GS500e

Who needs the Justy anyway?

Tulip Fest

Since no one else keeps bees within two miles of the park and odds are not good for an urban wild hive, the honeybees on the grape hyacinth were probably mine. First time seeing them in action outside of the hive.

Finding Beatrice...

Preston's Board

My fingers are blistered and bleeding. This is my 12 y.o. neighbor's skateboard. With an insufficient exacto knife, I cut out the design that he described. I advise that no one does this.

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Annie's B-Day Ball

n00bees

So, one hive was not enough. We got four more this year and Bruce and his son, Eli, got their first two hives. We drove up to pick them up today.

Initially, we were going to place them in the Community Gardens - local urban gardeners tending organic rented plots. They said it would be great, insurance wouldn't go up, I'd have classes for their gardeners and give them honey to sell, the bees would pollinate their gardens, they'd be able to have six hives. After we ordered 78,006 bees and built $600 of hives, they called and said that their "board" would only allow two. Since when does a pack of hippies have a "board?"

Instead, they're going to Roxbury Farm. It's a Community Supported Agriculture farm. People pay in the beginning of the season for a share of whatever is to be harvested each week for +/-26 weeks. The bees are on a hilltop in the middle of a pond. Couldn't be nicer. They're surrounded by hundreds of acres of organic crops. It is a little further away than I would have liked, but what can you do?

Cards

Made a few more sets of cards:

If I can't find a stamp that I like, I usually make one from a sliced potato. Unfortunately, they're only good for about an hour. This is my first attempt carving actual stamp rubber. Slightly more expensive than the tuber, but I have to do it only once.

That is a little asian-stylized letter 'B' for the 99.999% of the population that can't tell.......Oh, NOW it's obvious...

The local flower shop gets their roses in packages of two dozen, wrapped up in thinly corrugated cardboard. I am a ravenous, craft material packrat. You do the math.

Cleveland

Ken and Tim needed to remove all distractions to finish work a few weekends ago. Apparently, I'm a distraction worthy of $300, unlimited mileage and gas.



So I drove...





...and drove...

...until I got to Cleveland..
Why Cleveland? Who the heck knows?

Went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (meh) and the Cleveland Hall of Science. They had this bit of insanity going on. I'm sure Fark got a hold of this at some point. Scars and tattoos were discernible. Bits of hair. And there was junk...plenty of junk...more stripped down junk than I cared to see.




So what's the big deal? I got one of those flavored hot milk drinks at Starbucks and I don't see why they're supposed to be so much better in Ohio.





Why can't I live near a market like this? Why must I wind up being jealous of a place like Cleveland?

There was an entire wing for produce and in the main building were fishmongers, butchers, confectioners, bakers, spices, fresh pasta, dairy - dairymongers? - and one guy roasting coffee. In fricking Cleveland. I need another Starbucks. Maybe I should bring one back for Ken.

Bonaire

We drove our teeny tiny car around a lot


Blowholes, Divi divi trees and Slave huts



We went kayaking through the mangroves

In the interest of keeping with tradition,
Annie got a screwed up sunburn

Poor tasty, tasty conch lookin' at me

Feeding a funny little donkeybaby

I didn't get to take any pictures of food during this trip. I spent most of the time violently double-ended sick. Here's what I found at the grocery store.

The resort had iguanas that stalked around outside of the restaurant waiting for handouts. People usually gave them bread and Froot Loops. They went bonkers when we brought veggies.

Bonaire is littered with 'em

Pack o' Goats

Uncooperative Hermit Crab

Potential Calendar Parrot

Probably my Justy

The island's saltworks

The diving was absolutely amazing. I did, however, almost drown to death after a particularly hilarious round of underwater charades. Check out my turtle friend.

It was so much nicer to go on a shore dive whenever you wanted rather than an elaborate, all-day dive trip.