The new cool thing to do on Flickr seems to be to make yourself an unofficial Flickr Badge, an online credential for Flickr photographers, and a mini biography, cv, or whatever you make it to be. Then share it with the Flickr Badge Group.
OK, I’m in. Fun.
Sal & Jen on the lawn at Nissan for The Dave Matthews Band. It was a great show, followed by crowded chaos on the attempt to exit. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer mild summer evening. They were joined onstage for a couple of numbers by Robert Randolph, who I never heard of before but now know to be a rockin’ steel guitar player. A good time all around.
We caught some fish, we ran some rapids, and when we had to we got out of the boats and dragged them across the rocky bottom. It was a great way to spend three days covering 14 miles of the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers.
Check out the rest of the photos.It’s taken me a week to deal with the shame of this scenario, the Cubs go to Yankee Stadium and drop three in a row. I lost two bets on the series, and suffered the humiliation of allowing this banner to hang on my house!
We’ll get a flag of our own, and have it hanging on the Holland house one day. You’ll see.Twenty years ago today I enjoyed the last of three days in Paris, mostly by exploring the city on my own during the day, and then bar hopping with a few friends at night. I enjoy traveling with people, but if you have too large a group you can easily suffer tourist paralysis, unable to decide what to do, where to go, or to all be ready to go and do anything at the same time. In Europe I was quick to bail out on such situations and set out on my own.
One of the things I had to do in Paris, was to play a scene from a movie that had come out the same year, Gotcha, in which a college student goes to Europe and gets caught up in many adventures. One of which, was to order a Pernod at sidewalk cafe from a rude French waiter. But I don’t recall the waiter being rude, and I’m sure I’d have wrote about it if he had been.
| June 24 / ParisAll day is free so I slept late, and then went to do my laundry. It’s still raining on and off. Took Metro to go shopping and bought a blue paisley shirt and grey tie. Saw the Eiffel Tower and the Arc D’Triomphh up close and then walked along the Champs Elysees stopping for a “Pernod avec de l’eau” which was pretty good. When I got back I found out that is was 8:45 PM and not only 4:19 like my watch said it was, which shows how long I can wander. I’ve picked up the nickanme “Crisco” because I wander off from the group and they all ask “Where did Chris Go?” I’m passing up the Cabaret tonight because I didn’t want to blow the $40 it costs. I’ll party on a budget with my other thrifty friends. Went bar hopping with Jimmy, Lyle and Scott. |
I stopped at the supermarket on the way home from work today (beer). The radio’s warning of an approaching severe thunderstorm proved accurate, with hail and heavy rain pounding my car. But that didn’t keep these sprinklers from their appointed rounds.
I did some horrible things to fish over the last couple of days, but it’s OK, I have a license. I needed it for the two day canoe trip down the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers that I just took with some friends and our sons (more on the trip in a later posting when I have photos to share).
I didn’t need a license to take a kayak on the river, I guess any idiot can drift downstream. And I think my new fishing license joins my driver’s license and marriage license as the only things I’m licensed to do, one I did once and one I do daily. Getting my fishing license didn’t require any knowledge, there was no test to pass. It just took $12.50, and I was given a booklet of regulations (I’ll be sure to look at that later).
I probably could use some more skill, I caught only about three fish over two days (a few others ‘got away’, really). My fellow fisherman were much more productive with their rod and reels than I. But it was fun, on the river with my son, putting live minnows on hooks, in hopes of luring something larger onto that hook, only to turn it loose again (we did eat some of them).
The catfish was particularly memorable for the odd barking noise it made. While I don’t claim to talk ‘fish’, it was very apparent what he was saying to me, “Why?? Why are you doing this to me? Get this f-ing hook out of my mouth and put me back in the water you a-hole!”. Not having a good answer, I did what he asked.
Today’s Washington Post included an editorial titled “In Virginia, the Race Is On“, describing the need for serious debate between Gubernatorial candidates Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Jerry Kilgore on fiscal and transportation issues.
Of the Republican ticket, the Post writes, “They promise new services without new revenue, offering, in explanation, fantasy coupled with wishful thinking.” Of Kilgore’s plan to require voter approval of any tax increases, they call it “a spineless approach to state governance and a sure-fire recipe for demagoguery.”
Aw… isn’t that sweet? We give Kitty some yummy food, and she gives us back some cat gack. Thank you Kitty!
