Fifth Year Anniversary Traditional Gift: Wood(s)

It's our five year! Our gift to ourselves: the walking holiday across England. We leave on Tuesday - and plan to post an online diary when we get back.

By that time we'll be saying/writing things like "holiday" (see, I already did it), "shoppe," "queue," and "one" - as in, "one does get tired after walking 192 miles, doesn't one?"

See you when we're back.

Tryin' To Catch Me Ridin' Dirty - Or - Fast & Furious: Budget Drift

Note to self: when they post "Passenger Vehicles Only" that's exactly what they mean. Imagine driving behind your spouse, who's racing along in his 24' rental truck. You're following Mapquest directions and you see the passenger vehicle sign only as you enter the onramp of a parkway. 3 minutes later, you see the truck crash into and scrape under a low bridge with sparks flying - and then, well, then you see the roof of the truck hanging off the back like the lid of a sardine can... This is the cell phone conversation that ensued:

Molt: How does it look? [At this point he is still driving and thinks he just scraped the top and maybe Budget won't notice]
ME: You better pull over. Right now.

It could be worse. I could be decapitated, along with my mom, who was riding with me, by flying metal. But, thankfully, everything hung onto the truck and, amazingly, none of our belongings flew out (in fact, we finally got our stuff back yesterday and practically nothing is broken!). I am grateful. But I wish it hadn't been on the NY/CT state line. This means: 1 citation from CT for driving a truck on the parkway, 1 citation from NY for driving a truck on a parkway, and 1 citation from NY for hitting a bridge - did you know you could get a ticket for hitting a bridge? Oh, and about 4 cop cars surrounding us until 2am. Good times. Here are some visuals:

This is the view behind the truck - after the towing company cut off most of the loose sheet metal.

This is looking into the truck up towards the sky - which, as you can see, is visible above our mattress. Incidentally, it rained the night after we got all our stuff out of the truck. Phew. That was close.

Hopefully, Molt will soon recover from his fear of low-clearance bridges - he winces everytime we go under one.

Pause

Enough about moving and life changes and all that. I must take a moment to obsess about Studio Numen. If you look at their rings, you'll find objets that epitomize what I love: little, strange, beautiful, unique, and non-functional things with a touch of fairyland/the ancient world. I wonder how much one is... Here is the "DaVinci Towers":

In a similar vein, but with a different medium, is Jamie Zollars. I found out about her art when a friend gave me one of her postcards. Now I am eagerly awaiting her online store - so I can buy art that will warp my future children! This is the postcard I received, titled "Tengu" - Tengu, do you know why this is? I don't see any Japanese spirits on this one - but don't you love the demonic looking pink bunny?

Finally, my sister has a book on HeQi and I recently saw a showing of his at my future alma mater. He's an extraordinary Chinese artist with a vision for re-casting the Christian faith so that it is no longer Euro-centric but newly realized in Asian cultures. Here's his painting of Paul on the road to Damascus: I love that Paul is depicted as a traditional Chinese warrior.

That's all for now. Hope you've enjoyed this art pause.

Proud, New, Tired Owners

At last, after what seemed like endless trials, we own a home!! Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it's been a lot of work. We've spent the last week cleaning up and painting. Some tips for current and future homeowners: please don't do anything half-assed or downright stupid! For example, don't:

1) glue lattice onto your living room wall
2) put up wallpaper - over older wallpaper that's been painted over (#$@%^#@^!!!??)
3) install a TV in the wall - especially one from the 1970's
4) repair a hole in the wall by taping a piece of cardboard over it (what the...?)
5) have a light switch in the bedroom that causes lightning to shoot from the overhead lights (this is not a joke - if the glass light-fixture cover hadn't been there, I could be without hair right now)

Some images from our week: Here we are, so eager to begin...

and then...
This pretty much sums up our feelings after a few hours, days, of literal blood, sweat, and tears. Notice the even more hideous wallpaper behind me that I uncovered. There's nothing like getting a borderline OCD person covered in wallpaper paste on a wet tarp. Not a good thing.

But, finally, we did accomplish our goals. Here's Molt, enjoying the fruit of his labors in the living room:
And isn't this better than my archaeological wallpaper discovery:
Come visit us please!