5-21-2011

I went hiking by myself today to take pictures of snakes and toads and birds and butterflies. These are some of my favorite shots. Look at this over weight toad. This butterfly was nice enough to pose on flowers long enough for me to take some macro shots of it. Of course, I was looking for mushrooms too since it's just about the very end of the season and they're ready to go back into the ground until next year. You can tell it's the end of the season because the giantest huge yellow ones are out. These ones are so big and heavy that they were falling over by the time I found them. I'll be really surprised if we find many more mushrooms this year, but it was a really really good season for us.

I don't really have a story for this, but I do have a story of this picture. When I was a way too young to be this devious, I remember stealing a TON of Hot Wheels cars that changed colors in warm water. Clearly knowing that my mother wouldn't let me just have stolen toys, I had the (at the time good) idea to hide them in the plant racks in front of Marc's so I could "find" the cars outside of the store. My plan worked perfectly and I got to bring them home (though why my mother believed that someone would leave a pile of toy cars in the middle of racks of pansies I'm not sure). I remember when I came clean a few years ago, my mom refused to believe that I was that much of a criminal mastermind at that age and thought I was making it up...I wish I still had those cars. Speaking of my mother, I went to dinner with her tonight and ate this delicious food on a patio. Then we met up with these guys and Nicole for ice cream (I told you this was going to be a problem for me).

While eating our ice cream, I eavesdropped that there was a festival going on down the street. Again recalling childhood memories, when I was a little kid that did pajama karate (probably around the same age as my car theft spree actually) I was in the parade for this festival. Beyond that, I've written before about how Nicole and I feel about fair food like corn dogs (Nicole doesn't like Dexter ketchup on her corn dogs). There were also games that are fun to watch like the dunking tank. Even better than that, we got to watch fireworks.

Cue the Katy Perry song and look at these:
Boom
Boom Boom
Boom Boom Boom
Boom Boom Boom Boom
I'm ready for summer

5-20-2011

This guy wasn't too worried about the possibility of the impending rapture. I wasn't really either, but I think if it were to happen, going to dinner with Nicole for sushi would be a pretty good last meal before the end of the world. So much food and sake that the sushi needed reinforcements.

5-19-2011

I mentioned the other day how I've recently (and painfully) been made aware of the existence of Stinging Nettle. Since I hadn't previously known, about or what this evil plant looked like until it was already jabbing needles into my hand, I figured I would warn my three loyal readers about it (even though one of you is Nicole, and she witnessed my first, and almost immediate second encounter with said plant). These seemingly innocent looking leaves (and stem) are covered with hollow little hair sized barbs that inject histamine into you. Now I'm not going to pretend that I actually know what histamine is, but I do know that allergy medicines are "anti-histamine," so it's pretty obvious that you don't want a leaf full of needles shooting it into your bloodstream. If/when that happens, you're in for instant pain and poison ivy-esque itching. I flared up in some rad looking bonus hives which took a day or two to go away too. So long story short, if you see leaves that look like the picture above, don't pet them. Also regarding the picture above, I like it when I take a shot of something, then come home to find an unintentional surprise about it. This one made me jump out of my chair a little when I saw it full size. (Hint: top left corner)

So yeah, mushroom season still isn't quite over yet, but on our hike tonight instead of more mushroom pictures I made sure to take some "wow nature is so pretty," clothing company lookbook looking pictures.

5-18-2011

My car decided to get sick and have a fever today. Luckily we gave it glowing Ninja Turtle medicine before it exploded. We'll see if I make it to work tomorrow.

5-17-2011

I had a weird experience this morning. Yesterday, I saw a fox in a field by where I work. This was pretty awesome considering that I work in a really over developed suburban area, and that I had just seen the baby foxes this weekend. I hadn't seen a fox in years, and now that I've been obsessing about getting a pet one, I've seen three in two days. In any case, when I went back to get a picture yesterday, the fox was already gone. So today, on my way to work I had the weird precognitive inclination that I should have my camera ready in case the fox was back. As soon as I made the turn onto the same street, I saw these three turkeys (who apparently think they're deer) crossing the street. I know that all the animals are being displaced by new construction in the area (this is the same area where I saw a coyote on 1-21-11), but if this keeps up, I'm pretty sure that I'll see a lion by the end of the week.

5-16-2011

So beyond being awesome to look at on our fire place, Nicole's new trophy was also full of lightningbug candy that glows when you pick it up. Totally unrelated, I did this at work today.

5-15-2011

So last (middle of the) night, we looked online to find out that I finished 24th out of 250 runners in my first race ever, but more importantly that Nicole WON HER AGE GROUP. FIRST RACE IN TEN YEARS. OMGZ #1! Since we totally didn't expect to actually win anything, we left before they handed out the awards last night, so today's entire mission was to go claim Nicole's rightful winnings. But first things first, it's Sunday and that means brunch. Today we kept it super classy and went to the Waffle House. I think I'm building a collection of pictures of Nicole drinking coffee out of various cups. We love diners. Especially ones with open kitchens so you can see them making your waffles. I'm also a fan of Casa de Waffle.

Now totally non-sequitur, a little while ago, I learned that it's possible to have a pet fox. This was revolutionary information. I've been obsessing about this almost as hard as I obsessed about a race t-shirt, and look where that got us. So today, when Nicole's dad left a message saying something about foxes (cropped so you can see them better), I got so excited that I almost exploded. Look at these baby fox cubs looking at you! How could you not want one of these as a pet? They're way better than something dumb like a bird.

Finally, after a day of random adventuring, we returned home with the spoils of Nicole being the faster than everyone else. For Christmas, we got a fireplace but it wasn't complete until tonight. A fireplace isn't a fireplace without a trophy on the mantle. Winning jokes are played out so I won't make one...but yeah, Nicole won.

5-14-2011

Mushroom season is almost over since the big blond variety are starting to come up, and they're the last kind of the year. That means pretty soon, my blog won't just be pictures of mushrooms and knives in the woods. I fully intend to hike just as much, but I'll probably post more pictures of nature stuff like snakes (posing with my new worst enemy "stinging nettle") and pretty butterflies. Until then, enjoy the few pictures left of my happy mushroom hunting face and the prized collections we bring home.

Other than mushroom hunting, we do a lot of strange and outdoorsy/athletic stuff that is sometimes hard to explain. Most recently, the focus has been on a lot of training for running. The real explanation for all of this is that I'm crazy. I get weird ideas in my head and then I obsess about them non-stop until I drive Nicole crazy. A while ago, Nicole had the bad sense to mention that if you run in organized races, a lot of them give away a t-shirt at the end as a prize for finishing. I didn't care if it was ugly, or how badly it fit...I then and there made a resolution to obtain such a t-shirt. So entirely motivated by the vision of a race shirt (and Nicole not wanting me to be unprepared and die), we've been training like crazy in order for me to be able participate in some sort of race. So today, Nicole wore her race-day flower earrings, I wore my trashy bandanna that I say is just for running/mushroom hunting (that really I just like wearing and will find more excuses to wear as the summer progresses), and drove out in the rain to find out just how much damage grilled cheese has done to my heart. We're running a 5K race! Running with a giant camera is a very hard and stupid thing to do, so sorry for the cellphone pictures. This is my prepared to run until I die face. Nicole made me start up in front where the actually good people line up (picture above...note the "pace bicycle"), because she used to run in high school and she's still super competitive. Taking even cell phone pictures while running a race is another hard and stupid thing to do, so you can just imagine how awesome it was running though the woods in the dark, around a marsh, and past a pond down a path lit up by glowing milk gallons. You can kind of see how the path looked in this picture I took of the path leading to the pavilion after I crossed the finish line. That's right, I crossed the finish line! And I didn't even do it on a stretcher. Nicole did too and just looked really happy and classy about it. I didn't flash photo the friends we ran with right after they finished because that's rude and I'm not married to them, but my friend Steve picks flowers when he runs. Now everyone says that they run to get to the finish line, but really I think they're trying to get to the pavilion. It had four tables full of all the things you aren't supposed to eat while you're training for a race like cookies and pizza so you could pig out immediately after said race. That's also where they kept the prizes that I wanted to steal, but Nicole threatened me and made me behave. Regardless, the race was a great success (mainly because I didn't die) and I got the glowing t-shirt that I had obsessed so long about.

5-13-2011

Things are starting to get really real for real.

5-12-2011

Look, my soup looks like it's smiling at me. I'm happy too because I got to go to dinner with two of my favorite people tonight (three if you count Nicole, but I always eat with her, so whatever). I didn't take pictures of any people though. I only took pictures of food...which are both made out of mushrooms. I take mushroom pictures even when I'm not taking mushroom pictures.

5-11-2011

I've become increasingly flippant about my non-meat eating diet. By "flippant" I mean that I'm willing to let a chance (gold) coin flip decide between eating vegetarian or a greasy cheesesteak for lunch. Besides, with all the running we've been doing, Nicole says I need to make sure I'm getting enough protein. And what better source of nourishment than fast food right? Speaking of running, it's been exactly one month since I started running with my iPhone app. In the past thirty one days, I've run this many miles. I think think that's more miles than I've collectively walked in my entire life previously.

Normally on nights when we go running, it means no mushroom pictures, but we were over achievers tonight and found a ton of mushrooms. No, seriously...a ton of mushrooms.

5-10-2011

I've had to work in another office recently. It's not my favorite thing to do, but at least I get to hangout with this wasp that poses in minimalist compositions. He reminds me of the Hedi Slimane Dior bee.

My lunch ruled. I wish I could make a living just for eating food outside in the sun.

After work, the sun decided to get weird and make the weather look crazy. There was a weird color and light over everything. While I was taking pictures of that, I finally got a photo that I've been trying to get pretty much ever since I got a camera. This one isn't nearly as good, but I'm posting it anyway because these shots are really hard to catch.

5-9-2011

This (at like four in the) morning, I frantically woke Nicole up to ask her what day it was and if I could sleep in or if I had to go to work. I wasn't very happy with the answer.

Today was a running day, so I wasn't going to post any mushroom pictures this post I swear. But Nicole surprised me and made a recipe I've been wanting to try tonight and I love it so much that I wanted to post pictures. We had breaded and pan fried mushrooms with roasted broccoli (another new favorite food) for dinner tonight.

5-8-2011

So this weekend, we've already been doing all of our most notable activities other that going to estate sales and antique stores (though we did get this blurry mahogany dresser from 1903 recently). Since it's Sunday, it's pretty much required that we go to (barefoot) "We're Glad We're Not Mothers Day" b-b-b-br-br-brunch. Sunday brunch is nice like a relaxing nap in the shade.

Look how pretty my yard looks. I don't just take pictures of mushrooms. Sometimes I take pictures of pretty stuff. Nicole is much better at this than I am though. Here are some pretty pictures of pretty flowers that she took. She took this picture of a squirrel and this picture of poison ivy too. Sometimes poison ivy can be pretty when it's growing all over a picturesque forest. Yeah, more taking pictures of each other in nature. We also found a ton of unexpected mushrooms. I also found this unexpected giant mushroom. It was like the mother of all the other baby mushrooms around it. So naturally, in celebration of Mothers Day, I cut its head off and took it home with me. Really we went for a drive to do more appropriate Mothers Day stuff. We took Nicole's mom to our favorite ice cream place ever. I've written about Jeni's on my blog before, but that was always in Columbus. Now there's one close enough to my house that I'll probably need an ice cream intervention by the end of the summer. I think Nicole would just enable me. After ice cream, we decided not to cook the giant giant mushroom. It got put on the side with these other special ones since I was cooking all of the rest of the unexpected mushrooms for a much more gratuitous application.