National Anthem, Belated

Oh Canada! My home and dah dah dah... I don't know the rest of the lyrics, I'd have to google and I'm way too lazy for that kind of effort. I live here, so that's good enough.

Vancouver likes to celebrate Canada Day with multiple fireworks shows, which reminds me of my hometown's (except 3 days later) Independence Day celebration. On the morning of Canada Day, I was reading the newspaper aloud in the car, citing interesting facts about Canada and its history like it is not as old as the U.S. and that the Queen (Elizabeth II) is the head of state. There was even a quiz to determine one' level of knowledge about Canada as compared to one's knowledge about the U.S. Guess which country we knew more about? Go on, guess. So yeah. I mostly mocked the driver for not knowing insignificant factoids about prominent Americans in history such as Norman Rockwell and Harriet Beecher Stowe. When that got boring, I started reciting absurd questions out of the copy of Zobmondo we keep in the car. My favorite question from the drive was probably either:
1 - Would you rather sweat green liquid or fart blue smoke? or
2 - Would you rather pee out of your nose or poop out of your ear?

Ponder that while you enjoy a few fireworks and leave me a comment with your answers! I'm still having a debate about #2.

Singular


A Big 'Un


Flying the flag at City Hall

Two Weekends Ago

Because I have been so slack in posting since last week, I owe you some good shots. Rest assured these are not them. But I love the movement. Someone should try to have a sturdy hand while shooting in a fairly dark church, is all I'm sayin.

Getting to the Altar


Mr. & Mrs.


You can completely tell I'm going a little bonkers trying to catch up - I'll be putting up lightroom'd versions of these shots within the next 24 hours. For now, I have to get out of my house and go shop.

Focus

The first time I ever went into an eye doctor's office, I was 22 years old and I didn't even get to take the eye test. Nevermind that I was only there as my friend's chauffeur, as she was fully expecting the man behind the machines to dilate her eyes. Before I walked into that room and saw what a real eye chart looked like, I didn't even know what dilating her eyes really would do to her. You see, with perfect, or better than perfect vision (yes I'm bragging), I had no need to know these things. My family appears to be blessed with good eyesight - my father only had reading glasses for the last couple years of his life, and my mom uses reading glasses these days, but I swear its just for show. Or sympathy. I'm sure with all the time I spend in front of a computer, my eyes are going to go to hell in a handbasket relatively soon now, but that is a problem for future me. And until then I'll take as many of these DoF shots as I can.

Top Down


Go Your Own Way

My Plans for the Rest of the Day

Before I go on vacation for tasting all of the wines in BC, I have a list of things to get done. Today's list is pretty simple. Get a hair cut. Relax. Tomorrow is an entirely different story.

My cat has already started on my list.

Relaxin' Skills

A Pictorial Narrative

This is what I have heard from many many people. There is a way that visiting family is supposed to go. There's supposed to be heaps of drama and cat-fighting, maybe even some sibling fighting, as well, if the cats are napping. So I was wondering if I had caught a pictorial narrative of such family gatherings while observing the mongooses (mongeese?) at the Vienna Zoo in Schoenbrunn.

Is this how it should go? You tell me.

Hellew? Anyone home?


Oh hellew! I am so glad to see you, um please not to be jumping on me anymor....


Seriously, man, WHAT IS YOUR DAMAGE? GET AWAY FROM ME! I'LL TELL MOM!!


The reason I was curious is that this is normally what happens when I visit my family...

Oh I'm sorry, I was busy doing nothing. Did you need something? No? Good. I need to go back to just lounging here. In the sun. Get me a beer while you're up, please?


Why, yes, I will indeed have something more to eat, how kind of you to ask.


And I wonder why I need another vacation when I get home from the grueling vacation to see my family! Which is why I am planning on going wine tasting this weekend, for 4 great days. Hey, I'm in Canada, eh, I gotta celebrate Canada Day with everyone else or they might start to suspect I'm not really Canadian. Shhhhh!

Non Sequitur

No, I cannot tell you why this happened, I cannot tell you why I photographed it, but I can tell you that more than one person involved in this photo was not exactly sober.

Give the Boy Some Privacy


Austria appears to have that kind of alcohol fueled effect on many, many people.

Take me for a Ride

There was a night a few years ago that I tend to remember remarkably well when I look at these shots. It is remarkable the degree to which my memories come back to me merely considering the sheer volume of beer that I consumed that evening. Let's just say it was a company sponsored night, and the beer, it was on the company. We knew how to take advantage of a generous boss, but he never seemed to mind signing the checks.

The highlights of the company evening in the Prater include such fabulous events as a broken wrist, a lost Powerbook (yeah huh, a whole laptop), a burn to the leg from the bumper cars, and at least half of us still drunk at work the next day. But I got to go on a couple of rides several times over and laugh until my sides felt like they were going to burst. And since none of that bad stuff happened to me, except the 24 hours hangover, I consider the evening to have been one of the most entertaining I had that summer.

You Swing me Right Round, Baby


Wrap it Up


Gigantic Jester Hat

Out of Office Reply

I'm still in Cali, yo. I'm betting that right now I am currently lounging around in Santa Cruz, having driven from Monterey to SC in my fabulously gorgeous (yes, rented) convertible, hanging out with my guy, my brother, and his girlfriend; likely there's a volleyball with us and a WHOLE LOTTA SAND. That's right. Beach Volleyball. Rest assured, I may be having way more fun than you right now, but I am also incredibly sun burnt. And in denial. Because that sunscreen I put on 5 minutes ago? It should keep me from turning lobster red for longer than a couple minutes, right? I promise I won't have pictures of the lobster red shade for you, you lucky dog, you!

Bizarre-O combo of shots - shockingly from Vienna below.

Light 'em Up


Take a Shot

Legs, Lots of Legs

Look, to be honest, right now, I am driving to Monterey in California in a convertible from San Francisco. I'm wearing a little black satin dress with awesome white polka dots, some super kickass (new) shoes, and my hair, it is a mess - but lo! it will be GORGEOUS SOON. And in a handful of hours, I will be taking pictures of my friends and enjoying the sunshine and witnessing one of my college friends getting married to a gorgeous woman. Lucky guy!

So until I get home from my long weekend in sunny California, enjoy a few more shots of Vienna! HA!

Walkies!


In the Shadow of Two Stilettos*


*I just wanted to clarify that I stole part of that phrase from Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing (one of the best shows ever).

Catching my Eye

Its NOT the Risenrad, but it IS from the Prater. In Vienna. Still!

Daisy in the Middle


I stood in this spot, taking shots of this mini riesenrad for a while. I couldn't pull my eyes away from the little buckets. They looked like little stained glass windows against the sky. Little jewels dangling against the beautiful blue. Sparkling and being all shiny and pretty. Little gems hanging from the daisy in the middle. Girls like sparkling. We like shiny and pretty. And gems and flowers together? Yes, please!

I am totally losing it, over here. Come watch!

I'm struggling to come up with an anecdote that can lead me into these shots, something profound or funny (which I realize I don't do well, but just go with me on this one), something relative and less tangential than LOOK, HERE PICTURES! But you know, since I'm not so smart right now, LOOK, HERE PICTURES!

WAIT! More info... NOT SMART, am I. Plus, I'm completely freaking out because I have SO MUCH TO DO before getting on a plane tomorrow. On my list that MUST GET DONE - buy a dress (damnit! pressured shopping! ARGH!), buy presents, do laundry, take a shower, pack a suitcase with the new dress and the clean clothes, eat SOMETHING besides a latte and Starbuck's coffee cake, sleep more than 3 hours consecutively, harass the cat with a red laser pointer and treats, feed the cat and hope she eats whatever flavor she gets, clean the damn kitchen - AGAIN, and clean most of the apartment for the first time this month. WHAT? Its not like we entertain EVERY DAY. Or, like, EVER.

Well that was a mighty large tangent! Oooh! LOOK, HERE PICTURES!

From Street Level


It could literally have broken off its stand-thing and crushed me! But do not fear, I have the reflexes of ... a human, and to be honest, I wasn't that close so I might have been able to walk out of the path of the giant wheel in time to save myself.

A Little to the Left


Yes, these two shots were taken hours apart.

I took far too many pictures of this thing

There was a great afternoon of walking around the Prater in Vienna - YES I STILL HAVE VIENNA PICTURES - and the light was amazing right before I left the park so I had to shoot the Riesenrad for, like, ever.

PS I really only just noticed how, um not nice those portrait oriented shots look on the blog. I may look into it later, but for now I must go ahead and spend money on things to make my little heart feel better. Yeah - I am so going for some retail therapy.

Lines, Lines, Everywhere There's Lines


Arcs

Quick, before the light comes on

Solitary

Is this a bad time?

I should not be asking this, but please, give me your most assuring advice. Some kind of advice that will fit EVERYTHING.

Surely, you've got something.

Listening

What I wanted to be when I grew up

To my 9 year old self, being a vet meant I could spend the whole day with horses, frolicking in the sun and doing, well, horse things. I didn't know exactly what would constitute horse things, but I could imagine. And I did imagine and it was glorious and sunny all the time, and my hair it never tangled in the wind while I was riding a very pretty and tall brown horse. See how I got all kinds of technical about horses there? Yeah that's just like when I was nearly ten. I jhd command of all kinds of technicalities and proper jargon.

When I turned about 13 I decided I could sing, and no, I paid no heed to what everyone else said, because obviously they were idiots that didn't know I was the very next Madonna. Or was it Debbie Gibson? Gah, I really don't know, but I am sure I sounded more like a screeching kid than anyone that could read music. It turns out you don't need to know how to read music to sing, but I learned anyways, just in case.

And then I gave up the vet dreams and the singing dreams (my mother was THRILLED that day), and I replaced those dreams of what I wanted to be when I grow up with... nothing. That's right, look at my aspirations now! Impressive in their depth and contemplation, I KNOW.

I think somewhere around the age of 22 I thought it would be great to own a vineyard and make wine. I knew enough at the time about wine to distinguish red from white by the names of the wine about 50-60% of the time, which by my standards was A-OKAY. Look, some people don't aim very high.

I like to attribute my goals with all of these dreams as fantastical, and not at all something that was ever going to happen. Therefore, I didn't spend much time cultivating my knowledge around these areas.

My one thought about all this while I was sitting at the heurigen (yes, OH MY GOD I STILL HAVE HEURIGEN PICTURES) was that Holy DAMNITALL, why did I not stick with the winery thing? Looking out over this all day, everyday would not kill me. Or depress me. Or have any negative effects on me at all. I swears.

Lines


And look I even found my second house. Terrible, no?

Around the Bend

The Hills are Alive

I spent one very fine, and wined, evening drinking and eating and chatting with friends in the hills of Vienna. The sunset didn't splash vibrant colors across the clouds and sky, but the light that it threw across the city was incredible. Imagine it looked like this, only 50 times better, in person.

Glowing

Eye to the Sky

I wanted to write something all brilliant and memory filled and poetic and eloquent. But its after 11, I'm tired and stuffed full of a large serving of Mushrooms Neptune. So, the crab and the mushrooms are mostly to blame for what follows.

When I was but a smaller and younger version of myself, I spent many a schoolday morning in front of the mirror curling and hairspraying my bangs with half a can of Aqua Net so that the rather large gathering of hair above my forehead stood a good 4 inches straight up to the sky. The rest of my hair, it was not feathered, but it was long, and it was curly. Unnaturally curly. However, my bangs were, as my natural hair is, pin straight. It was a rare day that I didn't have a burn from the curling iron on my forehead to cover up. I was then, and still am, not so skilled with the hair styling.

At around the same time in my life, I had a special affinity for blue mascara. I was also a rather large fan of leg warmers, Keds, banana clips (which never could contain the awesomeness that was my permed head of hair), plastic charm necklaces laden with every single plastic charm that could be bought, fingerless gloves, rather large hoop earrings, and let us please not forget 300 bangles worn on one arm and 10 pairs of jelly bracelets on the other. When you go to a catholic school and have to wear a plaid skirt, white collared shirt, and white knee high socks, the only thing you have to set yourself apart, and therefore distinguish yourself as a cool kid, is your accessories. The more, the better. Obviously.

During the hot summer months, I had a tendency to de-accessorize myself. I left the earrings, necklaces, leg warmers and gloves on the floor of my room with the rest of my belongings. Decked out in cutoff jean shorts and puffy paint tank tops or t-shirts, I rode my bike to my best friend's house armed only with a precisely folded stack of 3 single dollar bills and a bandana that I used as a belt until my hair, it just got in my way, and then it transformed from belt into do-rag.

We would ride into town and buy Candy Buttons and (Lik-m-Aid) Fun Dip. If my pockets were big enough, I would spend every penny I had on me for more sugar snacks before hopping back on my bike and riding to the park. The ride was always gruesome in the summer heat, and after perfecting "Look Ma! NO HANDS!" bike-riding, I never arrived at the park with any Candy Buttons left. Sitting on the grass under the kumquat tree, we'd dive into the Fun Dip, leaving no trace of sugar anywhere. At the unfortunate time that the candy would be finished off, we had no choice but to climb the kumquat tree and pluck the fresh, ripe fruit from the branches. Although I was, and am, not really the world's biggest fan of heights, with two older brothers I had no other choice but to be a tree climbing kid. My friend would hold out the bottom of her shirt, collecting the fruits I dropped at her head until I tired of balancing on the branches and jumped down to earth. We would run out to the grass, drop the kumquats into one giant pile between us and spin in circles until we were so dizzy we'd fall down. Scanning the clouds that dotted the blue skies, we'd be smiling and giggling until at least one of us would see something. Arms shooting to the sky, aiming at a cloud formation, and a shrill of excitement in our voices, we'd call out the name of an animal, and sometimes, sometimes we'd even "Jinx!" each other.


Can you guess what I saw in these clouds?

1


2

Meal Time

Heurigens, for those that do not know (it's possible it could be you, Michigan), are like mini-wineries with more substantive food than bread and cheese (Napa's wineries' staples for their tasters). They serve their locally grown grape juice, and more often than not, the juice tastes remarkably like wine and contains wine-like alcoholic percentages. I'm sure they serve something non-alcoholic, but let's be honest, while I lived in Austria I drank anything but a non-alcoholic beverage at least 5 out of 7 nights (which is a lot, I know). Anyways, the food. The food is traditional Austrian fare. I have to admit that I hardly ever ate very much when I ventured to the heurigens. I don't want to put too bad a spin on it, but I mean, look at this.

Blood Sausage Sandwich


It is entirely possible that the heurigen I saw last month served more food, but I think I was more interested in a liquid diet and good times with old friends.

Taste Test


Joker


I really had so much fun that day/night, and I blame Daz, Jim-AY, and the Mels. Also, they get the blame for the headache the next day, but mostly that was just Jimmy and the Monk.

A New Week

Greetings Monday in Vancouver! What is this newfangled summer weather you DID NOT BRING ME? And why, just over a week before the Summer Solstice is it RAINING here? No reason? Really? Great. Thanks. What a way to start the week.

I demand pretty weather and beautiful blue skies. I demand Vancouver start behaving like summer is literally right around the corner. I demand the rain stop and the grey skies vanish. So, you know, whoever is in charge of these things, can you just heed my demands and let's get on with the pretty.

Here are some nice examples - learn from Austria in May.

Heurigen Hills


Silhouette

Make Over Friday

I know several people (non-Austrians) that live(d) in Austria that subscribed at one time or another to the Austrian Red Hair.

Folks - THIS is what your heads looked like in the bright sunshine. Predddddddy!

She is NOT a Clown


Disclaimer: Identity of the aforementioned people will of course be kept secret, although I will say that I may or may not be in a relationship with one of those people. Ho hum.