CHUCK IN A BOX

Ashley at Blandford cemetery

So, while Ashley was here, we took her to Blandford Church here in Petersburg – the cemetery at the church has been used since the early eighteenth century with the earliest marked grave dated 1702.  The cemetery’s gravestones, sculptures, and tombs represent a diverse array of eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century styles of funerary art. In addition, some plots feature exquisite examples of nineteenth century decorative iron fences.   

The other photos from that day are in the Blandford Church and Cemetery folder of my Picasa Web Albums.  The cemetery is 189 acres and is the second largest cemetery in the Commonwealth of Virginia, second only to Arlington National Cemetery.  It is also the location of the first Memorial Day celebration in the United States.

The church is also one of six known buildings in the world in which every stained-glass window was crafted by Louis Comfort Tiffany which, sadly, you are not allowed to photograph.  After taking the tour with one of the wonderful ladies that works at the Blandford visitor center, we walked around a small part of the cemetery snapping pictures.  I would really like to go back and spend the day there walking around looking at the many beautiful headstones.  Huh, I never thought I would actually think that something like that was worthy of being called ‘beautiful’ until I actually stopped to look at them.  I guess – well I know – its something that I, personally, do not like dealing with/thinking about – mortality.  I’ve heard that as you get older, you think about it more often *shrug*  All I know is that I was struck by how beautiful the place was and how it really wasn’t as scary as you might imagine – of course this was also in the middle of the day on a sunny winter day – make that a moonlit night in summer and … well… I might have been a bit more creeped out (especially after hearing the ghost story the tour guide told us ).

I don’t know if I’ll ever be like the Victorians and spend the day at the cemetary with a picnic lunch or anything but, I’ve previously thought it would be cool to take some rubbings of some of the older tombstones for framing.

Yesterday Amber (my oldest niece) and Ashley (our daughter) went to meet Keith for lunch at Dalat Vietnamese restaurant in the West End.  Keith and Ashley had Pho, I had Grilled Pork and Broken Rice (only mine had cucumbers and pickled carrots, not tomatoes), and Amber – being new to Vietnamese cuisine stuck with a more familiar dish – Chicken with Orange Peel.  After we ate, we shuttled Keith back to work and went out for the day.

We initially went out to Short Pump to go to the mall out there but, after realizing that they’d both been there before, I opted to head to Carytown for the afternoon.  On the way back into Richmond, I had to stop at Whole Foods to pick up some EO Peppermint & Tea Tree hand soap – because IMHO – it is THE BEST! and smells sooooo good.  While we were there I was showing Amber around the place and telling them both that if it was closer to Petersburg, I would probably shop there a bit more often (honestly their prices are not THAT horrible on their store brand stuff).  So, we also each got a drink (Ashley and Amber got Pomegranate soda and I got a TAZO Pomegranate tea) and then we each got a miniature tart/cheesecake and then piled in the car for Carytown.

After getting to Carytown, we parked and walked down one side, stopping in various shops along the way until we got to the end of the strip.  We stopped in Mongrel and I bought a card for Jeffrey and some really neat candles for Amber(pomegranate and something – she’s really into pomegranate now) and Ashley (pineapple, ginger, and tangerine) that they liked.  Ashley picked up a really nice pashmina at Bygones and Amber almost got a pair of sunglasses…except they were scratched up – and of course that was the ONLY pair that they had.  She did end up deciding that for her Sweet 16 that she was going to get a tiara – which I agreed too =).

Carytown shopping area of Richmond

Towards Cary Court Shopping Center

We crossed the street to Ben & Jerry’s to start our way back up the strip where we each enjoyed a small ice cream cup of delicious, yummy ice cream!

Ashley at Ben & Jerry's

Amber at Ben & Jerry's

After finishing our ice cream we headed back to the car but I, of course being the overgrown child that I am, had to stop into World of Mirth to show them one of my favorite stores EVER!  This place has the BEST toys and a lot of other cool stuff for kids of all ages.  Amber and I were playing with the sunglasses and the hats – seems I’m not the only big kid after all LOL.

Amber trys on a tiny, tiny hat

Me in H-U-G-E shades bein' "cool"

We continued back up the street, I showed them where we took Alex (my oldest nephew) for lunch at Galaxy Diner and extolled the glories of the ‘fried pickle’ and that they also offer fried Oreos and Twinkies too.  I think the only other store we stopped into was actually Ten Thousand Villages, a really neat store that sells fair trade items from around the world.  I saw tons of stuff to buy in many of the stores but alas, just coming off of the Christmas season, fundage was a bit on the tight side though, I’m pretty sure they both had a good time.  Then we rode around the Fan a bit and I showed them the various apartments I lived in – Floyd Ave., Lombardy St. & Park Ave., and Monument Ave. before we hit the road back to the Southside.

It was nice to be able to get Amber out and show her around ‘The City’ and I think both she and Ashley had a nice time.  I really don’t get to spend as much time as I like with the nephew and niece monsters and I HAVE to get better about that.  All in all though, I think we had a pretty damned good day!

Side note – I did get a bit annoyed when I uploaded the photos from the past few days only to realize that the date was $%#@& up on my camera so, even though these show 12/23/08, it was actually 12/29/08.

JUST so people don’t think I’m totally consumed with being some type of gay activist or something – switching gears =P

Yesterday Keith and I went to Richmond to have lunch at Bottoms Up Pizza with Ashley (our daughter), Ian (our son), Nicky (our daughter-in-law) and of course Audrey (our granddaughter) after we had our fill, we decided to walk up the street to see what was new at LaDifferance (LaDiff).  

Bottoms Up Pizza

Its possible to be TOO wired ya know!

'Pickle' playing with toys in LaDiff

After walking around the store for a while, it became apparent that Audrey was a bit overdue for her nap so we left but, I bought this neat little book called, ‘How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint 365 Simple Ways to Save Energy, Resources, and Money‘ by Joanna Yarrow.  

Great little book - very worth reading

I have to say, I read a good deal of it last night just before bed – some of the things in just seem like common sense things but others are like ‘Wow…REALLY?!?!’  I was really happy to see that some of the things Keith and I have recently started doing were in the book.  Like changing out the incandescent bulbs for CFL (Compact Flourescent Lights); installing a programmable thermostat; putting an insulation blanket on the water heater; composting kitchen scraps; installing weather stripping and draft protection and other little things.  There is still more that we can (and plan to) do but, it’s a start.  It was really sort of eye opening when the book explains that

“the average European emits around 11 tons of CO2 per year while the average American emits over 22 tons – more than 5 times the world average (4 tons).  In contrast, in sub-Saharan Africa the average footprint is less than .08 tons per person.”

that was pretty sad, in my humble opinion.  I was also amazed to read that every two (2) minutes the sun gives the Earth more energy than we use in a year.  Why aren’t we doing more to take advantage of this free energy?  Keith says the big two should really be solar and wind because on days the sun isn’t out, its typically windy and on days when there is no wind, its typically sunny.  He REALLY wants to, as he says, ‘go off the grid’ to the point where we even give back energy and get credit for it – that, I don’t think, will happen here in Petersburg – least not in this house LOL.

I’m also reading the third book in the Inheritance trilogy by Christopher Paolini called BRISINGR.  

3rd book about Eragon & Saphira

I really liked the first two and this third/final chapter in the series is proving just as good.  I’ve even got my nephew, Alex, reading the second book in the series – Eldest, he said they’d read the first book -Eragon in school and he wanted to read the next book.  If he likes it I’ll make sure to let him borrow Brisingr as well.  I cannot imagine having all of this stuff (the material for the 3 books) floating around in my head at the age of 15 when he wrote the first draft of Eragon.  Wow – what a talented young man and a really good auther.  If you like fantasy, it is definately worth the read.

Gay Adoption Recognized in Louisana

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Well, you know we went to Peggy’s Cove on Sunday – the rest of the week was just as fun.  Monday, Jackie took off and we went to Mic Mac Mall (yeah say that 5 times fast) and I discovered that lo and behold….BOMBANY COMPANY still exists!  Just not in the States…WTF?!?!  I’m hoping the sales clerk was wrong when she said I could not order online and have items shipped to the US.  I mean…they buy stuff from us, right?

Then we went to where Jackie works for a really good view of downtown Halifax

Tuesday we did the Halifax waterfront, took the ferry across the harbour, did some shopping and eating and went to the maritime museum which had a really good Titanic exhibit.  We also went to a place called Discovery Zone (I think that had a REALLY cool LEGO display of all kinds of Egyptian stuff.  That night Tommy and I went to Reflections, a local gay nightclub, but it ended up being TOTALLY lackluster.

Wednesday was GAMBLING DAY!  That’s right, we went to Casino Nova Scotia Joey, Tommy and I were working those one armed bandits – though now, they have a button you can push instead of pulling down the arm.  We had lunch at Trapeze, one of the casino restaurants while we enjoyed a great view of the harbour.  The wind was so bad their were actually white caps on the harbour.

Thursday we went to the Museum of Natural History, the Public Gardens and, I think Spring or South Street park to check out the Tommy, Billy and Quincy bricks – it was cold again this day…more so the wind than anything else.

Friday Tommy and I went to the Citadel and I got lots of pictures, we carved pumpkins in the back yard, and went to Ron and Roxanne’s place for a visit.

While we were there I got to see a lot of Halifax and it was great to be able to meet people who are important in my uncle’s life.  I found out a lot about him – when he went to HFX, why he decided on HFX, learned about his life some — it was really interesting but then again, he’s a very interesting man.

I did manage to take a lot of pictures that can be seen on my Picasa page but Saturday morning came faster than I would have imagined and it was time once again to board a plane for our return trip to the States.  I look forward to being able to visit Tommy again (hopefully next time when it’s just a TAD warmer – LOL)