On the strike line

6.9.10 - Mary and I walked the graveyard shift (well, 11:30pm-2:30am) at the strike line in front of North Memorial. I usually go to bed around 3am anyway, so I decided to show my support and protest with her. By now, we all know that the strike is over and the nurses voted to not strike again, so with nurses back at work I finally feel safe to go to the ER - if only I had health insurance...

"We are the union. The mighty mighty union. Fighting for justice. Fighting for respect. Fighting for our healthcare. Fighting for our pensions.." -A different version of the above chant that I used to shout in NYC for UNITE HERE.

Le jardin

6.5.10 - The garden. I've written about it before, but I will say again that I do not garden, also I admit that I have more of a black thumb instead of a green thumb, meaning I have probably killed nearly every plant I've ever had, but I can design and decorate (and photograph!)  - so that's good enough...right?

Cilantro ready to be planted by well-manicured hands.

Cilantro planted.

Joshua's hands after digging around in the dirt.

Bangles of the week

Favorite bangles of the week. I compiled three different sets and pieces.

Dear Blogger,
I'm so sorry I've not been posting very much recently. I had decided to change my previous daily posting schedule to thrice-weekly so that I wouldn't feel guilty when I didn't get around to blogging every day, but my summer has become busy that between a camping trip, day trips, long drives, movies, errands, shopping, coffees, lunches, dinners and drinks with friends, I've quite forgotten to post all of the pictures I've been taking thus far to even meet my thrice-weekly quota. Anyway, I'm back and will do my best to catch up this week.

This week I hope to start the process of catching up by dumping photos on Facebook and undertaking the task of tagging everyone I know (it seems like that anyway) and after that is done, I have to blog, update my portfolio on Flickr, call clients, clean out Gmail and I've just realized that this is my to do list. Sigh. I'm sure we all have our fair share of lists - written or mental -but it is very satisfying to cross off a task that has been completed so maybe I'll write out my mental lists and stop this rambling ADD blog post. AH! It's almost August!? Okay, ready? 1, 2, 3. Go.

Sincerely,
-b

I write like David Foster Wallace. Yes!

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Yeah...I do! Proof. I took a test that analyzed my writing style and I love my test's result because I read "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" in college for a Freshman Composition class and I loved it. His run-ons, long sentences, ellipses, many many footnotes...all me. Maybe one day I shall write a memoir with 34594356 footnotes. Okay, not that many, but my paper that I wrote for that class had like 100 footnotes because I wrote it in homage to DFW, so it can be done. Look out publisher, here I plan to come!

Pink roses

6.7.10 - I really like the color pink. I used to love it in a juvenile way - buying tons of pink Lisa Frank pens and stationary when I was a youngin', but I have since then upgraded to buying pink flowers or bangles, and speaking of pink, these pink roses in my front yard are quite lovely.

A pink rose beneath the shade of a nearby brick column.

Many pink rose petals fall from the rose bush to the ground around the trellis and when a strong wind blows, the rose petals flutter down the street bringing their fragrance with them.

A bee and sage

6.3.10 - Russian Sage from my front yard...I think. If I'm wrong, let me know. This is either Russian Sage or a hybrid, Blue Spire (but it looks purple so I'm not really quite sure).

BEE! I think I'm been half-way stung once when I was a child, but since then never. Hovering around this sage was slightly unsettling because there were tons of bees and I felt like they really didn't like me in their bubble.

A night at the races

6.3.10 - Mary, Nathan and I- in the spirit of being spontaneous- decided to check out Canterbury Park one evening. After a 45 minute drive, we got there around 8:30pm, which was just in time for free admission/parking, sporadic horse races, $1 hot dogs/nachos/Pepsi and a $2 cup of beer. Hot dogs were decent, nachos were really gross and I don't drink beer, but the entire evening was a bargain.

It was my first time at a horse track and it was an informative experience. We didn't go into any of the other areas for gambling such as poker rooms, but I saw that it's a pretty big place with lots of opportunities to bet against the house and lose. That being said, I really do enjoy a few rounds of Blackjack.

The spectator area is kind of empty because it is a Thursday evening. I hear it gets packed on the weekends.

Beer.

Nathan loves hot dogs.

Mutuels: Bets are pooled, taxes and house take removed. Payoff odds/share calculated from pool of winning bets.

Before the start of every race, this guy comes up from the depths of the winner's circle and announces the call to race.

A horse that didn't win.

A jockey with his horse and team who are spraying the horse with water and probably cooling it down.