Picture Monday

No, I haven't permanently moved Picture Sunday up a day, it's just that a temporary change of scenery got in the way. It'll be back to Sunday next week, and just in case you're wondering, there'll be a new Acrochallenge next Monday. I already have the topic figured out.

Boy, haven't I had quite the weekend.

It all started on Friday night. It was the first Friday night edition of Oktoberfest, and not only that, but I had two special guests in the audience in the form of my mom and dad. They've never been to an Oktoberfest before - I'd been mulling over bringing them along for some time now. I was kind of torn between thinking they'd enjoy seeing what I actually do up there and thinking they'd have the most miserable night of their senior existences.

Turns out they had a really good time. I don't know if they had anything in mind to expect, but they seemed surprised by the whole thing. Mainly that the other Sauerkrauters were so "nice." And how hard Ed works. And that we were "great." (That last beer must have put them over the edge.)

Flew down the mountain Friday and got home just in time to get everything ready for a repeat performance on Saturday. Saturday was a blast, it was a great crowd, and everything was fun. Except for the fact that I forgot to take my camera (and since I'm trying to put together a Sauerkraut Band Scrapbook, that's not a move I need to repeat anytime soon).

After Saturday's performance it was back down the mountain to Mr M's for what's becoming my favorite weekend ritual - jammies and coffee. Then Mr M invited me to go to Richmond with him on Sunday to meet up with good old Dave, his clarinet teacher, at the University of Richmond. So I called and got the day off Monday (and no, I did not grovel, and what if I did?), and accepted the invite. There's something so incredibly heady about only half the weekend being gone and knowing you don't have to go to work Monday. I highly recommend it.

We left about 10:00 and arrived in Richmond by early afternoon. Headed to campus and met up with Dave and from there on it was clarinets clarinets clarinets. I won't bore you with that (except to tell you I was validated by Dave when he complimented me on my horn and mouthpiece - I'll accept a compliment of any kind, you know), but I'll show you a picture from the visit.

To get to the practice room Dave was at, we had to go through the Modlin Center for the Arts. It was a beautiful building - so beautiful in fact that I had to snap a picture of their main hallway:



After the Clarinet Summit we had lots of time to kill, so Mr M and I took a drive through Richmond and ended up Downtown. He took me to the River Area and we took a nice sightseeing walk. Along with a cute little red-headed tagalong. Here he is taking a little rest on some rocks by the James River:



Which reminds me - several more pictures, including some more from Richmond, have been added to the Galerie de Chien et Garcon. Go check them out. I'll wait.

We also walked over the Civil War-era Tredegar Ironworks. It was cool. How's that for a ringing endorsement! Old buildings, train cars, smokestacks, a cool statue of Abraham Lincoln, and - cogs! Big cogs, everywhere. I like cogs. Here's the main building, with a water wheel, but no cog:



We got back from our trip into B'burg last night. Then this morning I took a lazy day. Spent some time shopping, then came back and zipped by the folks' house to visit my dad, who had cataract surgery this morning (shout-out to Dad - he's doing well, btw). On the way home, however, I took a photo of one of my very favorite spots between B'field and B'burg. The New River (which is finally down a little from the recent rains, but still fairly swollen):



Ah. A great weekend.

And now, a not-so-great recipe du jour. How do you spell "boring?" T-U-R-K-E-Y L-O-A-F.



I don't know, maybe when these cards were made Turkey Loaf was a big deal, but we're inundated on all fronts by it now. And it's a bland dish. To look at and to eat. So I'll concentrate on the "little things." Like how the parsley is so lovingly geometrically placed atop the loaf. And how the family's dog apparently puked on the green beans. And how, even though they're trying to have us believe it's "golden rice pilaf," there on the table is a bowl of - Your Own Granola!

I like turkey on Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I don't want it to look like a meat loaf.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* Saturday I saw a man riding a unicycle through B'burg. It wasn't in a circusy kind of way, either. It was for transportation. That's just something you don't see every day.
* Coming home from Richmond Sunday night, we caught an NPR show called "New Dimensions." It's some sort of extremely touchy-feely granola-type talk show. The guest was the woman who invented the "T-Touch" for animals. It's a massage that apparently sends them into waves of orgasmic bliss and makes them very emotionally happy. The woman is basically a fruitcake, but the thing that got me was that the host of the show kept using the term "animal companions." "Our animal companions," she kept saying. When did "pets" become politically incorrect? Is it degrading to call your pet a pet? Anyway, the T-Touch fruitcake was telling the story of a wild and unruly horse she brought to a happy submission with her massage therapy and what a miraculously happy and healthy "animal companion" it became. Mr M turned to me and said, "That horse later got his Ph.D. and wrote a book. He's now in India working with sick children."