My interwebs have been quite flaky this summer, so I'm just now putting up pictures from May, June and July. It hasn't really been a busy summer, what with being broke and all, but some good things have happened.
Also its been really hot, really rainy, and really buggy. I like to joke that if last summer was the "summer of love" what with living with good friends, having enough money to go around, and running around causing havoc all the time in the best way possible, this summer is defined primarily by the plethora of insects I have to deal with on a regular basis. And I cry a little on the inside...
So the pics here run the gamut from decent to utterly terrible, but the terrible ones are mostly of the apartment and that's just for story telling purposes anyway.
Back in May I managed to find a new awesome apartment to take the place of The Cave where Beardy Man and I were living before. Its a studio loft inside an old church, and has lots of character and is rather full of, predictably, insects.
This picture has nothing to do with any of that.
The front of the church. We live in the back part. Our landlord is a fairly neurotic middle aged man named Irwin, who is at least professional and an improvement from David Copi, my previous creeper of a landlord.
Our door is in the back...its a small porch but at least its ours!
Wont you come in?
No furniture..this was before we filled it up with all our stuff. The "living room" once you open the front door.
I know, I know, these pictures are really boring. But its a virtual tour! See! Right...? That's cool...right? Anyone? taptap...this thing on?
The little kitchen, stairs to the upstairs. Don't judge these awful pics...
Kind of more living space. There's a desk here now..
The loft upstairs.
Haro Rae! Tiny kitchen but it has gas stove and a dishwasher.
Lets go upstairs...
Loft -within-a-loft...
On top of the loft-within-a-loft, looking back. To the left are the laundry room (oh god! The miracle of free laundry! I wash towels like every three days..) and a small office/study that is now The Room Where Shit Goes To Die, aka, storage.
Beardy Man on the porch. I have forbidden him to smoke his pipe inside. He mostly ignores me.
Artsy pic of the door handle. I like this one...
Ah yes, blue skies and sunshine, the promise of unlimited possibility.
Part II: The Flood
This summer we've had all sorts of crazy weather, including several tornado warnings and a flood. Church St. (where we live, in the heart of the student ghetto) flooded so deep I was in up to my waist. Cars were flooded out, rivers running down the streets carrying all sorts of bits and pieces. The hooligans on our street had an impromptu block party, which was a good opportunity to splash people and not get in trouble for it...
The next day I went out, hoping to capture some of the madness on film (ok, in pixels or whatever) but all that remained was our flooded parking lot, lots of sticks where they shouldn't be, rain-trampled plants, and a few puddles.
In the Arb, the water had carved a deep channel in the bark dust path...
You know I'm from Oregon because I call it 'bark dust' rather than 'mulch'. Don't ask me whats going on here...
And the river was fuller than I've ever seen it.
But elsewhere everything looked much the same, just wet.
These made me a little photo-crazy. Apparently the Arb has a Peony Garden, which are the most frothy fluffy beautiful flowers ever. Its like holding a handful of pink feathers. Except damp.
Part III: Summer
Its a million degrees here. Our lovely apartment, as unique and fun as it is, has no air conditioning, so its sort of awful. Actually really awful, but don't tell my apartment that. I think my internal temperature has permanently raised itself ten or twenty degrees. I keep wanting to ask if I can sleep in the cooler at work.
Anyway, enough ranting.
Ive been playing around with rounded corners on some photos..I like the effect but I don't want to use it all the time.
One of the perks about living in Ann Arbor is that I can pop over and see my family fairly often, including my lovely Aunt Mary...
My wily grandfather...
And my very wonderful, silly grandmother. This may be the funniest picture of her ever, since she's saying "Rae-anna! Are you taking my picture?!"
So here's a better picture...
Also Fourth of July came and went. I struggled to make pie. And made pie I did. Also I spilled a rather large amount of pie all over my car...sorry, Soliver...
But- but- I made homemade cherry and blueberry pie. I pitted the cherries with a chopstick. I looked like I had chopped someone up, since there was cherry juice everywhere once I was done.
Remind me never to do that again.
mmm....piiiieeeee...
I also went down to Pittsburgh (mentally points to arm pit) for the wedding of Adam (Beardy Man's manwife) and Andreea, two very lovely people that put up with us for three days and fed us copious amounts of delicious food and drink. I took lots of pictures but I think I need to give them copies before I put them up on the interweb of doom. (i.e. here). It was a great time and I'm seriously considering becoming an insurance agent and moving to Utah.
The chaos that is Art Fair in Ann Arbor starts next week, so if I never post again, just assume I was swallowed up by the black abyss of creative capitalism.
Ill leave you with this interesting photo of sparklers in a mason jar...
I miss you all.
