Home for the holidays

It’s been a week since my last post—eek! I went home for a quick trip and had a lovely time with my family. I also got to see my parents’ new tree, appropriately decorated for the season:

The lights of the season

Doesn’t this make you feel warm and full of good cheer? And also like purchasing some stock?

My goodness—

What does this mean?

Quality redux

I guess it wasn’t a pun.

Quality

Misspelling? Or clever-location-emphasizing pun?

Cheese, hold the crackers

I went to a cheese tasting last night.


The man running it told us that he bristled whenever someone described a cheese as simply “sharp” or “mild.” “Even the most basic cheddar you buy in a grocery store is more complex than that!” he admonished us.

I thought that one of the cheeses we had tasted like “band-aids.” Evidently, that’s not part of the widely-accepted cheese-tasting vernacular.

The Pure Life

In celebration of Joy’s impending nuptials, five of us went here—in Dahlonega, Georgia—for a long-weekend journey of relaxation and wellness. It was a toss-up between that or wandering around the Village getting Joy drunk while she wears a veil.

Here’s a picture of the place:


On the way back, I was asked that ever-so-familiar question: “Do you have any undeveloped film or firearms in your bag?”

Long weekend

I’m off for a weekend trip. Wholly unrelated to that, here’s a picture of a street in my neighborhood:

Heat

Until yesterday, I hadn’t had heat since moving into my apartment, which made for a few chilly mornings. The super had been looking into it, and yesterday, I got home and the heat was on. I was elated! Until I realized that it wouldn’t turn off. Then I was sad. And hot.

Atmosphere

You don’t see cockfights nearly often enough as a theme in bar decoration:

Up and running!

Time Warner hooked up my internet service today—woooo! So here’s a post on Saturday and (I know my father was waiting for this one) another post about the zoo:

The national zoo has something called the O Line. The O Line is, as they put it, the transit system by which the orang utans (I’m deferring to them on spelling) can travel from tower to tower to get from the Great Ape House to the Think Tank. They travel right over the zoo’s visitors, like this:


And this:


A question that occurred to Dad and me was how the zoo kept the orang utans from hopping down and joining the crowd. This had evidently occurred to others. The zoo had a reassuring response: