Roaming Tigger’s Florida Adventures

RT and I have been in Florida for a week. The first half was spent in Bradenton with the Hubster. We had a number of adventures.

Almost as soon as we hit dirt in Florida, we headed out on a sunset cruise. We did actually get a sunset on this particular evening, so Tigger wanted his picture taken.


Early flight had meant early wake-up, so we went to bed shortly after the AFC Championship game ended (boo, ratbirds!) Besides, we had plans for Monday morning.


Apparently, John and Mable Ringling (yes, the circus Ringlings) based in Sarasota, Fla., where Mable built their grand home: Ca’ d’Zan (which means House of John)

With all the landscaping around the mansion, it was hard to get a good view of the full house, but RT gave it a good shot.


After we took the docent tour of the first two floors, we spent a little time on the back patio. You can see that the entire back of the house is full of art glass, and really, this is just the middle-third of the mansion.


Then, we went over to the Circus Museum, which is also on the grounds. Tigger thought it might be cool to be part of a Trained Animal Show in order to see more fo the country


But then he tried it for a few seconds and really didn’t like it very much.


And, just for the record, the Hubster and I were there as well. This is us on the boat dock. John Ringling invested heavily in real estate and owned everything you could see across the water. (click through to embiggen … if you must)


On Tuesday, we took advantage of one other piece of our package, a tour of Pirate City, winter home of nobody’s Pittsburgh Pirates.


Our tour guide had clearly been taught to fear showing people anything interesting. Even watching a dozen high-A guys play catch made her twitchy. So we were polite and moved along. To the South Florida Museum! Which has a very famous resident!


Snooty, the Manatee! Snooty is in the middle. His tank buddies were Charlie and Epac, who have their tails tagged and are getting ready to be released back into the wild. The manatee presentation was a lot of fun, and we learned lots of stuff about Snooty and other manatees.

Tigger was fascinated by the manatees once he’d met Snooty, so we went to the marina to see what we could see.


Tigger was a little bummed that this was the best we could do “in the wild.”


So after some lunch, we headed back to our room, where Tigger found some friends on the beach that reminded him of home.


It wasn’t much of a beach day, but this was a great way to end it.


A few more days, currently in Vero Beach, and we’ll both be headed back to the real thing.

Huntington Library

I actually had one (almost) completely free day on my California trip, so I took some time to visit one of my very favorite places in the greater Los Angeles area – Huntington Library!


Shortly after arrival, I came to the saddening realization that the battery on my “real” camera was dead. But, Roaming Tigger still wanted to take pictures, so my cell phone camera had to step up to the plate.

After discussions with my Aunt about our favorite Gardens at the Library, RT and I started at the Chinese Gardens.


We were sad to discover that the Chinese Gardens was missing all of its water elements. Drained for repair/maintenance. Booo!!!


Maybe there will be water on our next visit?


But there were still some cool elements in the Chinese Gardens, including this one bit of sidewalk!


Then we moved along to my long-time favorite, the Japanese Gardens.


There were huuuuuuuge koi in the main pond!


And we visited the bonsai garden.


As always, it was an awesome visit. Here’s hoping I can go again soon!

Tigger’s Latest Greatest Adventure

I skipped WiP Wednesday because I hadn’t worked on anything that wasn’t finished. I’ll get to that finished thing soon. Meanwhile, Tigger wanted to show you what he’s been up to this month.

We started in Indianapolis, for some sports thing

I worked. Tigger played and got his picture taken.

After they handed out the big trophy, Tigger and I decided to drive an hour in the wrong direction before we went home. First we passed the great big new football stadium


Then we drove west on I-70 for almost an hour, then about 15 minutes north on Rt. 231. A good friend of mine took time out of his day for a campus tour (WOW, has it changed in the 18 years since I’ve been on campus!) then Tigger and I walked around on our own to show you DePauw University.


This is the main academic quad. Roy O. West Library in the center, Asbury on the right, Harrison on the left. When I was in school, there was a road in front of those buildings. Now it’s all pedestrians. Road totally and completely gone.


East College is the oldest building on campus and the “iconic” building for DPU (oh, yeah. If you ever wondered where my internet “name” came from? I went to DePauw University and they’re the Tigers. DPUTiger. A name I could remember.)

Just to the side of EC is one of the great campus landmarks.


The Boulder! There’s a little part of my brain that’s telling me it’s been moved, but since it had been almost 18 years since I’d been on campus (YIKES!), I’m not sure.

Anyhoo, since I was a history major, I had a lot of classes in EC, and walked by the boulder fairly often. And really, would it be a proper DePauw tour without seeing the Boulder? I think not!

One of my non-negotiable objectives once I was on campus was to stop at the bookstore. When you go to a small school like DPU, shopping for school gear on the internet isn’t exactly easy. You pretty much have to purchase in person. So Tigger and I stopped at the Union Building and paused to take a pic of North Quad.


These are the oldest dorms on campus. Lucy Rowland on the right and Mason on the left. When I was in college, Rector was a single large building in the middle. One morning when I was at UCLA, I was working out in the Wooden Center and some lame MTV-U “news” program was running on a loop. They kept showing a dorm fire and I kept thinking it looked familiar, but since there was no close-captioning and I couldn’t listen to the audio, I just figured I’d google “dorm fire” and the date when I got back to my office.

It was Rector. It was pretty much completely destroyed.

They built a “Rector Village” in its place. Super modern dorm-like thingies, lots of bells and whistles. Kids these days. Sooooo spoiled!

After dropping a bit of cash at the bookstore, Tigger and I headed towards my true former stomping grounds. A view of the Science and Math building (S&M … yeah) from across Bowman Park

Hey, wait ... didn't there used to be a fountain there?

When I was minoring in physics, that building was a bunker. No exterior windows, lots of brick, and built into the ground. It’s a little different now. What a rehab!

A little to the left …


… you see the Performing Arts Center. With another shiny huge new façade that’s good for natural light. But no Bowman Pond. Sad. That (farther away) browned-out chunk of grass? That used to be a pond. The particularly brave could ice skate there in the winter. Otherwise, it was mostly used for your typical college-type shenanigans that would be appropriate for an artificial pond that maxed out at about three feet in depth.

If you want to know where I spent about 75% of my collegeiate life during my last three years of schooling, this is it:


DePauw’s Center for Contemporary Media. That building opened second semester my sophomore year. People you have actually seen in the mainstream media were on camera for the first time in the far part of that building. I even directed some of them. It still houses the newspaper (The DePauw, Indiana's Oldest, Coolest and Best College newspaper), WGRE 91.5, your sound alternative, and the TV station. Good times.

Oh, and this was the only “academic” building I walked through on my own. And look what I found!


I wasn’t a knitter in college, but how cool is that?

Tigger and I finished our tour with a picture of my dorm for three of my four years of college.


Humbert Hall. It was so new when I moved in freshman year that my door didn’t have a doorknob yet. They weren’t finished installing them. Good times.

So that’s about it for campus. From there, we were hungry. And if it’s been 18 years since you were on campus at DePauw, there’s really only one option that’s acceptable for a meal.

Frank’s Fries on the left, a half-GCB … garlic cheeseburger … on the right.

MARVIN’S!

Heaven on a paper-lined plastic basket. Tasted just as good as it did 18 years ago.

I absolutely loved my time at DePauw, both during my four years as a student back in the stone ages and on my too-brief visit at the start of April. And I can guarantee it will be a lot less than 18 years before I’m on campus again. TIGER PRIDE, BABY!

WiP Wednesday, On the Fly!

I was sick all of last week and when I couldn’t find my card reader (the Hubster had swiped it!), I punted. So here are my pics from last week

Christmas Present #1, Knucks

Christmas Present #2, Watch Cap

Those were both finished in time and gifted last Friday. Hooray!

Massively Stressful Project was finished in time and handed over to the client. Double Hooray!!

I’m in California at the moment. Tigger and I took a hike yesterday. I have more pictures and will blog that trip, possibly tonight. Here’s a teaser:


And here’s what I’ve been knitting since I’ve been away from home. A “reverse colorway” pair of Northman’s Mittens! They’re flying along and I lurve them!


Expect my end-of-year wrap-up post to be much later than Friday. I’ll be on a plane all day that day, plus I have a crapload of finished projects I still need to blog. I’m gonna do it (I like the simple reference for all of my finished projects on an annual basis) and I’ll probably just blog a bunch of them and set them to post daily while I’m watching ALL THE GAMES on Saturday. Can’t wait!

A Barenaked Wednesday

Back in the dark ages of this here bloggity blog, among the first dozen posts, I gushed about my very favorite band, Barenaked Ladies.

Yesterday, I drove up to Cleveland to see BNL play at the Nautica Pavillion in the Flats. (As a side note? When I lived in Akron a million years ago, the Flats were a Big Deal. Now they’re kind of run down and depressing. Sad!) A friend I used to work with who I hadn’t seen in a dozen years went with me. We both had a blast.

I managed to get great seats for the show. Fortunately, great seats for BNL don’t break the bank. Tigger wanted to prove he attended the show …

During change-over from Kris Allen to BNL

From the minute BNL came out to start their set, I was one (hot, sweaty) happy camper. Jim Creeggan repeatedly came right over in front of our seats to play "to" our little section of the crowd, and despite the fact that we were less than two yards away from a very large set of speakers, it wasn’t painful (until Ed decided to beatbox near the end of the show. Ow.)


They jumped right in with a mix of old and new, including one my very favorites, Easy. The last two times I went to see BNL at an actual show (which does not include the Borders thing), they sold digital copies of the show. I was expecting (hoping? yearning?) to purchase last night’s show on site, but it wasn’t available. And as best I can tell, it won't be. Sad panda! The moment that really made me disappointed that the show was unavailable digitally was when Kevin absolutely crushed Sound of Your Voice. It was perfect.

Tyler, Ed and Jim singing back-up to Kevin (far left) on “Sound of Your Voice"

I’ve always felt that one or two of the songs on BNL’s concert set lists were “ego songs” for Steve. We’d all be floating along having a blast and then they’d play something like Voice just to Remind Everyone That Steve Can Sing. Meh.

I would pay to get a recording of Kevin knocking it out of the park on one of Steve’s old “ego songs.” Voice was never a song I particularly liked. Until last night.

It was an extremely hot and humid night in Cleveland, and I was sweating a ton even before BNL came on stage. About 2/3 of the way through the set list, the heavens opened up and it started seriously dumping rain during One Week and well into Pinch Me, which allowed Ed to work the rain into the lyrics. Nice. We got a decent amount of rain on us (a very welcome cool-down) but it was just fun. I walked out of the venue completely soaked, first from sweat, then from rain. Still, it was awesome.

Despite sitting on what would have been “the Ed side” when it was a 5-piece band, we didn’t see a whole lot of Ed over by us. He did wander over a time or two. This was the best pic I could manage


As is pretty standard, things got a little silly during If I Had a Million Dollars.


See Ed in the front holding something yellow? See Tyler behind his drum kit in the back talking into the mic?

Yeah. Well, Ed picked that yellow thing up off the stage after it had been thrown and said “Is this supposed to be an emu?”


And then proceeded to have the we-think-it’s-an-emu “talk” into his mic as “Sam the Scottish Emu.” Voiced by Tyler. Hilarious. Again, wish I could have purchased audio of the show.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that most of my photos are kind of blurry. I had my flash turned off for pretty much the entire show, both to preserve battery life and to not be completely obnoxious. But I did make one exception

Jim is completely awesome.

We had some fabulous women next to/behind us. And several of them brought monkeys (among other "props"). Abby, who spent most of the show dancing next to me, threw this particular monkey onto the stage. Jim’s face lit up when he saw it land, and he picked it up and put it on his double bass for the rest of the song.

Since I “knew” who had thrown the monkey, and knew I could get a great shot, I went for the flash. Totally worth it.

I stayed overnight in Cleveland, busted it home and worked a long shift at the store, hence my delay in posting. I had an absolute blast and can’t wait to see BNL again. Too bad I can’t go up to the Rochester, N.Y., area on Saturday to see them again.

Tigger wanted to see a few additional Cleveland sites, so we did that on the way out of town this morning. We could see the Browns stadium from the park across the street from our hotel

Hey! That’s just how it looks when there’s a game, too! (empty) ;-)

And on the way out of town, we drove by the LeBron-free Q


We had dinner at Mike Golic’s restaurant pre-show. Now serving The LeBron Burger. Yes, “LeBron” was sharpied-out on the menu.

And the it-has-some-stupid-corporate-name-now-but-it-will-always-be-The-Jake-to-me. AKA the baseball stadium.


So nearly $12 in tolls (round-trip) and a sung-raw throat later, we’re back home. An exhausting trip but absolutely, positiviely 100% worth it. When can I go see BNL again?

Hoo-ray for Vay-cay!

It turns out that I can enjoy the Lake without good sunsets or afternoons spent on the beach. How ‘bout that?!! We’ve been up here since Thursday, and the weather has been perfect, which helps.

Friday night, RT, the Hubster and I field tripped over to Jamestown, N.Y.


It was Lucy Desi night for the Jamestown Jammers! Errr … the Jamestown Lucy-Desis!


See that smudge under #48’s number? That’s a picture of Lucy and Desi. Why have Lucy-Desi night? Friday would have been Lucille Ball’s 99th birthday (edited to add that she was born in Jamestown, N.Y.). They auctioned off the special jerseys at the end of the night and announced “now batting for the Lucy-Desi’s…” all night.


We saw hot dog races

There are kids in those costumes … ketchup vs mustard vs relish

Our stadium cup supply is starting to wear thin, so Tigger brought home a couple cups to replenish the stash


After three days at VBP, the Hubster needed a field trip today. So the three of us drove up to Buffalo and visited a Frank Lloyd Wright home

Darwin Martin House!

The entire main house is closed and under construction (which is why the windows are whited out). It’ll be renovated by October of next year, open and asbestos-free! I’m looking forward to going back once it’s restored to its original 1909 glory!


I took long beach walks on Saturday and Sunday. Here’s Saturday’s haul of beach glass


And Sunday’s haul. I walked the whole way to the State Park, which we’re guessing is about six miles round trip. It took over two hours!


Today’s field trip meant I didn’t have time for a “real” walk, so I just took a tiny short one just before sunset:


Because I know WeirdyPants and KnitNat will enjoy it, he may live in a pineapple under the sea, but SpongeBob and Patrick apparently like to visit lakes too


We’ve had really crappy sunsets since we’ve been here, but that’s OK. Tonight wasn’t SO bad. Hope you’re all having a good week!