This is Brighton, East Sussex, UK, where I’ll be living for a month.  Maybe when I get back all the damn snow will have melted.  Our front walk still looks like this:

I finally got an iPhone, so consider this the first of many postings of crappy low-res photos taken with it.

Here are some gifts I sent to friends & relatives, some grossly overdue (better late than never, right guys?)

Why I love to photograph banjo players:

They NEVER MOVE.

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Terry Baucom and Tony Rice perform with Mountain Heart at FiddleFest in Roanoke, VA.

Solid Chocolate Lungs.

Solid. Chocolate. Lungs.

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Photo by Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head (flickr)

My evening commute is a time warp to February:

These photos were taken on the same day; the left one taken when I left work, the right one taken when I got home.

Thanks to this really awesome and detailed Google Maps overlay, I’ve learned that the reason I still don’t have leaves at home is because “home” is about 2,000 feet higher than “work.”  I had no idea I was but a a few hundred feet shy of needing the “higher elevation” baking directions.  Is this why my frozen pizzas come out sub-par?

Extra Credit:  from the same site that made the contour map, here’s a richly detailed map of which Alaskan towns and cities can see Russia.  Science – it works, bitches!

Now all we need is a map that shows what a crock abstinence-only sex-ed is, and my quota for grossly-outdated political references for the day will be fulfilled.

So I’m thinking about renting this house, which has lots of things our current residence does not – for example:

Trees!  Concrete instead of dirt!  Sunlight!

Grass!  Fences!  Heat that (probably) works!  A backyard instead of a wall o’ dirt!

A dishwasher!  Cabinets!  A countertop!  Some realtor’s purse!  Windows in the kitchen!

A basement!  Fireplace! (or a.k.a.) Alternate heat source if (when) the heat stops working!

And get this, internet … it’s got windows in it!

All this plus lots! of other stuff! that our current house doesn’t!

!!!!

Investigation of Radford Officials is Possible – Roanoke.com

Also, Roc-TV has some great video interviews with students from after the open forums on their youtube channel.

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Original photo info:

Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

March 26, 2009

President Penelope Kyle waits to answer a question during an open budget forum at Bondurant Auditorium in Preston Hall Radford University in Radford, Va.

Here’s a badass footstool I made, just in case you were wondering if footstools could be badass.  I bought the original at the Blacksburg YMCA Thrift Shop for eight bucks.

It was covered in this sort of terrifying orange vinyl with big chunks of gold glitter.  Charming as that is, I thought I’d recover it.

Since this went well I think I’m confident enough to paint and reupholster the five dollar chair I bought at the world’s largest flea market (one of the handful of things I’ll miss about living here).

As for the TERROR COUCH (as seen in the background of the photo above), I think I’ll let a professional do that one.  Maybe after I enter it in the ugly couch contest.

Here’s what my commute looked like circa last week:

That’s my “safe in snow” route.  You should see the non-snow one.  Please excuse the shitty quality of photos from my cellophone.

ANYWAY

Here is what my commute is expected to look like, circa in a couple months:

AWESOME.

I can now “officially” state that I am moving to Fairfax, Virginia.  Enter an excess of blog posts wherein I bitch about what a pain it is to find a rental.

Almost forgot about this …

I also made my dad this planter pot for his birthday (his and my mom’s are within a week of each other).

He likes to grow stuff.

Process photos of this and the bread & bed from the last post are on my flickr photostream.