I think I mentioned my “goals for spring” here, but then never really said how I was doing on them beyond the first week or two. So here’s the final tally:

Goal #1 was to lose ten pounds before summer (i.e. the summer solstice, which was last Friday or Saturday depending on who you ask). I didn’t quite make it; last week at the deadline I was still at 187, with some of that possibly being water retention. This week I’m at the spring goal weight, so I’ve made it, I’m just one week late. Which, all things considered, is not a bad thing.

Goal #2 was to develop a rough outline for a novel-length work, but not my “big project” that’s been going on for seventeen years or whatever, the point being to get some practice wrapping my head around something of that scope. I accomplished this goal.

Goal #3 was to learn at least a little about databases with Web interfaces, primarily by learning about Perl and mySQL. I failed to even make any progress at all on this one.

Goal #4 was to read one book per month. Originally, I had excluded audiobooks on the grounds that I specifically wanted to nudge myself away from reading Discworld and nothing else. (Discworld is great, but one cannot live on Discworld alone, after all.) I wound up rescinding that exclusion because I… actually sort of stopped listening to Discworld for a while. With that in mind, I completed one book each month. March was Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. April was Dune by Frank Herbert. May was Villette by Charlotte Bronte. June was Stormqueen! by Marion Zimmer Bradley. (I wound up giving up on Nietzsche for the moment because I could only find the book I wanted online, and reading something of that length from a computer screen and without the ability to mark my place was just not working.)

Goal #5 was to find a way to deal with my reduced energy levels and lack of sleep that didn’t involve caffeine or falling asleep at work. I accomplished this, and this one I’ve talked about here previously.

I also had a mini-goal each week (or, at least, almost every week). There were 9 of these, of which I accomplished 7. More or less. The grand total was 7, but that included half-credit for several goals, so it’s more like “five and four halves”.

I have new goals for summer now, of course. I’ve reworded the reading goal slightly to make it one hour per week, and absolutely no audiobooks this time (because with a 40-minute-each-way commute, one hour of audiobook per week is hardly a challenge). The weight loss goal is still there; in summer I want to get down to my overall goal weight of 180. The next phase of working on the practice novel is to get a more detailed outline of the first two acts drawn up by the end of summer.

I also have two fitness goals. One is to walk 7500 steps or more on most days. Some days it will just be flat-out impossible, such as last Saturday when most of the day was taken over by a funeral. (Which, I am informed, I should have specified was for an uncle of Tim’s.) Also, I’m only human. But if I can manage it most days I’ll be happy. The other is to increase my walking workouts from 20 to 30 minutes. My initial plan is to increase the intensity of the 20-minute walk, so that it won’t seem like such a big leap to a longer walk at my current intensity. I may need to adjust my strategy if that doesn’t work out the way I think it should.

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I don’t know how many people reading this will qualify to vote (i.e. have personal experience with cousin Megan’s services as a wedding photographer), but I thought I’d post this anyway just in case. If nothing else, I know my family reads this and they may not have heard.

Megelaine Images, Megan’s wedding photography business, has been nominated for the Indy A-list, a “best of Indianapolis” list put together by theindychannel.com. Support is much appreciated; you can find the list and cast your vote here. Megelaine Images is under the Wedding category, on the second page of photographers.

I was actually just thinking I ought to blog Megan’s photography again as I was looking through the pictures that I took on vacation. As I was going through them, I realized that not only is Megan’s work absolutely beautiful, it’s also inspired me to play with photography more. To experiment with lighting and composition and different angles and so forth. To try various ways of processing the images (i.e. monochrome, darkening or blurring the edges of the photo, etc.) to make them look the best they can. To get creative and go beyond snapshots that are just pure documentation into something that also looks nice and maybe sometimes even gets artistic. I have mixed success (there’s a very good reason why she’s the pro and I’m just an amateur dabbling in it!), but I feel like Megan’s influence has had a positive effect my own photography. For which, if she’s reading this, I thank her very much.

So. Relevant links, one more time, for those who haven’t seen them.
Megelaine Images
Megelaine Images Blog
theindychannel.com’s A-list nominees

Good luck, Megan!

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This recipe showed up with our CSA stuff last week and turns out to be pretty yummy. I’ve included the recipe for the dressing, but I actually like the shredded veggies just as much without it. (I’ve been keeping them separate so that I can toss together slaw as I need it without worrying that it’s going to get all mushy and icky wallowing in dressing.) I have to remember to use beets this way more often.

Summer Garden Slaw

1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
1 1/2 cups shredded greens (I used a pretty dark green romaine)
1 cup shredded beets (I used a mixture of 3 different types, one pink, one dark red, and one pink and white striped)
1/4 cup sliced green onions
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Dressing:
1/2 cup yogurt or mayo
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp celery seed
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the veggies in one bowl and the dressing ingredients in another. Toss the veggies with the dressing immediately before serving. Makes… a lot? Enough to be a decent contribution to a pitch-in dinner, certainly.

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Things not to do if you happen upon a funeral procession going down the Interstate:

1. Merge into the line at any point.
2. Merge into the line two cars back from the hearse and stay there despite the motorcycle cop from the police escort screaming at you to “Get outta there!” loudly enough for the car behind you to hear despite having all windows rolled up and sunroof closed.
3. Merge in several cars back from that, but still in the middle of the line of cars with “FUNERAL” flags on them, then look confused and act like everyone is being unreasonable and behaving bizzarely when they start honking at you and waving you out of the lane. And continue to look puzzled when the police escort does the same.
4. Merge in anywhere in the line and then slow down so much that when you finally get out, the police escort has to tell the car you cut off to “gun it” before they all lose the rest of the procession.

I should really thank the Indianapolis police force. Without them, most of the rest of us would have gotten separated from the hearse (and probably lost) halfway to the cemetery. I have to wonder if this sort of thing happens often, or if Saturday morning was just special.

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If you aren’t familiar with NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, you should be. And I need to put it back on my feed reader, too, I think. Because of things like this:

Solstice Moonrise, Cape Sounion

Is that not gorgeous?

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We think Natalie said her first word this morning. I say “think” because she babbles a lot anyway, and some of the random combinations of syllables that she hits on sound like words even though she’s just babbling. So it can be difficult to tell whether she’s actually saying something or just making noise. This morning, though, when Tim came back into the house after going out to his car briefly, Nene looked straight at him and said, “da-da!” Though she’d been babbling earlier, she wasn’t right at that moment, and there was a pause before she started up again; the “da-da” was separate and distinct from the rest of it. So we think this probably counts as her first word.

(In other news, she can also apparently stand on her own now as long as she doesn’t think about it. Daycare reported last night that she’d been standing unsupported a few times, but then seemed to realize she wasn’t holding onto anything and immediately grabbed whatever handy support happened to be in front of her.)

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OK, here they are. Vacation photos!

http://qnarf.zenfolio.com/p994435656/

There are a couple of others in my gallery, and when I get a chance I’ll rotate some of the ones specifically of Natalie into her public gallery as well. But this is the main group.

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As last time, these are in chronological order but chosen from entries throughout the log and left undated so that everything just kind of merges. If you’d like the whole thing, it can be found here.

Me, taking pictures through the windshield: *frustrated noise*
Tim: What?
Me: The trees got in the way. I was trying to take a picture of the mountains and the trees got in the way.
Tim: There’s something deep in that…

We have seen trucks carrying liquid nitrogen, liquid oxygen, and best of all, uranium hexafluoride. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a “radioactive” hazmat plaque before.

Here we are at the house! It’s small and cozy. We can see the ocean from our windows. The view from the top deck is amazing, though we have to go through Mom and Dad’s room to get to it. We spent quite a bit if time up there last night drinking wine coolers and chatting. While we were up there, we saw what turned out to be a fishing boat—but it was at an odd angle at first and difficult to identify. We had fun trying to figure out what it was; in the darkness, only partially illuminated by its own lights, it almost looked like a house and a tower just floating in the middle of the sea.

Natalie continues to be a great little traveler. We went to the Elizabethan Gardens this morning, and we were sort of afraid she would pick and try to eat some of the plants, but she didn’t. She handled everything that she was put in reach of quite delicately, exploring it carefully by touch without trying to taste it or take it with her. She also stayed in a pretty good mood despite the sweltering heat (even early in the morning!); she only really got fussy when she was hungry. Even then, it was easy enough to find a bench to sit and feed her. She really seemed to enjoy the gardens and the aquarium both. Lots of new things to see.

Today I have a new resolve. I am going to stop writing down the bad dietary choices I make. This is negative thinking and counterproductive.

We went up to the top deck again after getting back from the beach and showering. This is one of my favorite things about being out here, I think, sitting out on the deck at night with the wind in my hair and a glass of wine or a bottle of beer in my hand, just relaxing, listening to the waves crash on the sand.

We are just back from introducing Natalie to the ocean for the first time. (We’d taken her to the beach yesterday, but she sat well back from the water and mostly ate sand.) It was not a great success. Tim thinks the water was just too cold, but I think it scared her some too. She is now a confirmed Daddy’s girl; I was holding onto her when she experienced her first wave, and she immediately turned to Tim. She wouldn’t let go of him until we were safely back at the house.

I will break my positive-thinking rule just for a quick note. I almost wish I had left the pedometer at home. It’s sort of depressing to see how few steps I get in after walking a large part of the morning. On the other hand, there is a positive to this too; it helps keep me “honest”. I can’t in good conscience overeat because I allegedly walked enough to make up for it. I know I didn’t.

I finished Stormqueen! last night. A whole book in under a week. That used to be S.O.P. for me, but these days it’s quite an accomplishment. To read a whole print book in under a month is an accomplishment. Sort of depressing, really.

Last night and again this morning, there have been some power outages. We barely noticed it at the beach house, since we’re not using much that needs it.

After a good breakfast (a little bit of eggs, wheat toast with a small amount of jelly, most of an apple, some mixed melon chunks, grape juice and decaf tea), we are back on the road for the final day, and home doesn’t seem so awfully far away. We’re already in Kentucky, even. Just 250 miles to go. And today looks like a much better day than yesterday.

Aaaaaand…. home. Or close enough; we’re now on the part of highway that I drive every day to and from work. Tomorrow Natalie will go to daycare and Tim and I will recover from the trip and put the house back in order. And then Tuesday it’s back to work for us, too.

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I’m back from vacation, which I think I forgot to mention here, so I hope no one thought I’d fallen off the face of the earth or drowned in floodwaters or anything. I’ve got a log to type up again, and will probably post excerpts, but I’m still working on it. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to post some thoughts on new places and products we tried on this vacation. I invite Mom, Dad and Tim to add their thoughts on these or other things in a comment if they so desire.

Coppertone Continuous Spray sunblock, SPF 70: 2 Thumbs Up. Easy and fast to apply, provides good protection. In the areas of my body I used this on, the only sunburn I got was in spots I’d accidentally missed, and I can hardly blame Coppertone for my incompetence. My only complaint is that a can doesn’t seem to go very far.

Aveeno Face sunblock, SPF 70: 1 Thumb Down. It smells nice. But I applied it at the same time I applied the Coppertone to the rest of my body, and then wasn’t out in the sun long enough to need a reapplication (and not in the water at all), but still came back with a little bit of pink in my face. Through SPF 70, people; even I should come back the same pasty white I went out.

Circo Infant Sunglasses: 1 Thumb Down. All the travel-with-baby advice we saw said to put sunglasses on Nene at the beach. So we tried. They looked cute… for the two seconds they stayed on before she reached up and grabbed them. Sunglasses are doomed to never stay on her face until she understands enough to know that they belong there and aren’t toys.

Statesville, NC EconoLodge: 2 Thumbs Down. I didn’t expect that much from EconoLodge, and this really could’ve been worse, but it was not up to the standard I expected for the price we paid. Indifferent service, subpar accomodations, questionable pool, unappealing breakfast, etc., etc.

Charleston, WV Ramada Plaza: 2 Thumbs Up. Everything that was wrong with the EconoLodge was right with the Ramada, basically.

Windchimes: 2 Thumbs Up. Our beach cottage was cozy, extremely close to the ocean (like, across the street and over a sand dune), had an excellent view even from the downstairs windows, much less the rooftop deck, and was just all around a wonderful place to stay. If I could change one thing, it would be to repair the road leading back to it; if two, one more bedroom so that we could’ve put Natalie in her own room instead of having her sleep in ours. But even those are really fairly minor things.

Dirty Dick’s: A surprising Two Thumbs Up. I expected to be unimpressed, given the name and all the innuendo in the branding. (The gift shop sells thongs, for example, bearing the image of a cartoon lady-shrimp and the slogan, “Peel Me and Eat Me”.) The food turned out to be really good, though. We ate there three times, and the only bad experience was really due more to poor choices on our (i.e. Tim’s and my) parts, not any error of the restaurant.

The New Weeping Radish: One Tentative Thumb Up. Our favorite Bavarian restaurant and microbrewery has undergone a transformation. The Bavarian food is mostly gone, and now the food-focus is on “farmer to fork” concept which has them growing fresh fruits and vegetables which are then featured in their menu. We were not aware of this before we arrived; we were looking forward to some nice hearty Bavarian fare and got something completely different. It was, therefore, a difficult adjustment to make. I think if I had been looking at it on the merits of what it is now rather than what I wanted it to be, though, I would have probably liked it even better than I eventually came to do.

The Down Under’s fish tacos: 2 Thumbs Up. Grilled tuna, black beans, and a spicy crab salsa served in a double shell (crunchy inner, soft outer) with cream cheese between the shells. Genius. Delicious. And huge; I ordered two but could have easily done with just one.

Leonardo’s Pizza: One Thumb Down, but an A for Effort. The people were very nice, but the pizza was just… no. Sorry.

Top Dog Cafe: 2 Thumbs Down. We really tried to give them a chance, and the food looked delicious, but in the end the utter arrogance and customer-unfriendliness turned us away before we were even seated.

OK, that’s enough for now. This is getting way too long. More vacation stuff–log and photos–coming as it’s available.

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There are some sentences that I never really expect to speak. For example, “The grass is very red today,” or, “I do not want a red Swingline,” or, “I’m voting for Mitch Daniels.” Until Friday night, I would have included in that category the statement, “It looks like we have a new contender for the Worst Highlander Movie Ever title.”

I mean, Highlander 2 was so awful, even in the “Renegade Version”, that some people deny that it even exists. Seriously. The immortals are either time travelers or aliens, depending on which version you watch. How does it get worse than that? How could you possibly screw up a new movie any worse than they screwed up that one?

Do not ask questions to which you do not wish to know the answer. Like Ultraviolet, I scarcely know where to begin. I will give it a tiny bit of credit, though. It foreshadows its own suckiness by starting out with a semi-post-apocalyptic setting that really reminded me of the aforementioned movie that doesn’t exist.

We could begin with minor details. How do you take a former Horseman of the Apocalypse, dress him in black leather, put him on a motorcycle (with a sword, remember), and not have him come off as a total badass? By decorating his black leather jacket with foot-long fringe that makes him look like an out-of-work country-western star wannabe, that’s how. How about the icy, calculating immortal priest with a knife hidden in his crucifix? Wonderfully creepy, if with horrible hair… until he goes stark raving mad in the most stereotypical way possible. Ah, and then if we’d like to up the ante a little, there’s Anna. Anna, Duncan’s mortal wife.

Wait. What?

Well, ex-wife, I should say. She left him because she wanted kids and, as an immortal, he’s sterile. “You mean everything to me,” she tells him, “But it’s not enough.” This whole thing would be more convincing to me if there were any indication that they’d even discussed things like adoption or artificial insemination… you know, like a sterile couple that doesn’t involve an immortal might. But they haven’t, because obviously since he’s immortal the situation is hopeless and not worth putting any effort into. Clearly. Of course, I was too busy going, “Wait. What? Who? WTF?” anyway. But, hey, Connor had a new love of his immortal life every movie. Why shouldn’t Duncan follow suit?

The crown jewel of ridiculousness here, though, is what the Source, the Holy Grail of the immortal world, this big huge deal that only comes around every however many thousand years or whatever, grants to the immortal who achieves it. (This is sort of a spoiler, but honestly? The movie points to it from the very beginning anyway, and if you’re paying attention you’ll see this coming long before the big reveal.) It grants… the ability to have children. Just that, apparently. Nothing else. I mean, don’t get me wrong, kids are great, I’m loving motherhood, and I know that it can be pretty traumatic to not be able to conceive when you want to. But… This is the big thing everyone’s been hunting for thousands on thousands of years?

Actually, I take that back. The “crown jewel of ridiculousness” is that of course this immediately fixes up all problems in Duncan and Anna’s relationship and they get back together again and live happily ever after. (Because, again, it’s a spoiler-but-not-really that naturally Duncan is the one who’s pure enough of heart or whatever to get the Source.) Which I award the crown jewel to because it’s just so utterly shallow and simplistic and… yeah, the kid is a magic cure-all that immediately makes everything all better. There’s no awkwardness, no bitterness, no hard feelings, just happiness and love and light and lollipops. And a kid.

Anyway. New contender for the crown. It manages to at least be on a level with time-traveling aliens and certainly surpasses the mess that was Endgame, where they dropped the premise that the movies and the series existed in alternate realities (the only thing that allowed the two mythologies to coexist) and tried to combine the two. That’s pretty darned special.

(Not that there aren’t good bits. The Guardian, the big bad guy, singing “Who Wants to Live Forever” was pretty fun. Methos gets in some good lines, like, “You know, Giovanni, I saw Christ teach, I saw Christ heal. You, you self-centered son of a bitch, are NO Christian!” And the younger immortal computer whiz is a fun character who manages to stay fun as long as he’s onscreen. But overall? Awful movie.)

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