summer storm

I just love the way a summer thunderstorm rolls in and takes over.

A distant rolling rumble made the dog's ears go into full alert. He came frantically running into my bedroom and looked at me with urgent stare.

"Human! Intruders! I will protect you... if I can hide under your legs?"

Then the air was still. My window fan was pulling in the pre-storm musty smell of warm humidity. I could smell the storm coming, the way you can smell the garlic simmering in olive oil and anticipate the entire meal. The pup whimpered at my feet; I scratched his big doppler ears and reassured him. He thanked me by slobbering on my big toes.

The TV lulled me into a state of near-coma, until the storm arrived with gusto. A single clap of thunder overhead sent both myself and the dog running - him to my parents' room and me to the window. The rain came in sheets, almost immediately running from the eaves like Yosemite waterfalls.

This is my favorite part of a summer storm - when the cold rain hits the hot asphalt and the resulting steam clings to the ground like a morning mist.

A summer storm is a cleansing. It blusters in and rushes out, leaving a fresh world behind. But it does the same for me. I never quite feel the same after a summer storm. The steam rising from the street carries all of my stress and worries away with it.

a little ADD lately

Lately, it feels as though my brain is going to just explode. Which would be neither pretty, nor helpful in any way. Summer vacation is great and all, but I have been a little on the bored side. My own fault, truly, so I'm not going to whine about it here.

In other news, I saw the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! I'll spare the spoilers, but I just had to say that I adored the movie. I thought it was very well done for the book being the longest of the series thus far. I can't wait for the new book!

Relative to all the HP madness, I recently took the super-duper-ridiculous sorting quiz. I thought I'd share the results!

The sorting hat says that I belong in Hufflepuff!

Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot, and treat them just the same."

Hufflepuff students are friendly, fair-minded, modest, and hard-working. A well-known member was Cedric Digory, who represented Hogwarts in the most recent Triwizard Tournament.

 

Take the most scientific Harry Potter
Quiz ever created.

Get Sorted Now!

Yay Hufflepuff!! Seems very accurate, as I'm a teacher. Now, do I need to knit up some Hufflepuff accouterments? Methinks that may happen sometime soon...

I'll be in the Central NY area this week, heading up on Wednesday for who knows how long. Bringing the bike this time! Hopes are high! We'll see :-P

a valuable life skill

There's a story here. Today at the dinner table (sidenote: my older brother Adam makes some damn good fajitas) the chef remarks that he's been trying to learn how to make origami paper cranes. He recently picked up a bartending shift on Fridays and Saturdays at a local Japanese restaurant and he thought it would be cute to give them to the kids who come into the restaurant with their families. We all agreed that it would be fun. Mom managed to find him a book on origami and also got him a pack of paper to play with.

Well, needless to say the illustrations were a bit foggy (might as well have been written in Japanese). He went out tonight and I told him I'd check out YouTube and see what I could find. Jackpot! I found this guy!

And now, I have little origami friends to keep me company. Yay!





Thanks for sharing in my origami joy. Oh, by the way... the valuable life skill? Making paper cranes. Oh yes. Yes indeed.

a productive day indeed

First things first...

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It's good to know I'd have a fair shot at survival. I feel as though I need to brush up on my basic combat skills, though. Should I start taking kickboxing? Stock up on more canned food? Important things to consider...

On to my productive day! I recently dug out my postcard collection. 99% of it consists of postcard that I picked up on my cross-country trek from the summer of '05. I have a pretty good collection of roughly 65 cards, but they've all been living in a bag under my dresser because I couldn't come up with a way to display them. Well, thanks to some helpful people on the knittyboards, and some vague memory of a home improvement show on HGTV, I have created a wall of postcards!




I'm so excited with the final product! Not to mention, I did this whole thing myself. Using my drill was rather gratifying. Here are a couple of other pics of the Wall o' Cards:







I am ridiculously pleased with how this turned out. And so, I sign off so I can just sit and stare at where I've been!

independence day

Despite less-than-celebratory weather, my family convened for our mostly-annual BBQ in honor of Our Nation's Independence. Okay, so in reality we get together for Mom's tuna macaroni salad and my Uncle Gary's rum punch. This year we did the usual, only with a few more layers of clothing on.

It's funny how tired you can get just from sitting around outside for a few hours. I'd swear that I overexerted myself in some major physical activity. In reality, the most energy I expended today was used to play a quick game of Bocce with my older brother. Not terribly taxing. I probably burned more calories going back and forth to the cooler for more of the rum punch.

All that fresh air and drizzly atmosphere has definitely made me rather blah. Not to mention the mounds of food that I somehow consumed. So good, but so, so bad.

Happy 4th of July, all.

a new banana

Ah, the inaugural post of this blog. What shall I say? I suppose it's only fitting for me to pay respects to my old blog, but I only posted in it a few times. It was a sad, neglected blog, and it's gone to a better place now.

True to myself, I am cautiously optimistic about the future of this shiny new blog. I say "cautiously" because I know how I am, even though you do not (yet). But I've started this blog less than a week into my summer vacation, so hopefully the vast abyss of free time that I'm finding myself lost in will prompt me to actually (gasp!) say something every so often.

Alas, only time will tell. Welcome to the banana peel, in any case!