holy hannah montana!

it has been a surreal forty-eight hours. on monday morning, we were hanging out with mountain goats (see above). by tuesday evening, we were having a quick cocktail in one of our old haunts back in boston.

northwest montana was a spectacular trip - complete with whitewater rafting and many, many miles of hiking (more on that later). but first, the scenery...



living in vermont, it's hard not to take beautiful scenery for granted, but the scenery within glacier national park was the definition of breathtaking. let's face it - the rockies make vermont's green mountains look like speedbumps.




BIG mountains, tiny flowers

everywhere we looked there was snapshot. and in the 4 days we spent in the park, we took well over four hundred. here are three:






you know it's pretty when a cameraphone can take this!

a birthday surprise

we had a last minute travel opportunity and now, we're headed to MONTANA for the next five days (a surprise present from mom and dad). i am packing my boots and doing a load of laundry.

pictures soon.

1...2...3... happy birthday to me

i love sesame street and i love feist, so what better way to ring in this day than to watch the video below...

mogo at artbeat

we're off to boston for this weekend's somerville artbeat. click the image above for more details.

dabney's at it again

she found another craigslist deal - this time for a stylie vintage lamp.

did i mention the lamp is in st. louis?

she conned her sweet sister-in-law into picking it up for her.

the lamp so large that sis-in-law is going to need a large truck and her husband to haul it home. not to mention, they have to keep the behemoth for 6 months on our behalf. we're not sure if they have realized this fact yet.

i am just glad it's not a chair.

kayaking on the lake

mogo at the pyramid atlantic arts center

we'd like to welcome pyramid atlantic arts center to the mogo family of retailers...



located in the heart of silver spring, maryland, pyramid atlantic has wonderful facilities for area artists, offers classes to the community, and regularly hosts exhibits open to the public. recently, they opened a retail store that showcases the work of local painters, ceramicists, jewelers and as well as other artists and crafters. profits from sales at the store benefit local artists and the arts programs at the center.

library book sales

it seems that july is the month for book sales here in vermont. in the last few weeks, we've managed to run into three different library book sales in nearby towns.

we can't seem to figure out what formula is used to determine which books make the cut. out-of-date? condition? popularity?

interestingly enough, we've run into a few books more than once at these types of sales:
microwave cookbooks, circa 1982
travel guidebooks (pre-1995)
gennifer flowers' autobiography, passion and betrayal

however, we HAVE discovered that, if you hit library sales in their last hour, books are dramatically reduced in price to... $1 PER BAG!

many treasures can be found in the children's section of such sales.


some highlights:
draw 50 airplanes and spacecrafts
draw 50 buildings and structures
chinese kites
balloon animals
the first book of weather
rosebud

the last one was written by ed emberley, well-known children's book illustrator and the inspiration for many a kid to pick up a pencil and start drawing with the help of his famous series of how-to books.



i have to admit - even i have learned a thing or two from the first book of weather.

for example, how barometric pressure works...



... and that a beaufort scale measures the strength of wind.



(tomoko, looks like you encountered a "fresh gale" this past weekend. fyi.)

there is a flickr group for everything

see more pith helmets here.

4th of july fireworks

it was another fourth of july extravaganza this past weekend. friends from all corners of the country gathered at the famous standish family bridgewater hilton for our annual eat-a-thon/drink-a-thon/game-a-thon.



dominos, croquet, golf, and cheese-tasting took up most of the weekend. the croquet competition was the most heated. but philip, from team germany, took the gold... and the laurel (also known as the beyond-dead christmas wreath that we found still hanging).



however, my favorite activity is definitely our nightly campfires.



i should add here that the previously mentioned laurel made for great (and also terrifying) fireworks display when added.




however, nothing heals third-degree campfire burns from old christmas wreaths like tubing in the nearby white river.

7-7 and then nothing

did anyone see the wimbledon men's singles final between federer and nadal? amazing.

we must admit - we watched in tivo time and it took everything in us to avoid hearing the result for 10 hours. for good measure dabney tacked on a couple of hours to the DVR to make sure we got it all. seven hours to be exact. wouldn't you think that would have been enough to cover a tennis match? of course not when dealing with multiple rain delays. fifth set tied 7-7 and then NOTHING!! we had google the result.

so sad we missed nadal's winning moment.

catch-up

it has been so long since i last blogged that i can barely remember where i left off.

the weekend before last, we drove down to d.c. and visited some dear friends and their adorable kiddos.







the crafty bastards summer show was the perfect excuse to come down south and spend some quality time with friends. however, as expected, the location of the show was very, very hot and humid. undaunted by the extreme weather, silver springs residents came out in droves and helped us have a successful day. however, my only saving grace from the heat and humidity was the nearby shaved ice cart. here's evidence of one of the many strawberry lemon shaved icees i devoured.



the surprise of the day was the appearance of these two fine women. they absolutely made our day and later, our evening by keeping us company over a few foamy post-show guinnesses. we loved seeing you and hope it's not too far before we see you again.



sick of the northeast corridor route between boston and d.c., we decided to take an entirely new path back home to vermont by going though upstate new york.

dabney and i have always wanted to visit fdr and eleanor's digs in hyde park and there it was. so what we hoped would be a brief stop ended up being a 5+ hour detour.







we had been having problems with dying hemlocks in vermont. so when we visited fdr and eleanor's gravesites, we couldn't help but notice how much neater their hemlocks looked.



inspired by their choice in cleaning up the lower portion of the hedges, we decided we could do it, too. a day later, we rented a chainsaw. i donned a face mask and chaps.








hemlocks (before)



hemlocks (after)