We’ve been reading the Song of Ice and Fire books by George R. R. Martin also. It started when we saw the TV series coming up in HBO and combined with a desire to read the same thing at the same time. We bought the first book at an airport, 2 copies, and have actually read all that’s so far been published, together, at the same time also, so we have 2 copies of everything else also! The point though is that in Columbus, in German Town, we bought the 2nd volume I think?

They also had these stones set amidst a brick path in a park with carved quotes in German in them from famous historical figures and all. What was odd though was that while there were some people who would have presumably spoke or wrote in German in the first place, there were others who, I would think, obviously didn’t know German, like Joan of Arc. Now, I might be wrong though, but it seems as if they took famous quotes, regardless of original language, and actually translated them into German.

Hocking Hills was gorgeous though. Maria’s been before when young. We spent a couple of days there, hit up all the points, had our GPS with us and created some gorgeous renders in Google Earth showing exactly what our elevation was in the 3D terrain mode. I’ll need to get some screen captures of those and post them somewhere. It was surprising though because Ohio in the summer is a little humid, a little hot, a little buggy, but down at the park, whilst hiking, it was none of that! I wonder if it had to do with the elevation or the different kind of terrain, but it was barely warm, barely humid, barely buggy, and we were shaded by lovely dappled sunlight most the entire time.

There were many different hiking areas: a water fall, a reservoir, a rocky cave, a deep canyon, some lovely ridges.

It is, also, as close as we’re going to get to October 29th, 2000, when last October rusted. Has it been over a decade?

This particular batch of photos were taken at Riverside Park, Riverbend Park, and the Reservoir, all in Findlay. We had started this particular tour of public spaces in Findlay with the intention of casing out possible outdoor wedding locations. While nice the lot of them, there were certain concerns including how alcohol is not allowed that might make it less desirable, picturesque though it is. Another concern would be whether a wedding’s a good idea in the first place; eloping might be more fun.

I suppose a more substantive actual blog post might be warranted at some point as well, but maybe I’m just not feeling much in a writing mood. Technically it is National Novel Writing Month, though I didn’t know that until a few weeks ago, and though I don’t actually intend to do anything about it, and though I’ve tried in the past and have failed with varying degrees of failure. Perhaps later. It’s really a mood thing.

Either way, on to the photos!

• Maria ran the Rockland Road Runners (RRR) George Wodicka Hook Half Marathon
• My grandfather died
• Maria ran the City Parks Foundation Run for the Parks
• We went to China for my grandfather’s funeral
• While in China, Maria collected her tuition refund from Tsinghua University, a pretty easy and painless process though they did make us go on a scavenger hunt around campus collecting different department’s seals, certifying that we had no library books out, that we had no internet usage fees due, that we had returned her student ID card, that the IMBA department had verified those 4 seals, and that all 5 seals were present before we could collect our refund, though we collected our refund before all this and sort of did the scavenger hunt just so we wouldn’t rock the boat too much so to speak. And the entire time I was just thinking to myself, no, we didn’t use the library because all the books are in Chinese, none of the staff speak English, you can’t bring your bag into the place, and there’s no place to hang out, and no, we did not use the internet because it’s not free and we’d have to pay for it based on usage.
• While in China, we visited the Farm again (photos to follow)
• While in China, we may have formalized positions for us with PBL and FTCGLLC! We may not have to work for other people anymore! We may get to be independent contractors!
• While in China, International Workers Day!
• Neither of us really likes our jobs…

Otherwise, in general, we’re just short on time, and don’t really get to see each other that much, but we do get to see some movies, which is always good. As far as plans for the near to moderate future, well only time will tell ;)

But hopefully all the best as possible!
Now, photos:

Also, and completely irrelevant, but so I don’t lose it, and because I really like it and my Maria found it for me:

Horace, Ode 1.9

You see how Soracte stands out white
with deep snow, and the struggling trees can
no longer sustain the burden, and the rivers
are frozen with sharp ice.

Dispel the cold by liberally piling logs on
the fireplace, and draw out more generously,
o Thaliarchus, four-year-old unmixed wine
from the two-handled Sabine jar.

Entrust everything else to the gods; as soon as
they have stilled the winds battling on the heaving
sea, neither the cypress trees nor
the ancient ash trees are shaken.

Leave off asking what tomorrow will bring, and
whatever days fortune will give, count them
as profit, and while you’re young don’t scorn
sweet love affairs and dances,

so long as crabbed old age is far from
your vigor. Now let the playing field and the
public squares and soft whisperings at nightfall
(the appointed hour) be your pursuits;

now too the sweet laughter of a girl hiding
in a secret corner, which gives her away,
and a pledge snatched from her wrists
or her feebly resisting finger.

Otherwise, “check out this cool building we go to tour!” (Boilerplate!)

And this is a complete aside, but right now I’m limiting my photos to 600px, should I make them bigger? Hmmmmmmm…also…I’m thinking of redesigning the blog again. Hmmmmmmmm….

Our current apartment, post renovations, laid out with the exact furniture as picked out from Ikea, missing some stuff in the kitchen

I took some rather painstaking measurements to make sure everything was exact as possible, and where necessary, I rounded the apartment measurements down and the furniture measurements up. Lofting the bed is proving to be essential, but hey, small price to pay for everything to be exactly as it should be. Obviously, nothing’s a done deal yet, the trigger has not been pulled, but hey, at least there are ideas brewing.

But the point of the post, as can be guessed from the title, is more about the trip to the Ikea that preceded the generation of the above layout, where Maria and I spent close to 6 hours (!) wandering around, looking at everything again and again, making sure we liked all the pieces, and if we didn’t, chose new ones, and mentally marked down all the little stuff like dishes and silverware and glasses that we’d need to ultimately get. The trip, was also spectacular.

So before, the closest Ikea was in New Jersey, one very expensive toll ride away across the George Washington Bridge. And I don’t know when, but it was a supposed God send when one finally opened up in New York City, though Manhattan proper being choked for space as it is, it opened in Brooklyn. This reminds me that I gotta look up some more information about the Port of New York because Maria and I listened to this fascinating MCLE CD regarding draige (?) trucks… The point though, God send or not, because ya know, Brooklyn’s not all that convenient, especially by car, though cheaper sans the toll, but there’s this fancy Water Taxi that will take you right to the Ikea, leaving from Pier 11 in the Financial District.

We had been planning to be down there anyways, because we were going to sign a lease on an apartment we later decided we don’t want (heh). It was also Restaurant Week and we had a late lunch reservation at Les Halles, French for “The Halls” apparently, unpronounceable, but excellent and I suggest everyone go because the food was very, very good, in that old world kind of way. We knew which Water Taxi we wanted to take, time wise that is, and we were making good time until we decided to finish the entire French Press worth of coffee and walked up to Pier 11 just as the boat was leaving. Pier 11, incidentally, is just south of South Street Sea Port, where Wall St. hits the water. But this gave us some time to wander around, snap some photos. We also walked to South Street Sea Port, where Maria had never been before and we’ll need to go again and actually see their wares, wandered the piers that were under construction, saw a whole bunch of rather menacing looking seagulls all lined up one after the other, kinda like the end of the movie The Birds where the birds are just watching the people as they make their escape, wondered at the people who had boat rides as their commute, how that must be and all, and caught the next one.

I was quite giddy, ’cause I love boats, and really anything to do with boats, and the water was very choppy, and it was very cold and grey and just, beautiful in that sort of way. The ride took longer than I thought, and we ended up right in front of the Ikea, surrounded on most sides by sea ports (hence the reminder to look up the Port of New York, don’t forget!). I really like those broken down, decrepit looking piers that have been abandoned yet still juts out into the ocean. I like the industry behind it.

Either way, Ikea itself was as I had mentioned earlier: 6 hours long, saw everything at least twice, ate Swedish meatballs. Photos!

Incidentally, the photos are out of order because we took them on Maria’s camera and it wouldn’t sync with my computer so I couldn’t upload them from my computer so I had to download them from Facebook where Maria had uploaded them but they’re ordered and named weirdly on there so there’s really just…no easy way. Pardon the disarray.

And right, a couple of details. The German looking industrial building is called an “Incubator” and is where developing technologies go to get “taken care of” as it where so that they don’t die and can develop in a peaceful and safe environment, or so I understand. The hotel room is at the Longement Shanghai, quite a nice hotel actually where my father managed to get a night’s stay for us because he was in the area anyway plus we toured the “Incubator” with him. The rest is of all the different kinds of Shanghai architecture, mostly along the Bund and in the immediate surroundings. The houses that look like they’re out of some beach front city in Southern California is in the neighborhood around the Longement hotel. There are photos of elsewhere, but they’re on Maria’s camera. But it’s striking how familiar the area around the hotel felt to me. I also don’t quite understand the oneupmanship of ways to air dry your laundry; not only do they have enclosed sun rooms explicitly for such a purpose, they have specially made railings attached outside these enclosed sun rooms so that you can dry even more clothes. Maria thought they looked festive, like flags fluttering in the wind. I tend to agree.