Sunset in Bensonhurst

I took this picture with my phone right after stepping onto the elevated train platform, on my way to the church for 11 year old scouts.  I am enjoying the calling--I think that I have finally got the two half hitches down for good.  You learn things better when you have to teach them.

Charles and Cat Video #2

Cookies so very much wanted to come inside from the first-day-it-felt-like-fall chill.  Charles did his best to make his friend feel welcome.

Don't tell the neighbors I stole their cat.

There is a cat that lives on our porch. Technically it is our neighbors', but really the whole neighborhood claims ownership. Neighbors come to sit and tell him of her whoas or bring a paper plate to feed him the can of cat-food their kitty doesn't like, and all the kids stop by on their way home from school. Still, the cat meows and meows and meows like no one ever even so much as glances in her direction.

Meet Cookies. Charles' best bud.

Sometimes I steal Cookies and lock him inside to keep Charles company while I bring in the groceries. She is a good babysitter.

 

They like to crawl around the front porch together. Sometimes it gets dangerous, though, because Charles is pretty great at crawling up the stairs, but likes to nose dive down them. 

We're working on it. 

Bum Art

Detail from a painting we saw at the
St Louis Art Museum [oil on canvas]                                         Charles, a week before the museum visit
                                                                                                                 [digital photograph]

From Sea to Shining Sea

August's Pacific

In between living in St Louis and New York, Charles and I hung out in California for a week. 

Beth (bff from elementary school), Erica, Charles

 This one was taken for a magazine cover. Work it mama, work it!

 (this is how Charles felt about the waves)

I was sad to leave sunny California.
I texted Joshua from the beach that day, "We need to live by the ocean."

"You got it, babe." he said.

* * *

September's Atlantic

"When I found our apartment in Brooklyn, I consoled Erica about our increased distance from California with the news that our new home would be located only two blocks from the ocean.  Try finding somewhere to live in CA that close to a beach! Technically, the only sand in the area is a 20-by-30 foot patch that has piled up around an abandoned dock with a high fence proclaiming it is off-limits to would-be sunbathers.  But it is the shore of New York Harbor, i.e. the Atlantic Ocean.  And there is a beautiful park (Shore Park) and a breathtaking view of the Verrazano Bridge.  We enjoy going to the park in the evenings to watch the sun set over Staten Island across the harbor from us.  Almost feels like we're at the beach, except we are sitting on grass under an oak tree.  And, to remind that this is still New York City, we can hear the cars zoom by on a six-lane expressway just behind us." -Joshua

If the breeze is just right we can get a whiff the salty air as we walk along the promenade. Mmm.

I know, I know, there is water but there is no beach, so sad.
Luckily, a real beach is only a subway ride away! 

Charles LOVED crawling around in the sand (and eating it)!

We all loved being at the beach. 

I hope we make it there a few more times before it gets too freezing cold!!

Museums of St. Louis - SLAM!

One thing that we loved about St. Louis this summer was all of the free museums.  One such museum is the St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM), with it's world-class collections of famous artists like Monet.  While not such a classical masterpiece, my favorite piece of art was the massive mural of Native American life/exploration of the Mississippi River.  It is the only-surviving example of a popular mid-19th-century fad; people would use these panoramic paintings to travel the country telling tales (often tall ones) about their adventures exploring out "West."  As this article puts it, "before there were movies there were panoramic paintings."  If I understand correctly, the painting (which was probably several hundred feet long) would be put on what looks a lot like a massive roll of film.  Through some mechanical means, the picture would be moved along the roll as the speaker told his tall tales.  Would have been awesome to see it live.  But the next best thing was to see it at SLAM, where professional restorers are doing touch-ups wherever the paint has been eroded or badly faded due to humidity while it was in storage (for 150 years!)   Maybe the reason I liked it so much is that it is art and history all at the same time.

The SLAM also had an exhibit about weapons as art.  The fancy polished wooden guns from the 14th thru 18th centuries were cool, but my favorite was the gunpowder container: if you look closely, it's "hunting" theme has a bunch of wild hogs and hounds thrashing and gnashing their teeth and gnawing on one another.  Much more awesome than camouflage.  If I hunted, I would get one of these.

The Napoleon Cigar.  Interesting piece of advertising art from 1932 I believe.

Unique piece of Americana.  A vase with bison, George Washington, and miniature pastoral landscapes.

That's all for now.  We'll write again later about the mummies.

Box Canyon

In mid-(or was it late?) July, I drove back one more time from St. Louis to Bloomington, to attend the baptism of one of the kids in my Primary class, Jeremiah.  The baptism was a great, spiritual, testimony-building event; unfortunately I did not have Erica with me and therefore I completely forgot to take any pictures.  However, on the way there, I did stop and explore an awesome "box canyon" in Southern Indiana:

Hard to tell, but believe it or not that is my foot hanging over the edge of a substantial cliff.  "A box canyon is a small ravine or canyon with steep walls on three sides, allowing access and egress only through the mouth of the canyon."   The coolest part about box canyons is how the sides are very close together.  Probably there isn't much more than a hundred feet separating the walls of this canyon going all the way up to the top of it.

Along the switchbacks winding down to the bottom, there were lots of large boulders with cool hidey-holes underneath them.  I decided I would come back someday with Erica and Charles when we live in Indiana again in 2013.