Yardwork? I totally didn't see this coming

I swear all I was going to do was take a picture of my rose. That's right. I'm growning a rose in front of my house. And by growing, I mean not touching it and letting it do its thing. I didn't even plant it. Came with the house.
Before I got so far as getting out the camera, all of a sudden I found myself behind my garage tearing up my large brush pile. After about half an hour of that, I checked on my rose. Still there. Then I got ambitious and started tearing off some of the dead stems on the bush. Then I got really ambitious and started doing the same on another (non-rose) bush. Long story short, I got my picture.

It smells great too!

I also have a massive hosta (funkia). Just how big is it? I took a picture with me next to it for comparison, but I didn't like how it looked, so you'll have to take my word on its size. I can assure you that the sprouts reach over my head, which peaks at about 6'1" with shoes on.

I particularly like the blooms on the hosta (funkia). I used a better camera than my Blackberry. Happy?

Meteor-ocre Shower

Wow. That was a really lame pun. Seriously. I tried coming up with better. I sat down and told myself I couldn't leave until I developed a decent joke, anecdote, or play on words. I gave up. Turns out I wasn't that cometted.
Last night I went meteor shower viewing with Kim. It was a lot of fun. The night started out great because neither of us knew where the park was where we had originally planned to meet. We gave up and met up at a park whose location we did know.
The showers are known as the Perseid Meteor Showers and occur each August. Aside from that, all I know about them is that they were apparently more spectacular on the 11th this year. Honestly, the display was kind of a letdown. I would say we were lucky if we saw a dozen shooting stars the whole night.
There were a couple of satellites in the eastern sky that reflected the sun's light from the other side of the planet just right so it looked like a burning ball of something. I took binoculars with me so I was able to track the satellites for a little while even after it was too dim to see with the naked eye. Taking those with me was a good call. For an interesting rundown of the brightness of celestial bodies, have a look at this article on Apparent Magnitude.
Despite the comets' dismal turnout, I had a great time. It was probably a good thing that more clouds rolled in and covered the sky when they did. Otherwise, we probably would have stayed much later and I would be running off of even less sleep than I am now. (Which isn't much.)

Busy Week - Part 2, Chum's Wedding

Continuing on the story of my busy week, which was now actually two weeks ago, I bring up the wedding of my good chum, Sara. The wedding was really small and modest, but quaint. The reception was a lot of fun and I really busted out, having a great time through the night and even well past the end of the reception. In fact, I had my first after party. I've never partied enough to have an after party before. Here are some pictures:

Drew, the groom, hugging an elderly woman - likely his grandmother?

Sara talking with Chris after the ceremony.

She was laughing, not sneezing or whatever else this could be mistaken for.

Drew, walking outside for pictures

Kristen, Sara, Krista, Ann

Chris, Jace, Jake, Cody, Drew, Sara, Krista, Ann, Kristen, Erin

The ladies, producing a photo opp.

Drew and Sara's first wedding dance.

Sara, her dad Mike, her half-sister Elanda, and her half-brother Derek.

This is Sara's cousin Donnie after the reception dancing with Krista's baby Cyra (pronounced Kira - yeah, wasn't my idea) to keep her happy.

Following the reception, Ann and I decided we were still in party mode, so we bought some ice cream, headed over to my parent's place, and played cribbage with my dad for over an hour. The evening, as a whole, was a great way to end my busy week.

Busy Week - Part 1 - Baseball!!!

Last week was a very busy week. I did quite a lot. But I won't really share all that I did. Here's a taste:
On Wednesday I went to a baseball game with my friend Lacey after eating at Deano's bar and grill in Cedar Rapids. The food was alright but the game was a lot of fun. Granted, it was just baseball, but I don't think I've ever enjoyed a game of the sport so much in my life.

It started while it was still light. Cheer for the white team.

Me with Lacey. Proof that we actually went and I didn't just Google image search "baseball game" for a mildly interesting blog post.

We saw a hot air balloon! (Two actually, but the other one wasn't as pretty.)


And some creepy eye balls were racing... for our entertainment, I guess?

Then it got dark. Didn't affect how much fun we were having, though.

She didn't know I took this.

And before I forget, you'll never believed who served me ice cream at the game!

This is Bryce Dallas Howard, who played Gwen Stacey in Spider-Man 3 and served me ice cream last Wednesday. Lacey didn't know who the actress was when I pointed her out, so I used my phone to pull up some images of her, and she agreed that our ice cream salesperson looked very much like the actress. For some brief reading see more on why I think it was really her.

'C' is for Cookie/I is smart

I still don't know where my USB cable is, but as I did yesterday, I pondered at the thought that there must be some alternate way to transfer files from my phone to the computer. Only today I pondered a little bit harder.
Hmmmm... Can't do USB. Bluetooth? My bluetooth adapter is as missing as my USB cable and that thing has always been a bit sketchy, so I'd say the odds of it actually working are about 50-50. Connect the memory card directly to the computer? Again, the memory card adapter is in an unknown location. Seriously, I don't know where anything is!
But as I mentioned, I pondered a smidgen more thoroughly than I did yesterday and today I came up with the solution: email! It actually hit me like a brick, but I was glad that I had thought of it.

This is the picture I was going to show you yesterday. It's not exciting. In fact, my caption was going to be "I only took this picture to make you happy" or something to that effect.

I was making cookies tonight and I got kind of lazy toward the end. Or I was running out of pans that I was using as cookie sheets. You know how it is. The rest of the batter became nine inches of oatmeal chocolatey chip tastiness.

Finally moved in

On Friday, two days ago, I finally moved the last of all of my items out of the house I was renting into the house I now own. I took a picture with my phone of a pile of boxes (since I know how you like pictures to accommodate my words), but I have no idea where any of my USB cables might be hidden. Sorry, no pic.
Also on Friday, I got my internet and satellite TV set up. This is great! Not only can I continue blogging - I know, it's been a week - but I can also watch television on my second TV while I'm on the computer. Except for right now, because I have an old TV that every once in a while decides it doesn't want to display anything from input signals.
Ok, it's working again. See? It has a mind of its own.
Well, that's all I really had to say. I got my own place. It's pretty great. Now I gotta go mow my yard again. Take care, friends!

Photo Dump

I went back to my parents' house for the weekend and got some good pictures.
You'll like these. Promise.
Bear. What kind of dog is he? He's a big brown dog.

A big black bug. I like to think it's flying in front of some really cool fireworks.

Eamon. I haven't gotten to see this guy for a long time. Always a pleasure. Keep an eye on my poetry page for some of Eamon's work. (It's not there yet)

The cutest little girl in the entire freaking world.

Cute enough to melt your face off. And she will. Watch out!

Speaks for itself.