Home

When we got back home, it still wasn't 'normal' per-se, for my dad was away in Germany. Of course, that's when everything seemed to break or go wrong. On the first day, my mom and I went out for a donut run and she accidentally typed in 13 dozen into the self-checkout at the grocery store instead of 13 donuts. Also, I stepped on a gardening instrument and had to get a tetanus shot because it broke the skin (no, Aunt "Rose" - this wasn't a figment of grandma's imagination). And then on a bike ride I went on with my sister and a friend on the day he was set to be back, my bike was messed up and I had to work twice as hard to do anything. I was huffing and puffing on even the straightaways (this may be partially due to the fact I haven't ridden in a while and may be out of shape...).It turned out to be the tires - they weren't fully blown up with air, and the back one was almost slipping off the wheel. But how was I supposed to know? Before we even got to the bike ride, we had some problems loading the bikes and with the bike rack. See how everything falls apart?
On the positive side, my mom, sister, and I also watched both seasons of Downton Abbey within that span of two weeks. I had already seen season 1 and part of season 2, but it was nice to see it all in order, one after another. The ending was amazing, too! I won't spoil it like my piano teacher did, but I would recommend this series - if you aren't already hooked, you will be once you start watching this superbly acted and written show. On Saturday, August 18th, we went and visited the Titanic exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum. It was interesting to see all those artifacts, and see the differences between the different classes. Did you know that, in today's money, the first class tickets were worth tens of thousands of money, the richest being 90,000 $ (if I remember correctly)? Or that a lot more people would have survived - the first few life boats were only a quarter full - but decided to try their luck on the boat. When they realized the ship would sink, there wasn't enough room in the remaining lifeboats. That's pretty sad.
The next Monday was registration for school. I still can't believe that school is almost here! I'm still sleeping in to 10 AM or later - I don't know how I'll get back into a routine of getting up a 6 AM. For now, I'm not trying to think about that. Fortunately, my schedule wasn't messed up, although I did get the worst lunch, B, which splits my fourth hour in half. From experience, I know you never get any work done in either half. I also got the proofs back from my senior pictures. Some are better than others, but what really surprised me was how similar I looked to my sister in the studio pictures. I  guess I know why people get us mixed up. The last interesting thing that has happened recently is that my family (minus my brother) went to the DIA (Detroit Institute of Art) yesterday to see the one Vermeer painting that is there on loan from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. It was called "Woman Holding a Balance," which is a self-explanatory description of the painting. Although it was flanked by two paintings of contemporaries, it was clearly superior in every way. It was small and depicted a normal scene, but exuded some magical luminance that seemed to draw me in. It was a beautiful painting. In the same area, we saw some Rembrandt paintings, and although they weren't nearly as good as Vermeer's I did like how he showed emotion, especially in the painting "A Woman Weeping." After touring that area of the museum, we went to another exhibit showing the drawings, prints, and collages of Matisse and Picasso. Although they aren't my favorite artists, they were definitely talented. I liked in some drawings of both, it seemed as if they were unfinished because they picked a certain area to be very detailed and the rest is just a sketch. In one, it was completely shaded by stippling - dotting a lot to make different shades - which impressed me, for I absolutely hate that technique because it's so time-consuming. I hoped to visit the Rivera Court, my favorite part of the DIA, but by that time, the museum was closing up and we were forced out. C'est la vie. If you ever get out in this area, you should go and visit the museum. It is a true gem in the city.

Happy 90th!

I'd like to say that the hiatus in posting has been due to me being incredibly busy, but that isn't really the case. In reality, I haven't been doing really anything for the past month and been enjoying the physical and mental break immensely. Going back to the beginning of the month, my family drove down to Kansas City on Thursday, August 9th. We got in super late - 3 AM - and I immediately fell asleep. The plan was to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday the entire weekend, but that was not to be. Unfortunately, she fell and broke her arm, so we had to change our plans. The next day, we spent the afternoon visiting her at the hospital. In the interest of her privacy, I won't say much more, but one funny story to come out of this was that when my brother visited her, my grandmother kept insisting that every nurse that passed by was his girlfriend. Also, she said everyone looked good - even the priest that came and visited her. So it wasn't completely a sad visit.
On Saturday, I spent some time with my mom and sister on the Plaza shopping, which was a nice interlude. I got this awesome dress from Anthropologie and a mustache t-shirt from Gap (one of the nicest and largest I've been to). Side note -  I don't know what it is about mustaches, but they are awesome. I am seriously addicted. So, even though the shirt was a men's size medium and slightly big on me, I had to have it. We then met up with my dad, and we all drove out to Independence, Missouri, which is near where my grandparents live and where Hi-boy's - the best and only fast food restaurant I'll eat at - is located. I got a Jr. hamburger and Reces peanut butter cup cyclone (like a blizzard), and my family shared fries, tater-tots, and the always delicious onion rings. Though not a very healthy meal, it was definitely one of my favorite while in the area. The entire family was together, so we decided to go through with the planned fancy birthday dinner at the Capital Grill on the Plaza. Even though we weren't paying, I thought some of the prices were a bit exorbitant. So, I munched on the shared appetizers - all delicious - and got what I thought would be a salad (and was the cheapest thing on the menu). It was actually two big tomato slices with hunks of mozzarella cheese and a few scattered basil leaves and other tomatoes. Yet, since I had filled up on the starters, it was actually perfect. I did try my dad's steak, and, as expected, it was very good - tender and flavorful. For dessert, I munched on my mom's gigantic slice of cake, which was also good, but I was so full by this time that I couldn't eat much. My thoughts on the restaurant was that though very good, it was a bit too expensive for my tastes and the menu a bit limited.
At the end, we watched a slide show/video that Uncle "Frank" and my cousin put together of pictures of my grandma and family. It was nice to see all those vintage pictures of my mom's family and myself (occasionally), and I found it well thought out and executed. Too bad the birthday girl couldn't be there to see it. We had to drive back home that Sunday after church because my dad was leaving for Germany the next day for work. All in all, it was nice to see everyone, especially those who I haven't seen in years.

Lake Pictures

Kingsley Looking at the Lake

Gizmo

Boating at the Lake

Kingsley and Gizmo Sleeping

The one restaurant we at lunch at

My yummy cupcake!

Seneca Falls, New York Pictures

Women's Hall of Fame

Restaurant we ate lunch at

Location of Women's Rights Convention

Cooperstown, New York Pictures

Accommodations in Cooperstown, New York

Baseball Hall of Fame

Art Museum in Cooperstown

Wood Carving by a Prisoner!

Beading by Native Americans

Bakery where we got our breakfasts

Vermont and New Hampshire

Here are a few pictures from the end of our Northeastern Vacation - when we stopped at Norwich, Vermont and Hanover, New Hampshire, the home of Dartmouth College.

Our Hotel in Norwich, Vermont

Dartmouth Hall

Restaurant in Hanover, New Hampshire

Side Attraction we stopped at

Down at the Lake

Today, it was quite hot outside - at lunch, the car read 100 degrees! It's been so hot and dry down here for a month or so that the lake level is down at least several feet and we couldn't put on our own fireworks show. But more on that later. Well, for the past few days, I have gotten into a rhythm. I wake up around 6:30 AM (yeah, this really hasn't been the sleeping in vacation I expected) to go for a walk with my dad and Kingsley because that's the only time it's cool enough, eat breakfast (so far, pancakes, omlettes, and french toast courtesy of my dad), put on my swim suit, and go down to the lake. Once down there, I have swam, tubed behind the boat (the waverunner is broken), and gone on boat rides. One time when I was tubing with my much younger cousin, the new tube, which I haven't gotten used to yet, almost flipped, but I made a great save by shifting my weight more to the middle. With my cousin OMY, the same happened, and then on another turn, I was thrown off, and skipped across the water like a rock. Let me tell you, I was sure I was going to develop a bruise on my thigh, it hurt so bad.
Then, on the Fourth of July, I went on my first ride on Aunt "Rose" and oldest uncle's pontoon boat. Up to now, our timing had always been bad, and missed the opportunity, but we finally got to experience it. I must say, I was expecting it to be extremely slow, but it wasn't too bad. The only problems were the only station on the radio was country music and the sun beat down on our faces. I had to completely cover myself with a towel to make sure I didn't burn. As I said before, since it has been so dry, we weren't able to set off our own fireworks. Understandably, we weren't too excited about the notion of burning down a house or trees. So, we went down to the helicopter pad nearby, where we were supposed to be able to see the fireworks put on by the city of Shell Knob, but it was a dud. Since we couldn't see anything by the time they were supposed to start, we left early enough to miss them, and late enough to miss the ones going off across the lake, when sitting on the back deck. A bit disappointing, but I guess that's not really what the day is supposed to be about. We did get a batch of iced cookies from a neighbor out of the deal, as well as a good viewing of the orange, almost full moon.
Today, we had reservations for us all to go out to lunch to celebrate an early birthday of one of my aunts. Since the reservation was at 11:00 AM, and many didn't get up until 9 AM, most didn't go down to the lake beforehand. But I kind of wanted to cool off and get away from all the drama at the house, so I went down with my dad for an hour. It was actually kind of nice just sitting in the water, taking, with no one to interrupt. Then we went to Nonna's Nummies, a new restaurant in town that I have never been too. I didn't know what to expect, but it was quite nice. They were very friendly and accommodating. I got a chicken panini and a huge "Death by Chocolate" cupcake (I wanted chocolate and peanut butter cup, but they were out). Both were filling and delicious. I hope to go back some other time, maybe next year. From there, we went to the Old Church Gallery, a store that sells rocks and minerals samples and jewelery. I got this beautiful snowflake obsidian necklace that wasn't too expensive. There were some emeralds and rubies that were hundreds of dollars, but I obviously didn't get those. After a quick trip to the Red Barn, a flea market, we went back to the lake house and down to the lake. Good times at Table Rock Lake - too bad tomorrow is our last day here :(