Best Shot(s) Monday--Vintage via Ebay

Although I have found an excellent thrift store nearby for awesome kids' clothes at dirt cheap prices, I did recently get a couple of cool vintage stuff off ebay for pretty cheap.

This is a dress probably from the 60's. I absolutely love the print. Yeah, it looks like it was made from drapes or something, but that's even cooler cuz Cadence ADORES the Sound of Music.

The other ebay find is this vintage cycling shirt, which was perfect for our first family bike ride on Sunday. Doesn't Cadence look spiffy in her helmet?

And here they are, riding away. For the record, that strap should be under her leg better, but we weren't going far, so no biggie. I'm not sure if we would be ticketed for riding like this. I don't know what the bike rules are in the city. However, I CAN say that this is probably safer than using a childseat, which usually throws the balance off on a bike.

I really like this shirt. She looks great whether she's riding a bike or eating an apricot. I'm going to try and get all my 2nd hand clothes locally now, but I'm glad I found this one and the dress up there.

Visit Tracey at Picture This for other folks' Best Shots Monday.

Birthday Part Deaux

So the rest of my Birth day...Cadence and I rode a couple buses and made our way to Trader Joe's in time to help Ted finish grocery shopping after his shift.

With the rain and all, there was a LOT of splashing involved while waiting for buses and walking to Trader Joe's from the bus stop. Thank goodness for Kidorable boots!

And I couldn't believe that someone left this bike outside in the rain in front of Trader Joe's. That's got to be the rustiest bike I've ever seen, and no wonder. They didn't even bother to park it underneath a covered area.

My cousin Kris and our friend Connie came over for dinner. My brother stopped by and ended up staying too. We got carry-out from an Indian restaurant (YUM!), drank some Tripel Karmeliet and homebrew, and reveled in the goodness that is Tres Leches cake from Rolf's Patisserie.

And look! For once, I actually have a photo of the whole group. I'm pretty bad about taking photos when I'm with friends, but I made sure we got one in. I was going to do it with a timer, but I like the look of the Arms Reach Self-Portrait.

Alright. Off to bed for me.

I Say It's My Birthday

That's right. Today's the Big Day. I am now 35 years old--a veritable state of venerability, you might say(thanks, Elaine).

I get a 3 day weekend for my birthday, and we started celebrating Friday after dinner with a little trip to Lincoln Square, our old haunt. Believe it or not, I have never been to a Cold Stone Creamery. I've always been happy with Sweet Occasions, our favorite ice cream place in the city, but we decided to try something new, so we headed to the Cold Stone Creamery that opened up this past year in Lincoln Square. It was interesting to watch the girl behind the counter fold my chosen ingredients into my ice cream. I had the German Chocolate Cake (since I was in a German neighborhood and it was almost my birthday and all), which was chocolate ice cream with pecans, coconut, caramel and brownie pieces mixed in. It was really good, no doubt, but I have to say that the ice cream itself was not as good as Sweet Occasions'. And I'm sure there were around 1400 calories in the concoction, but let's not dwell on that, shall we?

To avoid having Cadence bounce off our walls at home after her sudden ingestion of all that sugar, we walked over to Giddings Plaza, one of our favorite places to let Cadence run around and meet all the other kids who are also working off their various sugar highs. She soon made friends with a boy who must have been around 5 years old. She led him on a high-speed chase round and round the plaza. He finally got tired (cuz she could totally outrun him), and he gave up the chase.

Another reason I wanted to go to Lincoln Square was so that Ted could get me my birthday present, a couple CDs from Laurie's Planet of Sound. The CD in particular that I wanted was Wilco's new one, Sky Blue Sky, which just came out this month. I had already heard a few songs off the album, so I knew I would love it. The other CD I ended up having Ted get me was The Sea and Cake's latest full-length called Everybody. I had downloaded this album off emusic.com, and I love it. I can't wait to see them at Pitchfork!

Well, we don't have too much planned for the weekend. Ted's at work right now. I've promised Cadence a bus ride today, so we'll be taking off soon. Tonight, I think I'm having dinner w/ my cousin Kris and our mutual friend Connie. I need to find a BYOB place for dinner cuz Ted picked up some Tripel Karmeliet for me to share with the girls tonight. I wish I could go see Babyteeth tonight at the Hideout. I know Ted would totally let me go while he stays home w/ Cadence, but I haven't gotten a lot of sleep the past couple nights, and I'm totally feeling it.

Man, I MUST be old.

I guess at this age, I have to save all my rock 'n' roll energy for the one big show next week--The iG0 Audio Emissions CD release show that the Detholz! are headlining. My friend Derek Becker, the manager for the 'Holz was sweet enough to put me on the guestlist and get me a media pass so I could try out my new camera at the Metro, which has the best lights in the city for a small venue. The photoshoot is part of my plan to convince the folks at Pitchfork to allow me to bring in my camera, which is considered "professional" because it has detachable lenses and will not be allowed at the Pitchfork Music Festival in July. We'll see how that goes.

Anyhoo, have a happy Sarah's birthday, y'alls!

Ice Cream, Anyone?

It should be obvious to anyone who's met my round body in person that I absolutely ADORE ice cream. And now I have my very own custom Timbuk2 that reflects my penchant for neapolitan.

The dimensions of the X-Small Messenger bag were a good fit for a couple Domke padded inserts, and voila! I had myself my own urban messenger camera bag. It's big enough to fit my Nikon D40 with either the 18mm-55mm or 55mm-200mm lens attached plus the other unattached lens plus my little SB-400 speedlight.

Now I'll always be ready to catch little moments like this one. Awwww...Ain't they cute?

Oh Crap.

You know, it was bound to happen. I bring my laptop home from work everyday, just in case something happens (like a blizzard, migraine, or the stomach flue) and I can't go into work the next day. So I shouldn't be too surprised finally to have my first accident involving liquid and my laptop.

Yes, it's true. Cadence spilled water on my laptop. I wasn't home when it happened, so I'm not sure what the details are. I don't think the laptop was on at the time, and it was in its closed position, but things aren't looking good...

After waiting a few hours for everything to dry, I tried turning on the laptop, and it just can't get itself started. It'll turn on, the fan will start, and then everything goes dead. It'll turn on, the fan will start, and then every goes dead again. And again. And again. Until I turn it totally off.

It's times like this that I can't help but start believing in miracles, because what else can you do but hope and pray or curse? Like how sheepish am I going to feel when I have to tell my boss the bad news tomorrow? The IT guys are totally going to make fun of me. I don't really care as long as they can resurrect the darn thing.

Well, that's what I get for leaving it lying around within reach of a toddler.

The good news is that I already uploaded my photos from our trip to our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm, Scotch Hill Farm, in Brodhead, WI. I spent most of yesterday weeding the strawberry patch and the lettuce rows, so I'm pretty sore right now. I have to say, though, that it was a great experience.

You definitely gain a deeper appreciation of where your food comes from, especially if you get your food from a local organic family farm. Holy cow, the WEEDS! The WEEDS!! And the ones invading the strawberry patch were the WORST. Crimeny! You could barely see the strawberry plants through the tall dense forest of weeds!

Pulling weeds is a great way to bond w/ your fellow human beings. I had a great time chit-chatting w/ my gal pals from church, collectively realizing what a blessing it was to have this opportunity to be close to the earth and see (literally) where our food comes from.

I highly recommend participating in a CSA if you have one available in youre area, or just spending some time getting your hands in the dirt.