Last night we headed to Raleigh's Lincoln Theatre to see Anberlin in concert. I've been a fan for several years and we've missed several of their appearances in the area. In fact, about two years back we found out about the concert the day after it had occurred... ever since I've been watching concert news items, and that lead me to hear about this show several weeks ago. We arrived about halfway through the opening act, Morning Parade, and found a spot along the railing on the first elevated … [Read more...]
2012 Books: October
November 3, 2012
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Absolutely no books were read this month. I think it was a combination of reading ahead for book club and extra work. Will try and do better in November... We did take a trip to Chicago and hiked in the mountains however, and in between there was much snuggling with pup. … [Read more...]
2012 Books: September
October 1, 2012
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Neverwhere This book is a must-read for Neil Gaiman fans. It's a magical and sinister fairy tale about a young man who helps a distressed girl and his life is forever altered by the consequences. Even the evil characters were wonderfully drawn. I found it entertaining, strange and hard to put down. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox This book was recommended to me by my aunt a while back and it finally came into the library this month. It is a very quick read and told from the … [Read more...]
2012 Books: August
August 31, 2012
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Blackout The final installment of the Newsflesh Trilogy was probably my most favorite book of the three. Everything comes together in this novel and like the previous books, some characters get (mostly) happy endings and others don't make it to the last pages. This book was very hard to put down. Ready Player One I loved this book. Between the 80's pop culture references and the fast-paced plot, this novel was engaging and entertaining from start to finish. It's a quick read and … [Read more...]
2012 Books: July
August 1, 2012
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The Curse of the Pharaohs It took me quite a bit longer to get into the second Amelia Peabody mystery... not sure if I just wasn't feeling the story or if it was so completely different than the last few books I've read. The novel ended up being relatively entertaining, with enough background info that you probably don't have to read these in order. State of Wonder The first 90% of this book was great. I immediately got sucked into the story and the descriptive writing was well … [Read more...]
Duke Gardens, July 2012
July 28, 2012
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Last weekend we went to Duke Gardens to check out the summer flowers and to exercise my macro lens. The flowers were as impressive as ever, but the insect life was also quite interesting: notice the bees' head is not really attached... Leandra was simultaneously fascinated and grossed out. Eastern tiger swallowtail with bonus background bee pond lily bumblebee and zinnia More Duke Garden photos on Flickr. … [Read more...]
A new entertainment center
July 23, 2012
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For the past ten years we've had an entertainment center that has survived two moves, successively larger TVs, and its share of scrapes and dings. Last Thursday we cleaned it out in preparation for a new all-wood upgrade. Bye old friend! This is the third piece of "real" furniture that Leandra and I have bought (the couch came first, and the glass table seen above second) and it should last us as long as we want it. It's made of hard maple with a cinnamon finish by a … [Read more...]
2012 Books: June
July 1, 2012
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I have been on a roll lately with my 24 books a year goal, so I upped it to 30 books. Challenge! Pure While I would never have picked this book up on my own, once again I am branching out do to my book club assignments. A girl with a doll's head for a hand and a perfect boy from the dome = steam-punk apocalyptic stuff. It took me a little while to get into this book, but the characters were solid and I found myself sucked in. Now I would like to read a science fiction / fantasy … [Read more...]
Late June garden
June 30, 2012
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This weekend North Carolina is experiencing the same heat wave as most of the US, so our plants are bit thirstier than normal. Before this we've seen great weather so our flowers have been quite happy: Portulaca - they love the sun, growing out of control this year Society garlic - a faithful plant for us in a semi-shaded border Crocosmia - this one grew from the seeds of a plant we purchased several years ago Salvia- the neighborhood hummingbirds make this is a daily … [Read more...]
Revamped waterfall page
June 26, 2012
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This past weekend we made some long-needed updates to our waterfall site. We've got a better google map listing most of the falls we've visited, several errors/bugs were fixed, and we added new falls from several states and three countries. With the new system updates should be easier too, so we should be able to get waterfalls from upcoming travels in more quickly. … [Read more...]