Vandalism

It might seem strange for someone who has done really well with a photograph of graffiti to be complaining about it but this sort of vandalism makes me sad.

As I was coming upon it my first thought was that some rabid Florida Gator fans were getting in gear for the upcoming football season with a slur against the Alabama team. Duh! Am I naive or what? The second one they managed to make it more like one word. I'm all for free speech, however, I think defacing someone's property is the worst way to do make a point. Driving by that evening we saw a man repainting both walls. Thank you sir.

Write about movies! This was a reminder to myself to write about some movies we've seen. Last week we watched Into the Wild, which turned out to not be very good at all. There were a few good things about it, but ultimately it was about a very selfish boy who broke hearts. Although he may have had good intentions, what it portrayed to me was a life lived without regard for those around him. Plus, it was entirely too long. Even the great cast couldn't make up for that.

I wrote that reminder on, say Wednesday night, before we learned that John Hughes died. So many of his movies were great; I suspect Netflix will be inundated with requests to rent his movies, many of which are classics. My friend Elena re-posted this and I'm doing the same: Sincerely, John Hughes It is hard to imagine this happening today what with the death of letter writing.

We had a super fun weekend. Friday night we went to Ember, a nice downtown spot we'd yet to have tried. Loud and happening. Saturday, I did the WF market which was sad. I sold two pieces for my trouble. I did get to see Norka, my little friend who collects the rent, and Cole, Dana's son who runs the market. He'd begun celebrating his Saturday birthday Friday night and was feeling mighty poorly. Fortunately I didn't have too long to dwell on it before we went over to Dominic and Maria's beautiful condo for dinner, but not before Bruce toured me around the house showing off his handiwork. As you know he rarely takes a Saturday off, but this week he did. Mostly he was thrilled with his installation of a wireless cable router so now his television in the garage has more than two channels to offer. He did some rearranging to give us just a bit more room out there as well.

Before I forget I saw one of the ladies I worked with at the hospital at Saturday's market. Actually Suda is the one who bought the Subaru from us after I bought my darling yellow MINI Cooper. Anyway she and her husband Gary brought me up to date on their sons progress through the teen years and on into college. I asked her about another woman's children and things were much less pleasant. All three of her children are a mess, one with bulimia, one with two children, no job, and only 23, and one who is seriously injured from a motorcycle accident suffered on his eighteenth birthday. Can I just mention how grateful we are that our sons navigated those years without too many lasting problems?

Wicked heat on Sunday maybe thinned the crowds at the market, but it didn't keep them away. I had the best sales day I've had in quite a while (19) proving once again (I know, how many times will I repeat it?), that you can never predict what will happen when you go out. What pleased me the most was the sale of three pieces which I thought were never going to sell! After work we joined Dana at the wine bar across the street cooling off a bit with chilled Savignon Blanc. We were all pretty worn out, her from all the market drama, of which there is surprisingly a lot, and me from the heat and all the transactions. Plus, we had lots of surprise visitors. My friend Karen showed up about the same time as Matt and Angela arrived by bicycle, just behind Bruce who cycled up early to meet his mom there. She brought me a lovely little bouquet of flowers. She kept remarking on how she couldn't get over how big the market is now. Neither can we for that matter. Here's Bruce resting after spending nearly two hours setting up our booth:

From reading this blog one would think that I'm the only one with something to sell but these days here's a sample of what you can find at the market:
Nine tents of produce
Grilled corn on the cob
Kettle corn
Lemonade
Salsa
Home-made soap
Variety of cheeses
Pasta
Vegan Rice Bowl
Outdoor and indoor plants
Two orchid vendors
Jewelry GALORE (Dana says she gets so many requests she could have a jewelry market)
Smoked Turkey Legs
Fair Food
Olive Oil
Cupcakes
Homemade Cookies
Quiche and other French treats (superb, I might add)
Massages
Candles
Stained Glass
Face Painting
Finger Puppets
Specialty Coffees
British Food
Gyros
Homemade aprons
The list goes on but you get the idea--there is a lot for sale with more people every week wanting to join in.

And then there is Out & About Photography....

Lastly I was wondering why it had been so long since I blogged and then I remembered. I spent perhaps eight hours re-doing my online gallery. I'm hoping to get some feedback on the changes please. You can most easily go there from the link on the right hand side under the flickr badge. Jonathan and Bruce were kind enough to give me their opinions already.