escape yourself and gravity

My parents bought me my Christmas present today. I recently saw the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 in an employee discount flyer at work, and have been techno-lusting over it ever since. Well, I did some comparison shopping and found out that Acer Aspire One got some great reviews as far as being the hardest working netbook out there. So we went to Indianapolis today so I could test-drive the keyboard. Since what I was looking for was high-mobility writing machine, I have to love the keyboard. And I do!

I originally wanted white, because my plan was to stick NaNoWriMo stickers on the lid. They didn't have white, though, so I ended up with pink. And I quicklky came to adore that, as well.

The one thing I was disappointed about was that Fry's didn't have the version with Linux preinstalled on it...so I have to go through the process of picking WHICH Linux to use, learning how to install it, and so on. Because I definitely want to run Linux on this machine. It's the perfect opportunity to learn something new.

( Pictures of my new baby )

Went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art today to see the "To Live Forever" exhibit of Demetrios' mummy, stela, canopic jars, reliefs, and various other Egyptian artifacts. Having just seen the Field Museum's exhibit lat month, I can say that this exhibit, on loan from Brooklyn, wasn't as extensive, but it was still incredible. Just the intricacy of the carving they did is amazing. Something that impressed me in both exhibits was the hand mirrors. Just the fact that so many thousands of years ago they had hand mirrors--it's incredible.

We also walked around the gardens a little--they were designed by Olmstead, who also designed Central Park in New York--and then went to Crown Hill Cemetery.

Crown Hill is the fourth largest cemetery in the United States. I had no idea. It has people like U.S. President Harrison, James Whitcomb Riley, Booth Tarkington, John Dillinger, the guy who invented Sodoku, and lots of other notables, buried there. Crown Hill is, I believe, the highest natural spot in Marion County, Indiana. There is a National Cemetery plot for Civil War dead. There are several memorials like the Heroes of Public Service, the Indiana AIDS memorial, and others.

( I took lots of pictures - clickable thumbnails behind the cut. )

I also splurged on a new purse at the IMA shop. But it's so freaking adorable I fell in love and couldn't make myself leave without it.

( It's made out of paper! )

I got this in a forward at work today. No idea who to credit for it, but damn do I need some of this!

( From the makers of Damitol )

Here in Indiana there are a few signs that spring is incipient. The turkey vultures come back, the robins and killdeer and red-winged blackbirds follow. Skunk cabbage blooms in wetlands and skunks fight (or mate) on the front porch. O.o The sandhill cranes migrate overhead.

I have pictures of that last...

( Largeish pictures behind cut )

Dear friends, I hate snow and ice. It has been sleeting for the past three hours. On a normal day I would be home by now. As it is, we probably have another forty minutes to an hour of driving before we get home. Winter is a bitch.




( More pictures, now that I'm finally home--an hour and twenty minutes after I would have been, were it not sleeting out. )

That's right, I said a party! I can't be the only one (in the Northern Hemisphere) who's utterly sick of winter. Today I decided I'd had enough. So we're having a tropical party!

So put on a Hawaiian shirt, break out your shorts and flip-flops and straw hats, mix yourself a drink (we've got lots of rum!) and ( Turn up the music! )


Feel free to add to our playlist as the night gets more humid, the tiki torches burn, and the ocean crashes against the beach. Or post pictures of yourself in a tropical outfit!

I am feeling icky. I've been suspecting my body of slowly giving in to a cold, but today either my kidneys decided to revolt or my stomach did. I haven't thrown up, but I've had a nasty ache in my abdomen. I'm drinking cranberry juice and hoping it goes away. For that matter, it hasn't hurt as bad for the past hour or so.

It snowed here over night, so the morning commute was fun. Only took 28 minutes longer than usual, though, which isn't too bad. I like riding with Dad; he's my morning chauffeur.

Finally, here is a manip that really probably means nothing to anyone but me and severity_softly, but I am pleased with it and want to show it off anyway.

( Remus and Peter getting pissed together and posing for snapshots taken by the unskilled Mr Black, right this way. )

The last time I was at Spring Mill, I was about 10 and we were camping there. We did a LOT of camping when I was younger. We only had one car, and Mom didn't work until I was in fifth grade, so a lot of times we would take Dad to work on Friday mornings, then spend the day getting ready and packing the car. Then we'd pick Dad up from work and head straight to Shades or Turkey Run or some other state park, and spend the weekend there. Of course, back then it was like $6 a night to tent camp in a state park. I think it's a little more now. Anyway, when I was about 10 we spent two weeks of Dad's vacation driving around the state, spending a day and a night at a different state park. The night we were at Spring Mill, a terrible storm came up--the sort that comes with winds so ferocious they kick up a lot of dirt into the atmosphere and cause red lightning. In fact I think Mom even took some pictures of red lightning during that storm. In any case, we felt it was prudent to sleep in the car rather than in the tent, because of the weather. Our car was a two-door Mazda hatchback, way before Mazda's were all zum-zum and cool. I was by far the most comfortable person, as I had the whole backseat to myself. Right at the height of the storm, a group of people on motorcycles drove into the campsite next to us and started frantically setting up tents. Poor guys.

We'd been looking forward to the caves, of course, but as you can see in the pictures, Donaldson Cave and the Twin Caves all have water running through them. When we got to the Twin Caves, the boats were docked, filled with several inches of water in the bottom. I specifically recall the naturalist telling us there had been six inches of rain, but I'm not sure if it was all during that single night, or if there had been some rain the day before. We went to Donaldson Cave, hoping that would be better, since there's a boardwalk and part of the cave is dry, but the boardwalk was under a couple of inches of water as well. The creek was positively roaring out of Donaldson Cave with incredible, awe-inspiring force. There are some rocks in the creekbed (my childhood memory was of them being car-sized, though yesterday's trip suggests they are probably more the size of...erm, shopping trolleys.) and when the water hit those rocks, it sprayed up into the air in huge white fountains. Trail Four goes along the creekside, and I remember we hiked along it, though we had some difficulties since the actual trail was underwater. I also vividly remember all the pawpaw trees along the creek, and I did see them yesterday. Finally we realized we couldn't follow the trail route any longer and still be safe, so we cut up the hillside (a very very steep hillside) to get up to the road.

Mom took lots of pictures that day, but we have an entire box of pictures that have gone missing, probably in one of the attics, though I'm not sure. (I did find one box of photos this summer, so instead of my entire childhood being missing, I now have before my birth through about age 8 or 9, but 9 through 16 is still, sadly, missing.) I've been yearning to look at those pictures, and after yesterday I definitely want to compare them to the ones I took. Dad told me that we went back to Spring Mill a couple of days later on our trip, and that we were able to take the boat ride in the Twin Caves that time, but I have no recollection of that--you can tell it was the first trip that really made an impression on me.

Then again, this was also the trip where we meant to end with a night at Brown County State Park...but we went to the nature center before getting our campsite, and there we saw a copperhead that had been caught in the campground that morning. I got to watch it eat a mouse, but because Dad is terrified of snakes, we ended up going home that night.


( Several pictures from Spring Mill )

I discovered that I have video editing software on my computer. So I put it to good use...

( I made a video!! )

Here, I also took some snaps.

( Photos )

We need a bandaid size between normal and OHMYGODMYARMGOTCUTOFF!!! Because I seriously don't need that big a bandage on my left leg, but it was too big for the normal bandaid. I know have bandaids on all four appendages. I swear, I'm so accident prone. The left hand wasn't Merlin, that was me cutting myself in Chicago. And the right arm was Merlin, but yesterday.

( picture )