martinis for $7 - a guavatini (sooooo yummy!), a cosmo, and a chocolate martini (mmm...dessert...).

letting my hair hang down

This is how I showed up looking at the cafe for work today. Apparently, it was a really big deal for me to have my hair down. The regulars couldn't quite get over it. It was like I was teaching high school again. "Ms. Hampton, how come you never wear your hair down?" "Ms. Hampton, why do you always wear glasses?" Geez. You'd think I'd gotten a complete makeover or something.

the life of a cafe host

I hosted tonight. This is the screen I stare at when I do that. Slightly blurry. It wasn't my first pick of picture for the night, but hey, there ya go. Take it or leave it.

Now this picture was taken a month (maybe even 2?) ago, but it's the same band that played in the same place tonight. That band being Brother Shamus, and that place being the No. 9 Lounge (aka the upstairs bar of the cafe).

a free lunch!

There is such thing as a free lunch and this picture proves it. There was a global education conference in the Peace Corps building today. There were leftover lunches. I helped myself to a Corner Bakery feast of tomato and mozzerella sandwich, potato chips, apple and chocolate chip cookie. Mmmm...
(And for the astutely observant, that bar table is in fact a backgammon table. We have a number of gamed themed bar tables at the cafe. And most of the game pieces for them if you wanna play.)