Tinker Beauty

It's Annie Dillard's Birthday today.

Here's an excerpt from the first part of A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:

Mountains are giant, restful, absorbent. You can heave your spirit into a mountain and the mountain will keep it, folded, and not throw it back as some creeks will. The creeks are the world with all its stimulus and beauty; I live there. But the mountains are home.

My favorite book.

Surprise

When I returned from my weekend TAASC trip, Ben threw me a surprise party to celebrate getting into grad school. It was complete with

• red, white, and blue confetti
• presents (a little flashlight, some socks, a running shirt)
• party games (atomic jumper, find Benson...) mostly involving jumping over couch pillows
• party refreshments.

He asked Asa to cut up fruit and made cocktails (orange juice and water in cups that matched the umbrellas and straws).

He pointed out that he's a good party planner. I was tired, but never had a surprise party before so stayed alert for all the party games.

I like how he served our refreshments on a Lincoln Log can.

Look at my tired eyes and sweaty outfit.

Quick Update

I got into Presidio School of Management on Friday.

Overheard

Right now in Atlanta Bread Company.
Pink faced man in his 40s on cell phone: "Tell her to put on some f*ing pajamas!"

Devil's Cellar and Bonfire

Everyone wants to sit next to Connor... even when he wakes us up at 6.

My weekend office.

Thirsty Thursday

Roomie, friends, Andy, Ben, and I all went to the Asheville Tourists game last night. They were winning against the Greensboro Grasshoppers when we left.

Everyone stopped for the Star Spangled Banner. It was a little weird... it seemed like many people at the stadium went there just to drink cheap beer with the side-effect of baseball; however, they all stopped and saluted for the national anthem.

Highlights:

Pre-game quick drink at Dirty Jacks.

Hickory Nut Gap Farms hot dogs (local, hey?)

Regular fatty hot dogs (tasty too, hey?)

Cheap beer

Ted E. the mascot, running the bases against a little kid for a Bojangles gift certificate

Two kids in front of us who were talking about the game like they were 50 years old. At one point, I think one said, "Come on! I see better hits in little league." They also told us not to eat their nachos when they went down near the field. We didn't even know them, but they must have seen us eyeing that cheesy treat.

I've been singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game for 20 hours or so now.

A few more photos

Ben told me that he wants to edit me out of this photo because he thinks he looks good in it.

The one below is us playing Curious George Scrabble.

Breakfast.

Catch it

Ben: "Wouldn't it be cool if dreamcatchers actually caught dreams and popped out these little white marbles that you could throw into the air to make all of the characters from your dream come to life?"

Me: "Yes."

Ben: "And then you could be transported back into another world like in your dream. Like going to an empty WalMart that has boxes all over the place? And that skateboard that flies and has rockets attached? And bikes like that too?"

Me: "Yes. Was that your dream?"

Ben: "Yes."

On Carrotcake

I haven't been posting in a while because of a lack of great, coherent stories. Because I really liked this post, here is a blondish-inspired-top-four-things on my mind list:

1. This morning I had a piece of carrotcake with creamcheese frosting on it for breakfast. It was delicious.


2. I have been enjoying The Year of Magical Thinking


3. I led a climb this weekend with my old friend, Jeep. It was a beautiful day at Table Rock (the photo on the bottom of my blog is from TR)


4. The climb was named Jim Dandy and I think I want a dog named Jim Dandy. Or Fred Dandy.

Part 2. Maybe more?

Ben loved coconuts. Charlie was sick, sunburned, and bug-bitten the whole week. We visited two very nice pharmacies. An iguana almost fell on Ben's head when we were "visiting" a pool. Katie had moments of irritability.

Andy kept everyone happy and made friends with the neighbors up the street when our rental car was "vandalized." (The bumper was smashed in before we got it, but we didn't notice until after he hired the neighbors up the street to fix it... then we had a flat tire... they shared some good times and cold beers while Katie and the kids played Curious George Scrabble.) We drove with the top down.

Breakfast on the deck.

Ben made up elaborate games such as Guess how much money is under this? During those games he would say things like, "I put the dolphin on the Mexican girl's picture because I know that they love dolphins."

We saw many striped and swizzled fish. Sass would have freaked out because they swam so close to our legs. Some saw stingrays and turtles.

Many sandcastles. Many articles and chapters in books. Many beach running races and "jump before the waves get you" races.

The boys watched many classic cartoons such as Bettie Boop and Popeye while we grilled dinner and danced. We woke up to sound of the mosquitoes and waves.