1. sweet paprika in my homefries
   
2. my new pocket camera and how i justified getting it
   
3. the air in the alley that smelled like fall this morning
4. our new realtor who is going to find us a house we love and can afford
   
5. still getting congratulated by strangers for being recently married
6. hearing from and being surprised by old friends on facebook
7. randomly meeting and making new friends on a barstool
8. clean fresh sheets on the bed, and how they equal a good night’s sleep
   
9. memoires and autobiographies, and how everyone seems so fascinating
   
10. actually being excited about getting my money (and lack of) under control
    

tonight i received a call from an unknown number, and did what most people do, let it go to voicemail.  it’s a good thing!  now i can replay the wonderful message from moxie’s ice cream in wynantskill, ny, letting me know that I GUESSED THE MYSTERY FLAVOR on national ice cream day!  me!  lil ole nene!  

it was sweet potato and it tasted pretty awful.  i love sweet potatoes, in fact we grilled a few up for dinner tonight.  the moxie’s gal totally tried to psych me out when she went around the table asking our guesses.  she responded to my sweet potato with an “oh, yah think so?”  in fact, her response made me doubt myself, and i went back to fill out another form that said carrot.  how dare she psych me out!  i’m gonna give her a piece of my mind when i pick up that prize later this week.  and by piece of my mind, i mean high five.

i sure am glad we blew off the demolition derby for national ice cream day!

i hope everyone enjoyed national ice cream day!  we celebrated in style with the llamas hanging out at moxie’s in wynantskill, ny.  check out more photos on my flickr.  i treated myself to a sundae this year, and went with a hot fudge on black cherry.  perfect on a steamy sunday afternoon.  the sunday sundae!

the county fair is happening this week, and i’m looking forward to checkin’ out the demolition derby on sunday night.  no demolition derby is complete without cheese fries, cheap booze, and some mud on your face (and hopefully not on the camera lens).  maybe this year a team skfl nene airbrush t-shirt is in order.  ooh!

at that point, it was the best day i had ever known.  i went to my grandma mac’s house and baked a cookie the size of my head.  and it was all mine!  i don’t remember eating it.  i do remember baking it and posing for this photo.  today my mom sent us the above and below photos.  apparently food is what really makes me shine.  hee hee.  glad i look less like a boy on our wedding day!  here’s to good times!

 

we spent the afternoon decorating the space for our wedding on saturday.  a few finishing touches tomorrow, followed by some family hangtime and a manicure for my buddy and me, and we are good to go!  skfl and i are totally psyched about the day.  fingers crossed the thunderstorms stay away!

thanks to doug bartow at id29 for putting together the above postcard invitation.  you might recognize my photo in the background, taken at one of skfl + friends’ events.   what a wonderful community we have!

i have a long story to share with you, but no appropriate photo to match (so that one will have to wait, and i promise it will be worth it).  this prompted me to search through a few years worth of snapshots.  i take tons of photos, but not as many since the digital slr entered my life.  things were so easy when i could just grab my pocket camera and snap a shot.  well, as long as the conditions were up to snuff - bright light, no one moving, and nothing too close up.  okay, i guess it wasn’t easy.  but the shots are so much more spontaneous.  i’m always trying to capture that with the digital slr and the wide-angle lens, but it’s tough to hold a heavy and cumbersome camera at arms length and point it at you and get the random scenery in the background. 

i thought the new camera (now over a year old) would make me feel like a serious taker of pictures.  i can’t even call myself a photographer, because i’m not (at least i don’t feel like i am).  i should be for all the money spent on the various lenses and random other equipment.  the most important stuff is free - trial and error, reading books, but most importantly, asking questions. 

i just wrote a few more paragraphs, but can’t seem to make things come together in a pleasing way.  i will use the excuse while i still can - i’m getting married in a few days and lack focus.  it’s true, but right now i’m feeling pretty calm as it is totally obvious that things are coming together.  though the list of tasks for tomorrow’s lunch break is getting bigger as i continue to type.  and scene. (one day i will say that with a matching hand gesture as i exit a room.  one day.)

i spotted this cute sign at our food co-op after picking up last week’s farm share.  oh how i love a handmade sign.  i’m excited to share my csa stories with you soon.  gonna have to wait a bit for them though…

i am now breathing a sigh of relief (and by that i mean enjoying a glass of cheap wine while reflecting over the last few years of my life).  i am grateful for all that was learned in the first marriage, and the years after.  if i did not get fake divorced, almost foodies would have never been born.  if i did not get for real divorced, skfl would not have been able to be my lifetime sidekick of a husband.  it’s all going to work out, and i almost 100% believe that.  cheers!

i love a sugar snap pea - so vibrant, crunchy and delicious. if i had the skills, i’d write a haiku about them. i went to a day long computer class last week and was picked on by the teacher for consuming healthy snacks. why didn’t the people eating potato chips while drinking soda receive judging comments? or what about the people that went back for a second donut during the break? [donuts, really? why is fruit never available at meetings and trainings? why is it always donuts? and people are always scarfing them down!] i didn’t think the sugar snap peas were terribly distracting to the class. i chewed them as quietly as possible.