Goin' to the Chapel

A few weeks ago, Tricia and I went to Sara's wedding. I was a bit remiss in promptly blogging about the festivities; as Sara said, "I was a little upset you blogged about Billy Joel, but not my wedding :P" I promised her that I didn't not love her, but I had been waiting for their professional photographer to post the pictures she took online, so I could use them to supplement those that Tricia and I took. There's also a fuller set on Facebook, for anyone who has found their way there.

So, the wedding was at Sara and Josh's old church in Baltimore, which was lovely. Here is the beautiful bride walking down the aisle with her parents: And in the act of getting married. Isn't her dress pretty?
A pretty shot of the wedding party from the balcony of the church:
Yay, married!
After the ceremony, the bride and groom (or Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, as Sara has requested I call them) exited the church while their audience blew bubbles.
Next, they greeted the guests who had just blown them. Notice me with a camera in my hand...for a change.
The reception was held at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore:
There was a cocktail hour in the garden outside before the reception started. Yay for Hood girls!

The bride and groom arriving at the reception:
And cutting their pretty (and delicious) cake:
It's not a Hood wedding until you've made the bride sing the Nun Song...although now every time I see this picture it gets stuck in my head. Not that that's bad, but it's not exactly the best of songs to be singing around one's office.
There was also some dancing. Pretty, slow dancing:
And other types of dancing too....

There are plenty more dancing pictures on Facebook and my Webshots page (which, if you don't know how to get there, chances are, I don't want you seeing them.)

After the reception, many of the guests gathered in the bar at the hotel to socialize with the new Mr. and Mrs. Lewis. You know it's a party when this happens:

However, we were all very tired, no one more so than the bride:

And now it's time to harass the happy couple for honeymoon pictures!

We Spend Our Nights So Bon Vivant

So as you all probably know, Taryn returned from Spain this weekend, and came to Frederick to fetch McKenna. It was quite the event, getting to the airport to pick her up at the hotel where she spent Friday night. Apparently no one between Frederick and Chantilly thought it would be wise to drive the speed limit. Nothing infuriates me more than people who bedeck their cars in Nascar-themed paraphernalia, only to drive 5 miles under the speed limit on a one-lane road. But I finally made it (a whole half an hour later than expected), and we went to lunch at a rather special little restaurant called The King's Bite. I'm sure she will describe this place in detail on her blog, but basically, it was a tiny takeout place recommended by a cab driver that morning, which reminded us of Babu's Dream Cafe on Seinfeld. After lunch, we returned to Frederick, where McKenna about had a heart attack from glee at seeing her mother. After relaxing for awhile, we went to the cheap theater to see Mamma Mia for...let's say, not the first time. It gets no less awesome the more you see it, particularly the end. And we've seen it enough to know. My goal is to see it at least once more before it leaves theaters - anyone interested?

On Sunday, we were joined by Tricia to go to a concert in Baltimore. This concert was quite the event. Last week, Sara had sent me a link to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's site for their performance of Billy Joel music, along with Michael Cavanaugh, the kickass singer who was in Movin' Out on Broadway and strangely resembles Luke Russert when you see him up close. Sara is Favorite Person of Last Week for sendng this. I don't know if it was some type of special discount that was just in the link she sent, or if I didn't know that you could do this, but we were able to get tickets for just $20 apiece. Yay, cheap tickets!

The concert was at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, a lovely venue. However, you might not realize this judging by the number of people who thought jeans were appropriate attire for the symphony. Also popular were boldly patterned jackets, knee-high boots (which seemed to cause the wearers to clomp around like Clydesdales), and/or musically-themed ties (although, sadly, no piano key neckties. Mugatu would be sad), although luckily not all on the same person. All in all, a veritable wonderland of poor fashion choices.

Once we were seated, we began to notice the great number of elderly people. Apparently a nearby retirement center provides transportation for their residents to attend the symphony. Taryn likened it to the scene in The Producers where Max Bialystock goes to Little Old Lady Land and they're all dancing with their walkers. However, no one thought to warn these people that the day's program consisted of 70's and 80's pop music, presented by not only the orchestra, but also a very exuberant young man who frequently referred to his audience as "you guys," and often requested for them to clap or snap along with his songs. Not at all unusual for the musical selections, but clearly, it rattled some of the audience members. More than one person got up during the show to sit in the lobby, or perhaps leave, which was sad, because it was all kinds of awesome. Others sat there like stones when poor Michael Cavanaugh would try to encourage audience participation, including the person sitting next to Taryn, who left at intermission. This gentleman, who greatly resembled Howie Long of the era when he did commercials with Teri Hatcher, would fall in the category of "people wearing symphonic neckties." Clearly, the tie did nothing to encourage his enjoyment of this particular music. Honestly, I don't understand what these people expected of a concert that was advertised as being "The Music of Billy Joel," and featuring a vocalist! I understand that perhaps the elderly people were not familiar with it, particularly if the information was not passed along by whoever at the retirement home had organized the symphony activity, but a number of these people were of an age that they should recognize Billy Joel, and know if it is something that they would be interested in.

As for the concert itself - on the whole, it was very well done, and an interesting take on Joel's music. It was nice of them to include some of his classical pieces in addition to his more common works, and the orchestration added a great new dimension to some of the songs (although not all...there is no reason whatsoever to mess with the beginning of Angry Young Man. None.). Definitely worth the ticket price, if not more. I would highly encourage attendance if you ever get a chance! Just don't follow the kind of directions that Taryn's GPS gave us on the way out of the city...it seemed to have no problem with driving us into a traffic jam in an unfavorable area of Baltimore in an effort to get back to 95. Luckily, and to paraphrase Billy Joel, "[we] made it home alive, though you said that only proves that [the GPS is] insane."

Oh, and, as usual, bonus points to whoever guesses the song that the title lyric came from, without cheating. Yay contest!

And I Think Global Warming Is Just God Huggin' Us Closer

This is what McKenna thought about the vice presidential debate on Thursday. Clearly, not a fan:

Get On the Bus, Gus

So group swim lessons started this week. It has been Eventful already. Thunder and lightning cancelled the first two lessons last night (although I still had to sit there in the overcrowded office, and I ended up having to teach the third one, which will really suck when it gets to the last few weeks and I have to give cookies to one class, and do a makeup day for the other two).

Then this evening, as I was walking from the outdoor pool (where I was searching for a beach ball) to the indoor pool where my lessons were to be held, I noticed a very large bus carrying another school's volleyball team. Said bus was trying to park on the grass outside of the gym, and wasn't doing such a good job with it. I hear a loud crash, and look up to see the thing backing into a sign. I laughed really hard. Sign is pictured, as photographed from the window of my car on the way out. Still standing, but definitely a little...crooked. And the funniest thing I've seen all evening.

What's With The Lamp?

Does this commercial remind you of anyone you know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2K4qlyaJu8

I guess I have to get her one of those lamps for Christmas now...let's just hope she puts it in her office and not the house...

Fun Times at Aunt Leah's House

As many of you know, McKenna is staying with me for a month while her mother is in Spain. While Aunt Leah's house doesn't have a big open yard for her to run in, and Aunt Leah often is gone for long stretches of time because of work and swim lessons and cool people's weddings, it does have one fun thing - the teaching of new tricks by Aunt Leah and Aunt Kathy!

Are You Going to Scarborough Fair?

Last weekend, Kathy and I put on our cowboy boots, large belt buckles, and teased our hair up to heaven and went to a very special place known as the Great Frederick Fair. Of course, no visit to the fair is complete without paying homage to Larry's pole in the Carroll Creek parking garage. Sadly, they have since replaced the stationary cement pole with these wussy flexible plastic things. Just not the same, but we visit nonetheless.
After our ritual, we began the trek along the creek to the fair.
There are many special sights to see at the fair. For instance, there were these redundant signs posted throughout the fairgrounds. Last time I checked, the "M" in "ATM" stood for "machine." I was very interested to see what an automatic teller machine machine was - I thought it might be like the two-headed lady at the freak show - but sadly, it looked just like a regular ATM.

Next, we got dinner. We were lucky enough to find a place that sold everything we wanted. Quite an accomplishment, given that Kathy wanted funnel cake and I wanted pit beef.
Kathy's mediocre funnel cake.

My pit beef and fries. The fries were fine, the pit beef tasted like fire. The fries were the envy of the little girl at the other end of the table, who kept asking her mother why they didn't have fries, and when she could go get fries, and then she'd stare at mine. Good times.
There is much to see and do at the fair. For instance, you can buy what appears to be airbrushed cowboy hats. Notice how the people who appear to be running the table are not wearing them. Clearly they know how stupid they would look, and just want to inflict this upon others.
We also saw a place that sold Crabby Pattys. I took a picture of this in case any of my work peeps make their way here; I knew they would be entertained by it. The rest of you, carry on to the next picture. Unless you are Taryn, because it is of a bird.
Next, we went to the building where the caged animals are. Sadly, there was no sign pointing out the best cock at the fair, as someone had helpfully done a few years ago when we were there, but this fellow here looked pretty good.
We also found antique tractors. Kathy wouldn't get up on one, but she did stand with this one here. Look at her pretty new coat, too! (You will see here that I was indeed kidding earlier when I described our fair attire).

Next, we went to the barns where the larger animals live. I wanted to take this baby pig home. He reminded me of Rusty, very focused on finding food.
We also saw some alpacas, which always make me think of the episode of Arrested Development when G.O.B. called Stan Sitwell an alpaca instead of saying that he had alopecia.
There was also a very nicely matched set of goats.
And a naked sheep. He looked a lot like the sheep who were outside being shorn, and also pooing. Let me tell you, I saw a lot of children at that fair, and none were so excited as the little boy we saw who was walking past the sheep being shorn, because he saw one of them pooing. "Look, dad! Poop! It's POOPING!" To be fair, I have the maturity of a seven year old and also found it entertaining, but the joy in this kid's voice was incomparable.
Next we went to the pig barn. There, we saw a pig sleeping with his face in another pig's rear end.

And also a pig who must really like the taste of bacon, because he was licking his friend.
We also saw a number of cows, who were located very far from where I had eaten pit beef earlier in the evening.
After our fill of Farm Land, we decided to head back to the car. On our way out, we saw many scary spinning rides of death. Now, I have no problems with lovely roller coasters and teacups and whatever at amusement parks. However, they are cemented in the ground. Portable rides like this frighten me to no end.
After wading through the crowds of scantily clad, ill-smelling people, we walked along the creek to get back to the car. It was a bit bug-infested, though, hence my makeshift face mask to prevent the gnats from flying in my mouth.
All will be happy to know that we made it back to the car successfully, and went home and showered the lovely fair smells off of ourselves, having filled our need for livestock, creepy people, and disgusting food for another year.