Day 5.130: Sprinklers and "Bedtime?"

It's been a glorious day today - warm enough for this:

My day started with a fifteen mile run - which was quite lovely, but quite long! Exile #3 spent a big chunk of the day at a playdate which involved cycling and a lot of trampoline time. Exile #2 decided I needed jobs to keep me moving so set me to mowing the lawn (much needed) and collecting mulch. After that, she did a lot of yardwork (while I set the sprinkler up and then sat down for a few minutes to watch her working!

All of which is to say that when we went for a short walk after dinner, most of us were feeling the same way as E5N1 who said as we were making our way back to the car, "When can we go to bed?"

And the answer for me is - as soon as I hit "Publish" - good night!

Day 5.129: Pig Pit and Manama

It was a meal-out blow-out day today!

Finding ourselves vegetarian-less at lunch time, a reduced Friday-lunch group went to the Pig Pit BBQ. In fact it would have been fine if we'd had the vegetarian with us, but in any case, we got to eat piles of smoked meat without guilt.

Here's my pulled pork sandwich (nice smoke ring, tasty and not too smothered in sauce - there was more at the table) with fried okra and coleslaw:

It was a big pile of tasty food served quickly and inexpensively in a friendly little place in the middle of nowhere. Excellent.

Then, this evening, some friends of ours were involved in a charity baby-sitting event at Shaker High School. So, we dropped the kids off there and went out for dinner! Since we were dropping the kids in Latham, we naturally decided to eat in Bethlehem.

Actually, it is restaurant week in Bethlehem so it wasn't as mad as it sounds. We visited Manama Grille (recommended - as was Pig Pit now I think about it - by friend and local blogging celebrity derryX).

Restaurant week means they were offering a reduced menu at three courses for $20.12.

Here's what we had:

Along the top, Exile #2's choices: Hummus (with cucumber since Exile #2 couldn't have the rather excellent bread - in fact she says she could happily have eaten it with a spoon!), Badenjan Nagrani (roasted eggplant/aubergine - amazing smoky flavour - yum!) and Firnee (a rice pudding with rose water, almonds and pistachios).

At the bottom, my choices: Falafel - crunchy and delicious, Filet Kebab - herb-tastic and Baklava - so good I started eating it before I remembered to take a picture and then finished it even though I had really eaten a lot by then!

We drank Sulemani tea (iced) which was deliciously spiced and refreshing and generally had a very nice time indeed.

Then we went and collected the kids.  It seemed the right thing to do.

Day 5.128: Auction Pictures

Albaniana asked me if I'd be willing to bring my camera to the auction she has been helping with this evening.  I'm not completely comfortable taking on photography commissions, but she assured me it was to give some of the young artists a feel of the event they had donated their artwork to, so of course I was happy to help.

I took lots of pictures and at a first glance I seem to have a few nice shots and a reasonable overview of the event, so hopefully everyone will be happy with them.

I joked early in the evening that it was just as well I was occupied with the camera, because otherwise I'd probably end up spending much too much on buying artwork.  "I'm a sucker for this sort of thing," were my exact words I think.  Towards the end, I shuffled over to the desk to pay my $2 for a bidding number and ended up buying three lots.

So, here are two groups of small paintings from the Dominican Republic and a lovely painting from Russia which were sold in America to a British guy in aid of building a school in Uganda:

Now that is about as international as it comes!

Day 5.127: It went that way!

I saw this while I was running at the weekend and went back to get this picture.

Fortunately, it wasn't a moving sale sign and I found it right where I'd left it. I never did catch up with the sale however.

Later I went to Staples where they had a stationery sale! Probably.

Day 5.126: Botany, Ornithology, Herpetology and what?

We had a short walk on Sunday at Five Rivers. It felt oppressively hot, but the car temperature sensor informed us it was 74°F - wow is summer ever going to be a shock.

For once, I took very few pictures of family members walking on the trails, but I did attempt a bit of amateur naturalism.

First, some botany:

Pretty flowers and baby trees - not bad.

Then some ornithology:

No prizes for photography, but we can at least identify a spotted sandpiper, some bank swallows and a red-winged blackbird.

Some herpetology:

The two large snapping turtles had a brief but dramatic fight after this and one of them shot off across the lake at an astonishing pace.

Finally, I captured this:

I think I know what it is - do you?