Bar Trivia

Stella came to book club again, but now that we aren't an official library program, we've gone rogue! We chose Wasserhund (which Stella has been to before) and the night and time we chose happen to be when they do bar trivia!

We actually started off pretty strong... we were in first place after the halftime question! But then we lost it all.

Fun facts we learned: Barbara Streisand has had a top 200 Billboard hit every decade for the last six decades. The "SOS" in the dish soap stands for Save Our Saucepans. Coca-Cola introduced their "I'd like to teach the world to sing" campaign in 1971 during Superbowl VI. Michael Douglas is 25 years older (to the day) than Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Answer to the trivia question from the Craftster post: KFC was founded during the Great Depression!

Mask Test

Stella helped me test out a craft foam mask for a costume program we're putting together for the public library. I think it might be a little big for her...

But darn if she doesn't look fabulous!

Making a New Friend

This little guy was on the car this morning as Stella and I headed out to work!

Baltimore Comic-Con

As a costume contest winner from last year, I got a free pass to Baltimore Comic-Con this year! And Fabian Nicieza (one of the original creators of Deadpool) was there, so obviously I had to go. Stella and I took the day (my birthday!) off work, drove up to see my friend Beth, and then the three of us went to Baltimore.

Welcome!

This is Piggy, the 3-legged super dog! This table was
selling comics about Piggy. Beth bought some while I
petted the pupper.

Beth and I only collect Funko Pop figures of
characters we've cosplayed. I thought I'd never find
Ramona Flowers!

Legions of Lego people and creatures! Stella is a giant compared to them!

The entrance to the exhibit hall

The Baltimore Convention Center

Ink

Octopi are known for being good with ink, so Stella had a good time checking out my new tattoo! (I didn't have her out while it was getting done... Partially because the shop I go to has a general "no photos behind the curtain" policy and partially because that ink can get all over the place, and Stella did not want a tattoo of her own.)

I can't get the whole thing in one photo, but it's the sigils of the Endless from the Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman. Stella will be on her way back home before I get shading done in a few weeks.

Bagpiper Birthday

My mother-in-law hired a local bagpiper to come play for her father's birthday over the weekend as a nice surprise. I didn't get a very good photo of Stella with him:

But we wanted to share anyway.

Zoo

The zoo in Norfolk had a Pokemon Catch-a-thon. They have a ton of Pokestops, and they put lures on almost all of them for 2.5 hours. For $5 (it was a fundraiser) we could walk around the zoo after-hours and catch a ton of Pokemon! They said the animal exhibits would all be closed, but some of them don't really go inside at night, so we got to see some anyway! The photos aren't the best, since most of the animals were done for the day, but it was still exciting, since I didn't think we'd see any animals except Pokemon! Also, I cosplayed as Nurse Joy.

Snacktime for the adolescent giraffe

Look closely... there are two kangaroo back there! There's also an emu but he moved
out of sight and I didn't realize it until much later that he wasn't in the photo.

Stella stood in for Chansey for this Nurse Joy!

Ostriches hanging out in the back of their pen.
The sign is asking me not to feed them.

Norfolk

We spotted a mermaid in Norfolk! Unsurprising, since it's on campus and we were on our way to a meeting... but fun nonetheless. Actually, if you sit right in front of this particular mermaid, you can reach 3 Pokestops at once... so we sat there for a little while.

Donuts? Duck!

Duck Donuts may not have originated in Virginia Beach, but we do have TWO of them! Over the weekend, we took Stella there.

You can sit and watch them making the donuts fresh.
They only make ring donuts, hot and fresh, and you can
choose from several icings, toppings, and drizzles.

Originally from Outer Banks NC

Then, later in the day, we made some poke! If you aren't familiar, it's raw tuna marinated in onion, soy sauce, sesame oil and seeds, garlic, and some other stuff, then you serve it on top of rice with avocado (or any of a number of other things, that's just what we had around). It's a great meal for a rainy summer day.

Beach Day

My friend Cassy is visiting Virginia Beach for the weekend. She loves the beach, whereas I go maybe once a year (usually because she's here and wants to go) even though I live a few minutes from it. So today, we visited the beach! (First we went to the DMV but that was not fun.)

This was supposed to have dolphins in the water behind Stella, but I think I missed them.

Stella says: "Don't forget your sunscreen!"

Ah, right at home for a wee little octopus! Sun, sand, and surf.

In the shade under the umbrella!

Cassy needed to submit a photo to her book of the month club
using this silly straw and their book of the month! (I actually was
reading the book, because I forgot to bring one with me,
and it's really good so far!)

Cassy shared the book with me, so I shared with Stella!

Making new friends with Cassy!

They're so silly.

We had a great time at the beach! We planned to leave around 2-2:30, and we heard the first rumbles of thunder at 2:20, so that was perfect timing!

Mt. Trashmore

Sounds like a joke, right? But Mt. Trashmore is the highest point in Virginia Beach. It used to be a landfill, and they sealed it up tight and covered it with grass and slapped a park on top of it, with Kids' Cover (a playground area) and a skate park, and several walk/run/bike paths.

Today, there was a 5K there (which I did not know when I chose to go there) and I think everyone else in Virginia Beach was there too! There was some cloud cover when we got there so it wasn't horribly oppressive (oh, the humidity!).

Our primary objective was to catch some Pokemon.
My coworker, who runs, told me he got a Dratini at
Mt Trashmore, but I didn't run across any today.

The stairs to the top

The view toward "downtown" from the top

Ahh, relaxing on the grass after climbing all those steps.
(I don't know what Stella needs to relax for; I carried her!)

There's also a Lake Trashmore. It, however, is not full of trash. It's actually quite lovely.

Pokemon Go!

I am very much on the Pokemon Go bandwagon, and today, Stella helped me catch my favorite Pokemon: an Eevee!!!

Independence Day

Stella and I had a fairly quiet Independence Day (in the sense that not being busy is "quiet"... we heard a lot of fireworks so it was not that kind of quiet). It was a mix of being home after driving across the US, wanting to get some home organizing/cleaning done, and preparing for my husband to start clerkships today (the unpaid intern part of med school). Plus, it was rainy off and on all weekend.

This was the rain we were faced with, leaving work on Friday!

We made a mad dash for it (Stella had the benefit of hiding in

my purse, with a plastic bag around the whole thing, while I got

more drenched than I would have if I had just stepped into the

shower in my clothes!) and of course, the rain cleared up after

we got in the car and made it about a mile up the road!

It was fun though. I'm a firm believer in running through a good

downpour about once a year.

Not knowing what would be open for lunch on the 4th, we decided a safe bet
was our favorite sushi place, since they're open pretty much all the time.

Fireworks! (I promise Stella is in the photo,
it was just really dark.) We go to my in-laws' house
for fireworks, since there's a country club across
the water that does them every year, and that means
we don't have to worry about parking or crowds.

Cross-Country Drive Part 4 (KY, WV, VA)

And our last three states: Kentucky, West Virginia, and back to home sweet home Virginia.

The library in Lexington KY is only a few years old, and beautiful!
Stella wanted to hide in the letters of this sign... can you find her?

Behind the rest area in West Virginia. We had to do this really quickly,
because the sky was about to open up. We didn't know until later
how serious the weather was really going to be.

Welcome to West Virginia!
Where we're having flash flood warnings, tornadoes, and severe rainfall
and thunderstorms all across your path through the state!
It was genuinely terrifying, so I let Stella hide while my husband
expertly drove us safely through the state. No photos!

I've never been so happy to see this sign.

Stella the navigator! We had a weather radar map up on my phone,
and compared it to the road atlas to see just how much of the storm
we were going to have to plow through to get home.
(Luckily, this was in Virginia and we were already through the worst of it.)

Cross-Country Drive Part 3 (KS, MO, IL, IN)

Next up: Kansas, Missouri, and a little bit of Illinois and Indiana!

Behind another rest area, and I'm
90% certain it's in Kansas. (It's either CO or KS.)

The only other picture I have of Stella in Kansas is at the Topeka Library,
because truth be told, we didn't stop anywhere in Kansas or see anything of
particular interest. We wanted to stop at the largest ball of twine, but it
would have added 2 hours to our already pretty long day so we gave it up.

Marriott in Kansas City... those lights change color and move in patterns.

And that's our hotel, the very art deco Aladdin
(operated by Holiday Inn).

Kansas City's Central Library was very high on my list
of "must see" places on this trip. This is actually their
parking garage, which they call the Community Bookshelf
because the people of the city voted on which books to
put on this giant one-block-long wall.
Do you see Stella?

There she is, right behind me!

And this is the actual library that goes with the parking garage.
We got too early a start in the morning for them to be open,
which is a shame, since I'm sure it's gorgeous inside.

Unexpected public art on our walk to the library

This probably isn't a big deal to many of you from other states, but Virginia
doesn't have White Castle. Stella told me that Michigan does have them,
and made some delicious recommendations.

Corn. Stella and I are convinced now that
approximately 80% of American soil
is being used to grow corn, based on what we saw.

I screwed up a little tiny bit on this one...
This is a Daughters of the American Revolution
statue outside the library we stopped at in Illinois.
Which is cool, but I didn't get a photo of
Stella with the library, which is this really cool
old building and the staff was really nice.

Entering Indiana!

The Harrison County library in Corydon Indiana.
Very pretty library, but they were closing when we got there
so we didn't spend a lot of time inside.