Hot Vacation

I left for Myrtle Beach , S.C. just before noon last Wednesday. The trip was okay but very rainy. The GPS I borrowed was slightly difficult to adjust to but I was very glad to have it. I arrived after 5pm at the condo. After I dropped off my stuff I went straight to the balcony to see the view. This is what greeted me...

I took several pictures of the rainbow and many more photos of the view from the balcony throughout the week.

Most evenings it rained or looked like rain which lead to extremely humid mornings. The air was so thick it felt like a wool blanket was wrapped around my face. Running in that muck was exhausting. Every morning I took walks with my folks along the beach and looked for rocks. I picked up a few shells too. There seemed to be an abundance of shells this year and no rocks. I think it took a total of six walks to gather my stash.

Miniature golf was played (twice!) and I even tied with my dad, the golf master, on the second game. Each day we plopped ourselves at the beach for a few hours to read and walk and swim. We saw an IMAX movie in 3-D, did some outlet and cheesy souvenir shopping and sightseeing.

I ate far too much and I'm paying for it now. I guess that running and walking didn't help me much. The food was good though so I shouldn't complain. I was glad to be home on Sunday and sleep in my queen-sized bed (yep, you guessed it, I slept in a twin at the condo). Work was busy today with helping students do their research for papers and training a new employee. My eBay addiction has started to ebb and I'm ready to get back into a normal schedule once the fall quarter begins.

Here are some more pictures...

Sunrise from Thursday morning. My dad took this, I was still asleep.

Sunrise from Friday morning. My mom took this one, I was still asleep (it's called a vacation people--look it up!).

Incoming storm. It looked like this everyday at some point. Usually around 7pm.

I took this one morning while walking and looking for rocks.

This is a picture of what I searched through for days to find rocks. My neck started to get a crick in it and I dreamed of finding rocks our last night in Myrtle Beach.

Local methods of advertising. I know this method is not unique to Myrtle Beach but seeing the cheesy gimmicks make me smile. How else can you make your beachwear shop/specialty shop/restaurant stand out? Tourism is huge in Myrtle Beach and most businesses will try anything to set themselves apart from all the others. The resulting effect is they all look the same--outrageous.

This gem is posted on our private entrance to the beach from the condo building. The extra "L" really drives home the seriousness of the message, don't you think?

Potter Mania

Long break since last post. Must do better. A few weeks ago I listened to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince because I haven't read it since it was first published. I loved it so much and my eagerness to see the movie was increased. I saw it the day after it came to theaters (July 16th--also the day my niece Daphne was born). The movie was a little disappointing as are all of the movies because they never live up to the books. However, this one had a major set back. It seemed so...anticlimactic. I'm not talking about the ending because it had to be that way to "set up" for the next movie. Disappointments included (but are not limited to): the whole Harry and Ginny thing, the Malfoy thing, the deatheaters thing, the Lupin and Tonks thing, Dumbledore's hand didn't look dead enough thing, and on and on.

I'm still very excited to see the last two movies and I'd love to visit the Harry Potter theme park. In other movie news I watched The Lost Boys 2: The Tribe last week. Very gory and kind of dumb but I enjoyed The Big Lebowski references. I saw The Ugly Truth at the theater last Friday. The language was a little crude and the chemistry between Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler was non-existent. I finished Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich. That Lula is a hoot! I'm now reading Generation Dead by Daniel Waters. It's about teens that die but come back as zombies (or the living impaired--to be politically correct) because of a delicate balance between teen hormones and the preservatives found in fast-food, thus making teens the only age group that can come back from the dead. Interesting stuff so far. I've also become a little bit of an eBay and TLC's What Not To Wear addict. The two kind of go hand in hand. I see a cute accessory on What Not To Wear and then wonder if I can find something similar on eBay. I have set a modest price limit per item so I won't get too crazy.

I'm leaving on Wednesday to travel to Myrtle Beach for a lovely mini-vacation. Hopefully I will return with wonderful stories and photos.

Funny Strip

Random funny moment of the day. A co-worker sent this comic (that kind of strip) strip to me and it made me chuckle. Thought I would share the joy.

In other news...I'm gonna see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen after work today. Yeah!

Wild Horses

A couple weekends ago my friend and I went to pick blackberries. His friend owns a good bit of land so we took a short trip there towards sunset. We've visited the property a few times before and the first time we went we hoped to see the wild horses living there. We walked around for over an hour, Sandi in tow, with no horses in sight. Then, as we were heading back to the truck, we saw seven wild and beautiful horses running. I didn't have my camera then but each time we go back I make sure I have my camera. Well, this time we found a few blackberries but three of the wild horses found us! I was so excited and I was desperate to get my camera out of my purse. Sandi was kind of freaked out by them and barked like crazy but wouldn't get near them. It's funny that she'll chase a deer to it's death but with horses she's all bark and no bite. Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took. It was close to sunset, as aforementioned, and my camera, as it turns out, is pretty crappy.

They were practically racing through the field and saw us and just stopped. That's when Sandi went bonkers. One of the horses was very bold and came within 3 feet of my window. I think they were a little hungry and next time I'll make sure to have some feed or apples (not sure what they prefer).

The whole trip was very exciting and they were just so beautiful and graceful. I took about thirty pictures (yes, and only four were really post worthy) and I hope to see them again.

Flashback With Photography, Part II

This July I will hopefully be going to Myrtle Beach again and try to take some more memorable pictures (while in the shade). I'm dying to visit my favorite tourist spot, Brookgreen Gardens. The entire thing is outside but it's worth all that sweating to see such wonderful sculptures and lush landscaping. That isn't for several weeks so I'll continue with the main topic of this post. I have four more pictures that I wanted to post for Part II.


Back to the summer of 2002. During my trip to Texas I visited the Dallas Zoo. This was one of the most gorgeous zoos I've ever seen. The plant life was exotic and beautiful and the exhibits were very natural and picturesque. One that I particularly loved was bird habitat. It was a gloomy day but this bird paradise still looked whimsical.

Continuing with the summer of 2002. Lots of traveling for me that summer--I'd just graduated college and I had a little free time and money to spend before I had to face the world of working full time and bills. Anyway, my friend Frances got married in August of that year. I traveled to Utah again to celebrate the wonderful event. The night before the wedding Frances and I and another friend drove around Salt Lake City enjoying the sites. We stopped at this one spot and I took a picture just as the sun was setting.

Some time in the late summer or early fall of 2003 I went fishing for the first time in years. I caught two brim that day after about five hours in a paddle boat. It was hot and smelly on that pond but the scenery was pleasant enough. As we decided to call it a day I took a picture of the cloud filled sky. Well, I mentioned that it was hot that day and my camera was sitting in my bag in the heat all those hours. When I got the film developed everything had a pink hue. This picture was the only one in which the pinkness didn't look too odd.

For my last picture I'm going to go way back in time. In early 2003 I visited my old hometown of Irmo, South Carolina with my mother. We drove by our old house (which looked much smaller than I remembered) and my old elementary school. I went to an awesome school with a great library and a great art program. In 1986 we raised money for a time capsule. I was either five or six the day it was filled and sealed. The only thing I remember being put in there was a Barbie Doll. I thought it was a lame choice then and I still think that today.

That's all the flashbacking I've got. It's often said that photos without people in them are boring. I don't agree because most pictures tell a story, with or without someone smiling and waving at the camera.

Flashback With Photography, Part I

My lovely and talented friend Frances set a goal for herself last month to paint one painting a day. She posted some of her lovely creations and explained the story or idea that inspired each artwork. I cannot draw or paint or even take better than average photos. Nonetheless, I was going through some old photographs and vividly (for the most part) remembered details about the days they were taken.

This picture was taken the summer of 2002 just after graduation. I went on a family vacation to Texas and Hot Springs Arkansas. We did the usual tourist stuff and walked down Bathhouse Row. I believe only 1 or 2 of the houses are still open, for viewing only--not using. If you've ever seen the obscene but still entertaining movie The Road to Wellville you'll know what the bathhouses were intended for. Below is a picture of the ceiling in the main bathing room of the bathhouse.
When I was in college at Georgia Southern University I often ate lunch at the Lakeside Cafe. The food was not cheap or good for me but it was on the meal plan and closer to my dorm than the mess hall. The lake next to the cafe, hence Lakeside Cafe, was a good sized "pond" with water the color of putt-putt water (a color of water not made in nature) and a few ducks inhabited the area. I half expected to see blinky from The Simpsons in the water but never did. Anyhoo, one day several baby ducks appeared alongside their mother and stayed close long enough for me to take a picture. I'm sorry to say that they only stayed around about a week. Rumors circulated about a monster in the water that ate the little ducklings.

I also traveled to Utah a couple times after graduation to visit the aforementioned lovely Frances. She lived in Provo at the time and we had the best visit. We did a lot of fun things including going to the Salt Lake City zoo and an outlet mall there. Well, I don't need to tell you but the scenery and awesome mountain views are just breathtaking there. On the drive to go shopping I just had to take a picture of this ginormous and glorious mountain. Now, I'm not 100% sure if this mountain was in Provo, Salt Lake City or in between.

Every summer my parents take a week long vacation to Myrtle Beach. I've spent summers there my whole life because my grandparents used to live there. I always try to take walks on the beach every morning and evening while I'm there because I know I won't have the luxury for another year. Sometimes my parents join me and collect shells and rocks. One rare time I took my camera with me and couldn't help but take a picture of the beached sailboats with the sun setting in the back drop. Now when I think about going to Myrtle Beach in the summer all I can remember is the unrelenting heat.

That's all for Part I.

The Fruits of Labor

Several weeks back I posted about helping my friend with his garden. Yesterday we picked the first batch of cucumbers, squash, zucchini and peppers.

Some of the squash look...anatomically different than the others.

I think the peppers are the prettiest though.

We also tried some of the wild blackberries growing along my friend's driveway. They were a little too bitter for my taste but very juicy.

What's In A Name?

As some of you may know I work at a library. We have access to dozens of expensive and popular databases. One of our databases is Ancestry.com. I'm sure you've seen the ads for the site on TV. Ours is the library edition. It has basic census information, maps and photographs as well. I was getting familiar with how to use the database today by searching for information about my family members. I also searched myself. Guess what I found?

And this information was just above it:

I'm not sure if they (Altmeyer Hotel, Palace of Sweets and Findlay Candy Kitchen) are all owned by the same people. However, this does explain some things. I love sweets, pastry's and ice cream in particular. Also, I would love to own a used book store/bistro--hence the, "Make our Stores your meeting places and try our light lunches and hot coffee." Ice cream parlors, chocolates, candy--oh, my! Maybe I'm an heiress?!?!?! Not likely but I've had a blast just the same searching this database.

Herbs and Art

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday weekend. I had a great time but the weather was a little disappointing. Yesterday I did a good bit of tidying up at my place and finally decided to take some pictures to post.

Here are my herbs...
(left to right): basil, flat-leaf parsley, basil, thyme and sage. I should have taken pictures when I first got them so you could see how much they've grown. I've cooked with all of them so far except the thyme and I'll be using that in a roasted zucchini and potato dish this week.

Here are some pictures of all my artwork and framed photos around the house. Some are missing and I think they may be crammed in a spare room at my mother's house. Or, all the vermin at the vermin palace carried them off while I wasn't looking and are still laughing about it to this day.

Living room...

Kitchen...I already posted several of my kitchen when I first moved in. I don't think I included this fascinating angle.

Office...

Hallway...yes, I thought everyone would want to see this too.

Bedroom...

I finished The Last Olympian last week. It was very good but I'm sad that it's the last book. I saw Terminator Salvation and it only confirmed my dislike of Christian Bale--not because of his f-bomb tirade that was so well publicized but because his acting is bad. I also did some fishing two seperate days last week. I caught a total of four fish, three catfish and one brim--all tiny. I didn't have my camera with me but I'll try to remeber for next time.

It's Here!

We just received several boxes of new books. The Last Olympian (the last in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Riordan) and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Demigod Files were in one of the boxes. Oh, Happy Day! This has made my week. I can't wait to get started! Also, I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine last week and Star Trek last night. I thoroughly enjoyed them both. I must say that Trekkies make the movie viewing experience very fun.