Mem 12

Here's Memorial Day weekend.  Plans to try out  new river spots, eat grilled food on rooftops and in yards, hit up Penn's Landing and Penn's Treaty, and keep up with my sunscreen initiative.

I also got a little crazy ordering outdoors cups (entirely with free credits, again) from Fab.com and they finally came, so maybe we can squeeze in having a patio drink at my house to break them in.  I guess I need eleven friends for that to really maximize.  Which means I'll need more chairs.  Summer's hard.

WSA

Labor Memorial Day is fast approaching, summer is getting crucial.  You might have noticed a link up under the search bar called Will Smith's Agenda.  It's a list of good, free or cheap, summery things to do in the city. I'll keep it on the burner 'til actual Labor Day.

If you have a awesome (or even medium) thing that might be good, you should add it, or get at me to add it. Looking for things like serious block parties, outside movies, neighborhood festivals, air conditioned events, etc. (No personal invites, brunches, trips. This is a public calendar, team.)

Check back/txt your pals/make planz.


Some logistics
  * need to add something?  I can do it for you, or can set you up to be able to do it, or leave it in a comment and I'll hook it up.
  * if it's annoying because this calendar somehow gets mixed up with your own Google calendar, it's an easy fix - just click the green box next to "Will Smith's Agenda" (on your own calendar page), and it'll be hidden from view.

FL

Went to Florida for Friday/Saturday, and saw eleven dolphins (most of them straight up ocean-dolphins, a few at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which is rescue/rehab/release which feels pretty nice).  Saw this "famous" dolphin, Winter.  At the aquarium we watched a video of her tail falling off, which was pretty gross.  She's making it work though.

Also did boats and beaches, and boardwalks, a church rummage sale, got into the gulf, saw my grandmother for her 90th birthday, and acquired new airplant  that seems much heartier and prettier than the ones I got on eBay (what a weird surprise).

Anyway.  Whirl. Wind.  Good to be home.

ceramix

Some things I made lately: a dead bird (who's wingtips are proving very fragile), and a pot (crawling with cat-slugs).

It feels really good to be done with school for the summer, but I also have a case of Idle Hands encroaching.

some scores

This weekend was good because
1) the threat of summer school was vanquished, officially
2) I ate almost every meal outdoors, near a river (we have two here), with perfect weather
3) I went to a regular, so-so flea market, a rummage sale, and then my favorite flea market (Golden Nugget, in New Hope)

I forgot how rummage sales are the best kind of any kind of sale, because everything is like a quarter, and pre-sorted for you, and it's usually supporting some cool thing like a four hundred year old church or a community center or something.

Some dumb things happened this weekend too (and some plant things), but maybe more on those later.  For now, just iPod pictures of things I got for 25c.

re-avocado

Some people may remember a couple years ago, when I had this big plan about growing an avocado tree.  (Or, more likely, an avocado plant).  It's pretty fun to do, and was (after many months) growing successful leaves and roots and everything, UNTIL RATS CAME AND AT THE WHOLE THING (c. Oxford, 2010).  I wish I could find some pictures of the sad, gnawed up mess that was, but it's just as well that I can't.

Now that I'm in a new (ratless) spot, I've decided to try again (although I will be battling a perhaps equal problem of limited sunlight).  Saved one pit from this week long guacamole fest, and am going to try it out again.  Blanc is helping me keep an eye on it.

Coastal

Someone (Dan K, then Lulu) just recommended this website, and their "first pair free" scene.  So I did it - how could free glasses be wrong, right?

Their motto? "Buying glasses from Coastal.com is awesome".

What I did wrong though, is order a pair from the very first page of the site, without spending any time paging through and seeing other glasses they have.  I think I could have found something really good, but at least what I got is funny:

Do you see that?  IT'S DIVISION AND MULTIPLICATION SIGNS.  These are the math teacher-est glasses you could ever imagine (and no I didn't notice when I ordered them).  I think they're funny enough for tons of at-home Kindle reading, and maybe even out someday*.  Maybe.

Anyway, in general, I'd like to recommend Coastal as a pretty good source for cheap-y (I think mine were $8 or 9, total) regular glasses.  Mine came with the right script in less than a week.  Maybe just be a little more vigilant than me, double check everything, including weird symbols in the corners.




*the only time I need to wear glasses "out" is at work, which is not "out" or like, if I go to the park to read.  I don't want you guys to get the wrong idea about me. And glasses.

jungle

I'm trying (again) to have large, healthy plants.  I think I did it right this time, too - received and considered actual recommendations, planted them so they won't drown in their own gross water, and am trying to open the curtains and get them any tiny amount of sun they can suck up.

So, there's one big guy, one medium guy, and a whole bunch of tiny guys on the window sill, hoping to not get MLB'd.  The tiny succulents fit perfectly in all these tiny pots I made lately, which finally pushed the pots into the realm of Usable Objects, which is great.

One step closer to the Rosseau Jungle bathroom of my dreams (which is really just an effort to disguise Litter Box Nook).   Maybe one good hanging plant to complete the ensemble - I could probably work out (keep a live) a spider plant, right?