Fairs=Fun

I am anti-amusement park. I am anti-fried food. I am anti-crowds of people. But for some reason, I love, love, love fairs. I think because I associate them with fall? There is something uniquely fallish about them.

In the last week I went to two different fairs; a larger one by a local town (to watch a friend compete in a demolition derby) and one little, tiny held-in-a-parking lot one with my boyfriend's wonderful mom and sisters, along with 2 sister of my own. Both were fun.

The other great thing about fairs is they provide some unique photo ops. Enjoy!

 *this reminds me of the "world's best coffee" scene in Elf...

 you know where my loyalties lie...

 KG's chicken car. and no, that guy leaning on the car is not our friend KG...?

 Why would anyone send their children into a "fun house" with this sort of face painted on the front. Oh I think NOT!

 JoJo's lil sister and I were pros @ the Fun Slide (note to anyone who wants to run a children's fair. Insert the word "Fun..." in front of all your ride names and you will be all set).

In a galaxy far, far away on my fingernails...

 

Oh hey there. Maybe you can't tell from the bad laptop webcam photo but...

I have a galaxy on the tips of my fingers. 

I am also the proud owner of a Star Wars lunch box.

Hmmm. Yes.

sidenote: bella needs to do math homework. bella does not really want to. so instead she put like 9 layers of nail polish and glitter on her fingers and hummed Star Wars tunes to herself. Yes, yes she did.

Hello, Hurricane (Irene)

Collection of shots from Hurricane Irene, as promised:

In Summation: Power outages, fallen trees, downed wires, gas outages, leaves, leaves, leaves, and generators, generators, generators.

 

 

Everybody is safe and sound now and our house is just fine (thank God!). I think at this point most of, if not all, of the state has its power restored and crews are hard at work restoring the millions in damages.

Not the best pictures I have ever taken, but I at least sort of documented the chaos that was going on during Hurricane Irene (which by the way was the worst storm in our area within the last 26 years).

*for the more artistic view of the whole scenario, check out my photo blog: Sometimes I Shoot Things.

What really happened last week...

I told you I was going to school. But that was a lie.

Sort of.

I was supposed to begin my college course load on Monday. My family was supposed to be at a Rhode Island beach and I was going to pop back and forth and visit between class times. But that isn't what really happened. Because Saturday destruction came to town. And by Sunday, Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene was creating a full blown power outage in most areas of our state.

700,000 homes in our state had no power. We were one of them.

My family was supposed to head out Saturday, but held off on the drive because of the heavy wind and rain. By Sunday we were waking up in a dark house. After some consideration (and a lot of whining and talk of apocalypses from me) my family packed up and went to my grandparents farm. They live an hour away but they had a generator. We stayed with them, in their well lit, complete with running water house from Sunday to Tuesday.

Classes were canceled Monday and Tuesday. My family couldn't go to the beach even if they wanted to because of flooding, loss of power and evacuation of the beach area they had planned to go to.And back at our house we still had no power.

FINALLY by Wednesday they were able to get down to the beach and settle in. The beach house was safe and sound, save for some driftwood in the lawn and sticks in the yard. I was able to go to classes (I was getting antsy!). Power came back on at our house. I drove back and forth from the beach all week going to classes, going to beach, coming back. We had a really nice time. Even with the chaos, it all worked out in the end.

This is the point where you must be thinking that the storm must have taken away my camera, because WHY would I not have photos of this?

Well...Chaos never sleeps, my friends. I returned home to a computer horrifically infected by a rogue antispyware disease. Not sure how it got there, but it is so bad that we don't know what else to do to remove the horrificality from it, so it is going to see a doctor for a little while until it is healed up all nice and proper. Until then I am on my dad's laptop, sans photoshop. I think it will only be a couple days, so be patient with me. I will share my hurricane damage and beach fun shots with you as soon as possible.

Until then... I have a lot of homework to do to recover from those canceled days. Delicious.

Back2School4Me

Classes started today. I'm super excited to go back (yes, I like college!) but I don't so much like that it eats all of my free time and gas money.

I'll be in school full time, as well as working and all so that probably means you will be seeing a bit less of me. But fear not, I'm just off gettin' me some education.

*those are not my glasses, just heads up. They are just those trendy fake no lens type things, useful only for photos where I want to look fabulously geeky.

Camping at the beach.

Last weekend I joined my aunt, uncle and my two cousins in a tent for some camping. Also along for the adventure were my "other family" (long story short: my mom's best friend married my mom's brother and we've "adopted" all of my aunts family as our own. And I love them). We camped on a site just off of a nearby beach. Good times ensued, including campfires, hammock swings, midnight bike rides on the beach (and being kicked off said beach by authorities), Starbucks trips, ocean kayaking, jumping off of rocky islands, dropping my purple aviators into the briny depths, and creepy old men in speedos.

I didn't take many pictures at the actual beach, as hauling around a D-SLR isn't really beach friendly, but here are some..

Jeep with kayak all ready to go.

My face distorted in jeep window. Interesting.

Literally no words for my love of this wee child.

Hammocks. What pirate doesn't love 'em.

 

The smaller Isabella. So cute.

My cousin let me use his bike for the midnight escapade.

He is younger than me by about nine years, but I had to lower the seat to reach the pedals.

 Sand and sun.

Mmmm. I love the beach. And there is nothing quite like waking up in a tent.
Great way to end my summer. School starts Monday, people.

I'm a granny again...

This is what my bedroom floor looks like at this time.

I'm at it again.

Because I am an afghan making addict. I am a granny square hoarder. Yes, I have a problem. But the first step in getting better is admitting there is something wrong...addiction is the only disease people don't admit to having...all of that stuff.

Actually, I like making stuff and granny wee squares are no exception.

And look! THEY ARE IN RAINBOW ORDER! Every single one of them. Totally RoyGBiv. We all know how I love that. Seriously people, what is not to love.

Now comes the fun part of sewing them together and making all the little bits of yarn tails disappear. I am determined to finish before school starts up again in...oh...12 days. (Wow. What an ugly number.)

In other news, check out the other afghans. THIS one I made.

This one (on my sisters bed) I bought at Goodwill last week for only $2. I kind of love it.

Yup. Definitely an addiction in the making. I'm sorry, I just love colors, yarns, and cozy blankets. Fall is coming. I will be ready!