Ooohhh...


...that's all.

Not really. This is Bounday Waters. Boundary Waters is the best place. It is my favorite place, at least. This is not my favorite Boundary Waters picture (and my scanner is apparently very dusty), but I would feel weird posting my favorite one because it has people in it who may one day stumble upon themselves in a picture on the internet, and having done that before myself, I can tell you it is weird and slightly uncomfortable.

I had wanted to go back here sometime this summer, but now it is on fire and they (the mighty Forest Service, who, bless them, really are trying) don't think they'll be able to put it out until sometime this fall.

THIS FALL!?

Do you know how much burning can happen between May and FALL? A lot of burning! Quite possibly too much burning! Such a shame.

So instead I'm going to Ohio.

Not quite the same, but at least it isn't aflame.

(I like adding "a" to the front of words. Aswarm, alight, abed, aghast... If only "ghast" were a word by itself.

...it isn't, is it?

Alas.)

I got a Nikon camera

Aha, a new low-end digital camera. For several reasons, I went camera shopping yesterday and remembered how much fun it is trying to get someone to help you at Best Buy.

Maybe not You, but Me.

I stood next to the camera I thought I wanted for 25 minutes while other people around me came and went as salespeople approached them and offered assistance. Nobody offered me any assistance, even when I started haphazardly waving around the thousand-dollar SLR cameras on the other side of the table. And I thought I was so approachable, alas. Something I need to work on.

Eventually I bribed someone to unlock the cabinet with cookies so I could buy the camera, which worked, but the coupon I'd brought with me did not work because the camera was apparently on secret-sale. I asked if they had any cameras that weren't on sale because they all had what was evidently a "sale" tag, and was immediately offered six dollars off the camera I was buying.

Was I haggling? My question was really out of pure curiosity, "Oh... I don't get it, are all your cameras on sale? They all have those yellow tags," and all of a sudden I'm feeling like a haggler. $6 is probably worth the wait. It certainly didn't ruin my life, or even my morning.

That's it, I'm clearly a natural haggler. I'm ready for Marrakech.

It seems like a nice camera. It's a point-and-shoot Nikon and it doesn't have a rechargeable battery or a viewfinder (grrrarhrhghrtrgrah! You can't get a camera for under $200 with a viewfinder - how hard would it be to stick a little window on top? Apparently $80 worth of hard.) but it takes nice enough pictures of statues from behind. This is Solomon Juneau's bum.

Prosit!

I think Germany got it right when they invented the beer stein. Martini glasses? Might be cool, but only if you are a skinny blonde woman or James Bond (while I enjoy martinis, I am neither and thus probably look silly). Margarita glasses are similar, and those goofy tropical drink glasses they stick umbrellas in with big pieces of fruit and those plastic flamingos all over the rim are even worse. However, everybody knows someone drinking out of a stein is not messing around.


Of course, this is not a real stein. This is actually a lamp. I mean, maybe it was a stein at some point and has fallen from grace far enough that it's now just a lamp, but it sure is trying. I think it's doing all right.

Attention: I am removing all bananas from the kitchen.

I very much enjoy The Office. I enjoy both the British and the American versions. For about a year and a half I refused to watch the American version, because the British version is so fabulous. However, I finally consented, watched it, and wouldn't you know? It's fabulous, too.


And with that, here is some foliage.