Summer of Fun (Picture Pages Edition)

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I think this has been the best summer I've had in a very long time.

I kicked it off with friend Danielle at the East Atlanta Beer Festival. She introduced me to her fun friends and that led to a couple of more outings including a July 4th party at Sarah's in Decatur, complete with a live band in the back yard.


Fabio graduated from college and landed a great job, worth the wait and hard work, and allowed us to start getting back on track financially and socially.

I went with some work friends to the new and improved Botanical Gardens for a free day for employees of our company. The temporary display was by the artist Henry Moore, and they had a lovely brunch reception for us before we strolled through the gardens.


We took in an Atlanta Roller Girls roller derby bout, and saw one of Fabio's new coworkers on a team as Thunder Enlightenin'. Now that looks like some fun, I would definitely go back, and I'm looking forward to the movie coming out directed by Drew Barrymore called "Whip It" that's about roller derby.


Rosalie from work and Fabio & I joined a kickball league through one of our blogger friends and had lots of fun for several Sundays playing and meeting new people. The group is really into parties and social events, so even if we don't play every season, we know there will still be opportunities to see those new friends at pub crawls and themed parties. So far, they've had some sort of redneck party, a beach/paradise party, and a toga party.




The team always goes to our kickball bar after games, where we delight in things like this delicious deep fried snickers bar. Oh yes I did.


Fabio helped get me a new camera for my birthday that I've wanted for years, and I've been enjoying figuring it out and taking some great photos. I actually know several knowledgeable people who are into photography, including Fabio's sister and a few of my blogger friends. Some of us plan on going on a "photo stroll" in a colorful part of the city so they can give me some tips. I took this one at the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival.


Speaking of my birthday, with the big boost in social activity this year, it seemed like a good idea to actually have some kind of party for my birthday. Fabio invited some of our friends for dinner at Nuevo Laredo, dessert at the Melting Pot, then drinks at Tin Roof. It was ok, but I've never been one to want to be the center of attention, and I think I'd rather go back to dinner with friends for no particular reason. It's a bit nerve-racking!




In August, we spent a fabulous week in Myrtle Beach, thanks to a great deal on a beachfront time share from someone on Facebook I hadn't seen since about 7th grade. It was our third vacation together and my first beach vacation ever. How nice that it's only a six hour drive, so we can hit the beach without paying for airfare. We definitely want to go back!








We joined friends mingling and bobafred at the fabulous Fox Theater for one of their summer movie nights. If you show up half an hour early, they raise a fancy organ from the orchestra pit to have a sing along, and then they show old news reels and cartoons before the movie, just like the old days.



I went with some friends for a girls' night out to the Whole World Improv Theater, which I've never done before. What a riot! It was very funny and I highly recommend it (especially the 10:30p show).


Over the summer, I went to a few music events - a Songwriter Showcase in the Atlanta Room at Smith's Olde Bar, saw my friend John McNicholas perform at Kavarna, and finally checked out The Earl and found three new bands to listen to (Telekinesis, An Horse, and Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun). We caught Hophead Treefrog at the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival, and caught another friend's band Gnomonaut at Redlight Cafe for an AFTON event. Fabio and I went on a picnic date to Callenwolde for their summer evening jazz on the lawn series. And I went with Rosalie and her cousin to Sweetwater Brewery for their weekly beer tasting/music night.


I joined a local meetup group that gets together to see foreign films. They actually go to American movies too, which is how I stumbled upon them in the first place. The first event I went to was to see "Taken" at Flicks on 5th, which is a summer film series that's set up outside on 5th Street near Georgia Tech. There are a couple of other outdoor movie venues I want to go to as well. One is Screen on the Green, but I'm hoping it goes back to Piedmont Park next summer. The other is the Starlight Six Drive In Theater. That sounds like fun because I think you can set up just as if you were tailgating. The Starlight also hosts a soapbox derby, which they skipped this year (disappointment), but I will definitely plan on going next summer.

And we continue to go to the monthly blogger dinners, which I really enjoy because of the company and because we get to experience restaurants and bars we might otherwise never have gone to.

Sure I did miss a few things like the Corndogorama (dang!), Cocktails in the Garden at the Botanical Garden, the Maritime Festival in Harbor Beach, and Lori's birthday dinner at an Indian restaurant. But there was just SOOO much to do this summer!

The whole season was capped off with a whirlwind weekend up north to see family and friends in Michigan. Dad had a campfire and marshmallows ready and waiting for my arrival. I just happened to be in my hometown for the annual chili cook off, so that was a treat. I never did hear which of the 24 entries won, but I was pulling for the pharmacist's spicy-turns-sweet concoction. He should win for best dressed, too! And bless their hearts, but people up there don't see too many DSLR cameras, so many of them thought I was from the newspaper! They looked a bit sad if I walked away without taking their picture. I really enjoyed visiting my precious 18 month old God daughter who is the prettiest, kindest little girl, so sweet and smart and cuddly! I was so happy that she warmed right up to me. I also got to visit dear old friends, one of whom I hadn't seen in over a decade. We met up at the beach for a bonfire (why didn't they do that when I lived there?) and got a little crazy later at a couple of the local bars. There's no escaping running into people you know in a town like that and it was actually pretty fun to see so many familiar faces. Too much craziness took it's toll for Sunday so I missed seeing some folks at church, and I missed most of Mom's awesome dinner, but I suffered down one very delicious cob of sweet corn, mmmmm. One last stop was to Grandma's for ice cream and apple pie, and then it was back to Atlanta.





The summer is just about over, but the fun isn't. Now it's time to gear up for all of the fall festivals, a business trip to Seattle for Fabio (I'm tagging along), and hopefully a darn good Halloween party! I'm starting to look into the local music scene, so I'm guessing there will be more of that on my calendar, too.

As always, to see more pictures from all of these events and more, you can check out my sets on Flickr. Ciao!

Who Knew?

This has been one fun summer! But who knew?! My parents' was craz-azy!

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Hello Strangers

It's not that I'm not blogging, I swear! But if I start writing something that's negative, I save it as a draft, sit on it awhile, and never publish it. Whining on the internet is soooooo lame. So let's see if I can rustle up some good news, eh?

We've just had the semi-annual parents' visit. And bonus for then being here for Mother's Day!


It's amazing that after the 6+ years I've been down here, we still find a ton of fun things to do. I'd have to say that the highlight of the visit was going to check out the Atlanta History Center. The place is huge, inside and out! Not only are there several museums inside (the massive Civil War museum comes with free audio tour), but you can walk through several garden areas outside, as well as tour a 1920s mansion called the Swan House and an 1840s plantation and out buildings called Tullie Smith Farm, all on the same property. Then walk over to the Swan Coach House for lunch. I just had to order sweet tea, a fried green tomato sandwich and sweet potato fries! Later you can drive into midtown and tour the Margaret Mitchell House and adjoining museum, all this for one admission price of $15, can you believe it?

Mom & Dad at Tullie Smith Farm

A Tullie farm cat with his kill

People, that was just the beginning! Over the two weekends that their visit spanned, we checked out the Piedmont Park Green Market where we listened to live music, got our posture checked by a chiropractor, taste tested some food and Mom tried out a Trikke:

Click photos to enlarge

We enjoyed blues and ribs (twice at Fat Matt's, and once at 5th Street Ribs 'n Blues), checked out more live music at Black Bear Tavern, satisfied our sweet teeth(?) at The Cupcake Factory and again at Matty Cakes, went antique browsing, caught a Braves game and a movie (Star Trek).

Night at the Braves

Mom and I sewed ourselves a couple of tops.

Okay, so I kinda ran out of material, but it was still fun!

And Dad bar-b-qued in the rain.

Those are cheese stuffed burgers and brats!

Mom and Dad got to do all kinds of extra exploring while I was at work, too. They went south to Callaway Gardens and Warm Springs, east to Athens, and north to Asheville (to tour the Biltmore Estate). On their way home, they drove through the Great Smokey Mountains.

Well now we are back to our routine, pathetic that a couple of 60somethings wear US out! Although there are still plenty of things going on, an art festival here, a beer festival there, outdoor film festivals, shopping, bowling (still got my 123 average), working out, meetups, dinners...gee could I be missing something? OH YEAH, Fabio got a JOB!!!!!!!! A real full time job, the first of his new career! It sounds like it's exactly what he was looking for too. We are so excited, he starts Monday! We feel so blessed.

Update

Photo by Luciana

Best in Show!

Fabio was awarded "Best in Show"! His Portfolio Show, the final step before graduation, was today. He and the other students in his class, along with some other departments at the school, put on a show to display their work for potential employers. In addition to building his own website, he had to come up with packaging material to market himself. It was quite an adventure when the printing company's printing press broke down, unable to complete Fabio's business cards and stickers until one hour before the show! His trusty sister Luciana swooped in to help him assemble the material to get ready to hand out to the the attendees just in time. About 50 companies looking specifically for web designers/developers were there, so he got some good networking in and will be following up with phone calls and thank you cards next week. Luciana, who is a photographer, took pictures today. They are not up yet, but I can share with you pictures I took of his display materials and awards which he brought home. Click here to see the set.

First Day of Spring!

Ah, there are pretty white blooms on the tree outside my kitchen window. The sun comes up on that side in the morning and makes the white petals shine so brightly, you can hardly look at it. But just a glimpse of that beautiful scene remains with me throughout the day. This time of year is so nice, we start leaving windows open all day and letting the breeze catch the long white curtains. There seem to be more birds at the feeder (they take turns at it with the squirrel), including bright red cardinals, which the cats love to watch. I can even let them out on the balcony, they never get the courage to actually go after the birds anyway. This time of year also makes me want to dress more colorfully, now I look in the closet and all I see are the dark colors I've been wearing all winter.

It was less than 3 weeks ago that we got our one day of snow for the year. Quite a different scene, but still pretty.


I got some good shots of birds that day, you can see those and more from February in this photo set.

I took a couple of trips in January, one was a really great visit with Mom and Dad in Florida. We did some kayaking in the Robinson Preserves and more at Lido Beach.


Please check out my pics from that here on Flickr. We did some other fun stuff too like going to see a play about Van Gogh at this cool little playhouse, went to one of Mom and Dad's dancing places - the Cigar Bar, and had a soup night at the park. That was pretty neat, everyone brought a pot of soup and you could try as many as you like, I had 4! Same deal with dessert.

The other trip I took in January was to Los Angeles/Hollywood. A friend of mine asked me to go out there with her for her friend's birthday. We saw lots of things I'd only seen on TV before. Our hostess drove us through Beverly Hills, down Rodeo Drive and Sunset Blvd. We walked around the famous Grauman's Chinese Theater and the stars on the Walk of Fame, where I promptly and quite accidentally happened upon Olivia Newton-John's star!


We also went to the City Walk outside of Universal Studios to fly in a vertical wind tunnel, also known as indoor skydiving. Then we went out dancing for the birthday girl. So fun! See pics here.

So, it's been an exciting winter, and there's more excitement to come - Fabio is graduating on June 20th! He will continue on for his Bachelor's Degree and is now (gulp) talking about even getting a Master's Degree so he can teach someday. But it marks the official beginning of the full time job hunt, so we are very very hopeful and excited about that. He will be presenting his work along with the other students in his Portfolio class in a couple of weeks. This event happens in the presence of many potential employers who get invited to see what the graduating students have to offer. He is feeling confident that he has a very good chance at being awarded "Best in Show". That, plus his good reputation at the school and the fact that he is already working two freelance jobs will make him very hire-able(?), and even though this economy is doing so poorly, the school actually has a very high job placement rate for its students, something like 95% or more. So please check out his website http://fabio-carneiro.com/ and keep your fingers crossed!

Oh 9! part 2

Well, this is how I spent my Saturday. Glad too, because I really needed to catch you up on everything! I'm still coughing and sneezing like crazy (you probably don't want to sit at my computer for awhile), but I managed to get this done, add lots of new pictures to the digital frame I borrowed from Mom many moons ago and never used, and I made blueberry muffins. Can someone tell me why they look like they died a slow painful death trying to escape?



PS. Here's one I like to call "spot the new bookcase accessory":

Oh 9!

Oh boy, I haven't blogged in awhile. I missed Christmas and everything! Well, bear with me, I'm not thinking quite coherently, as I have come down with the sickness over my 4 day weekend, darnit.


We had our third annual Webcam Christmas, where we were all prepared with festive head attire without even coordinating for it!


I tried out some new decorations this year, including some seriously bright blue LED lights.


Feliz Natal means Merry Christmas in Brazilian Portuguese, Fabio's mom brought the decoration back to me from Brazil last year. (Remember, you can click on the pictures to see them bigger.)


Luciana took another fantastic (IMHO) portrait of us (sweater made by Fabio's grandma).


And I received some really fun gifts this year like Wonder Woman books, the Xanadu DVD, lasers for the cats to chase, and a very cool home made apron from Mom. I enjoyed Christmas Day combining as many of these things at once as possible. I finally made the egg quiche from Regina's brunch a few years ago while wearing the apron, singing along to "Magic" and chasing the cats. Oh, it was SO good!




Speaking of the cats, and I ALWAYS speak of the cats, they have a new daily activity. I got a simple little birdfeeder to put right outside the window, and they think they have front row tickets to the best show in town. Usually we see many songbirds like this chickadee:


But for a Christmas treat, we had a special guest appearance:



I don't mind the squirrels eating the seed, but those stinkers keep breaking my pots, so I had to move everything else to the bottom and tie down the feeder to the plant stand.
As you can see, the kit cats are enthralled.


I'm telling you, for a few bucks, it sure is worth it to see them so entertained every day.




For New Year's Eve, we went out to a really nice dinner with some folks. Oh, I wish I could show you the pictures of the beautifully presented appetizers, entrees, desserts and strawberries floating in champagne, but alas, I was using someone else's camera, and I believe they got deleted in lieu of more room for pictures of her and her drunk friends, Boo! We actually split off from the group around 11 (I never knew how hard it was to be around drunk people when you are completely sober) and went home. The two of us rang in the new year just talking and actually missed the whole thing! I asked what time it was and it was quarter after, so we laughed, counted down from 10 and called it a night. Actually, the reason we talked right through it is because I wanted to show Fabio the gift that Grandma had given me back in October and I was waiting for the right time. Grandma presented me with her wedding ring set that she received from Grandpa in 1970 for their 25th anniversary. She said that he had worked extra jobs without her knowing so he could surprise her with it.


When I tell people about my grandpa, I always use the same simple description, that he was the best man I've ever known. He passed away in 1989, and my dad filled that position easily. To have been given these rings by her, which came from him and which represent such a wonderful and lasting love means more to me than you could imagine. Grandma downplayed the actual rings, saying I could do with them whatever I wanted because they are only a representation, but I knew that I would never ever take them apart or make them into something else. I remember seeing them on her thick freckled hand my whole life, I remember visiting Grandma and Grandpa on the lake, I remember all the laughing and excitement around the card table during family visits, I remember sitting on Grandpa's lap when he got sick and watching westerns, I remember Grandma's Easter hams, and watching her eat grapefruit for breakfast every day. I remember Grandpa working in the basement or out in the garage and being fascinated by his fingers that twisted when he made a fist (due to an old injury), I remember the beloved Allegro motorhome they went on trips with, I remember the treat of jumping into bed with them in the mornings when I stayed over or once, climbing into their bed at night after waking from a bad dream and feeling oh so safe as Grandpa held me in his arms, he was my hero, so strong and steady. I remember them being the only proper Catholics I ever knew. I remember bright smiles, lively laughter and many big hugs. I remember them telling us how "lonesome" they were for us every single time we visited. With every memory, I feel enveloped in love and warmth and kindness. Their values, their truth, their honor and their love are my inspiration. In the same ways, my parents inspire me, and so I am blessed that much more by their example. Grandma eventually remarried to another very kind and gentle man, who I am so glad makes a great companion for her, she continues to be blessed. So this was what I wanted to portray to Fabio because he is my "other", my love, my every day. Things have been going very well and if we are looking to the future, I wanted to show him my inspiration that he may feel inspired too and be blessed by it.

He made it!

Fabio's interview to get into the Portfolio class was a success! So I guess that means about 15 more weeks or so to go, then bring on the career! Actually, with all of the freelance work he's got, he's already on the move. It's countdown time! :)

My parents are pretty awesome.

I love that they called me from the dance floor when they found out they were on a webcam.


I love how happy they looked and sounded now that they are back in Florida.

On their way down they visited me for a week. We took a hike out to the same park I went to with Shannon and Dani.



We also checked out the museum at the Center for Puppetry Arts which had a special Jim Henson exhibit, and we went to the High museum for their special exhibits on China's First Emperor's Terracotta Army, and the last installment of the Louvre.
For treats, we went back to Fatt Matt's Rib Shack and also got amazing cupcakes at Matty Cakes.

Just before they arrived for their visit, Fabio and I celebrated our third anniversary of dating. I don't know, but for some reason, I just got weirded out by calling it an anniversary. All of a sudden it seems like that word should be reserved for wedding anniversaries, but whatever. Fabio took me to a really nice little restaurant called Wisteria. Actually, he started the day by sneaking out in the morning to get me roses and then he made me "eggy in a basket" for breakfast. Plus he got me a really sentimental card, which was fabulous because I just eat that stuff up. We had a great week after that while my parents were here, and things are feeling pretty good. He's got a big interview at school tomorrow to see if he will get into the portfolio class, which is the last class he will need to take before earning his Associates Degree. Yay!

I had a good day at work today. I will be covering for a few editors from now until the holidays are over, so I will get really good exposure to new clients. I did a training run today for the biggest job I will do (lasting just over a week), and it looks like it will be very enjoyable. Bonus for being in Final Cut the whole time!

Now I have to get in Christmas mode, it's coming up fast. Today I got a bunch of cards in the mail and I haven't even decorated yet!