St. Louis

Last weekend I attended a history conference in St. Louis, mostly just for fun.

I arrived Thursday in the early afternoon, and found my way on the train to the Central West End and my hotel. After checking in I changed clothes and headed a couple blocks away to Forest Park, which is really big and nice. It was very warm and muggy, but I was only doing three miles (which turned into four).

Toward the end of my run I came across this guy, which of course was motivation to run faster.

That evening was the opening plenary session and a reception. This was the view from the reception. Not too shabby. It was the one and only time I saw the arch.

Friday I attended sessions, read my mammoth history book, and took a nap. That evening was a reception at the history museum, and instead of taking the bus like everyone else I decided to walk. It wasn't too bad, and I did run across one other conference person walking so we chatted. That evening I also attended a get-together for grad students. I met some people and ate some food and talked about history. I also got many bug bites on my legs, and they were so bad that they were swollen and tender the next day. I actually thought maybe I'd gotten a running injury but no, it was just a bug bite.

Saturday I had to run 9 miles, so I got up early and headed back to Forest Park. (Originally I wanted to run to the arch and back, but a couple people in St. Louis said maybe that wasn't the best idea.) There is a six-mile loop around the park, and I tagged on a trip through the Washington University campus.

Saturday during my lunch break from sessions I walked the couple blocks to the Cathedral Basilica. It has one of the largest mosaic collections in the world. Essentially the entire ceiling with its several domes and most of the walls were all mosaiced. Pretty neat.

The thing was, however, that all the mosaics were really high up. So I couldn't see all the details I wanted to, especially in faces. Maybe some day I will mosaic a face, and I want an idea of how to do it well. This separate mosaic happened to be hanging in one of the chapels, so I could finally see a face up close.

They also had a mosaic museum downstairs. I don't actually recommend the museum unless you're really really interested in the construction of the cathedral and mosaics. I was happy to see this neat partially-finished piece.

I also like the inspiration of the desk on display from the studio where most of the pieces were done. Some day I won't be working on my PhD anymore and hopefully I will get to mosaic again.

After the museum I attended another couple of sessions, and spent much of the evening reading. Sunday I went to one last session, ate lunch, and headed to the airport. The flight was a little delayed, and then the flight from Atlanta was canceled, so they put me up in a hotel. I finally got back to Charlottesville Monday around 11:30 and went straight into work.

Even though I only stayed in the West End in St. Louis, I liked it and would be interested in going back some day.

Las Vegas v.4

So like I said, I went to Las Vegas almost two weeks ago with my family for our annual Nascar weekend trip. Here's how it went down:

Friday I got up super early for my 5:20am flight, and when I arrived in Vegas at 9:45am Ryan picked me up and we went to eat at a New Mexican restaurant filled with maps of New Mexico and Southwestern art. Then we checked into the South Point Hotel and Casino (located on Las Vegas Boulevard but a couple miles south of the strip) and took a nap. A couple hours later my parents arrived, and that's when we all headed to my packet pickup and dinner.

Saturday was my half marathon. After we got back from the race I showered and changed, then Ryan and Mom and I went to the Hard Rock for a great lunch at Culinary Dropout. I was starving after the race, but then I was stuffed after lunch. So it was time for a nap. That evening after Dad was back from the Nascar race, we all went to see the Gatlin Brothers in concert. There were two kids in the audience, and after them Ryan and I were definitely the youngest people there. It was fun though.

Sorry it's fuzzy, but look how happy we look! Even if Ryan is hiding his face as he takes the photo, and I am accidentally blocking Mom.

Sunday both Dad and Ryan went to Nascar, so Mom and I headed to the strip for some sightseeing. We started with the conservatory at the Bellagio, which had a springtime and butterflies theme.

Bellagio conservatory.

Butterfly house!

I love that Las Vegas has so many mosaics, like this one at the Bellagio.

Next we walked to the Paris for lunch, then to the Flamingo to look at real live flamingos. Then we took a break at Margaritaville and got to sit up on the outdoor patio because the weather was so nice, and from there we walked to Caesar's Palace to play some slots. Finally we'd killed enough time that Ryan and Dad were done with the race, so we went to the Monte Carlo to meet them and walked to New York New York for a good Italian dinner.

Giant slot machine at New York New York. Alas, he didn't win.

Later that night Ryan and I visited the ice bar at the Monte Carlo. They give you a coat and gloves (with upgrade options for a fur coat and hat, which we didn't spring for) and you go inside and drink out of ice cups and sit on ice seats and the whole thing is very cold but also pretty neat. (Or "cool," if you will.) I don't think I'd enjoy it if I were wearing a skirt and heels like most girls at night in Las Vegas, but I wasn't.

They wouldn't let us take cameras inside and they wanted twenty bucks to buy the photos they took. So here we are outside the bar after our freezing visit inside.

Monday we all went to an outlet mall, since that's how my family rolls on vacations. While there we enjoyed a big sushi buffet lunch. Ryan also spotted a professional wrestler at the buffet (I think it was this guy). When we got back to the hotel we had to take naps again, and then Ryan had to go back to Flagstaff which was very sad. Once he was gone my parents and I headed to the strip, where we watched the volcano erupt at the Mirage, had a drink at Treasure Island, and ate dinner at the Wynn.

The rocks are a "volcano" at the Mirage that erupted shortly after this photo was taken. Sure I have some shots with the fire and lava, but this one is prettier.

Hehe.

Love these mosaics at the Wynn!

Tuesday my parents and I went to Red Rock Canyon (where my half marathon was on Saturday). Dad and I hiked around on the red rocks while Mom drove around and took pictures on her own. The great thing about the red rocks is you don't have to stay on a trail, and you can wander wherever you want!

He's so strong.

 

Red Rock Canyon pistachio sighting!

 

 

Pretty desert.

After a little while we met back up with Mom and drove to a different spot, where Dad and I went for a 1.5 mile hike to a spring. The trail was really just an old road and was covered in rocks. A lot of rocks.

There are at least five bighorn sheep in this photo. Only they didn't really have big horns.

Once we reached the spring a man told us about a cabin just a little farther up, so we headed toward that but then a different man coming from that direction said it was farther than we thought, so we turned around. Poor Mom was just sitting in the car all this time and we didn't bring any water with us on this desert hike, so I was fine with turning around.

This was the spring (dammed up) at the end of the hike. Not the most exciting end-of-hike-destination, but oh well.

 

End of the hike! We survived.

Parents!

By this point it was mid-afternoon and we'd never had lunch, so we headed to Big Dog's Brewing Company for food and cold beer. Then we booked it back to the hotel so we could all freshen up and head to the strip for the evening. That's where we saw the Cirque du Soleil show Mystère, which was fun. Except watching all those acrobatics can really make one feel physically inadequate.

Tuesday was my last night in Vegas, so I ended the night by finally winning some money on the slot machines back at our hotel's casino. Up until that night I'd been losing left and right. (And by that I mean I lost, you know, like twenty bucks a day.) So that was exciting.

Another fun family Vegas trip on the books!

just for fun

I (finally) finished another mosaic. I started it a couple months ago and picked the design based on the board and tiles I already had at the time, so it's kind of random. I gave it to Ryan to hang in his new apartment. Because what college guy doesn't want a mosaic of a cable car hanging on his wall?

finally

Christmas went well. My parents came to visit, and I spent a week with them and the grandparents in Richmond.

I made another mosaic, which I gave to my mom. She's been wanting one since I started making them three years ago, so she says it's about time.

Mosaic No. 5

Hey look, I made another mosaic! I guess technically it's two mosaics, but they go together to make one piece. It's a ukulele, which I gave to Josh for Christmas.

Amy got hitched.

And in her own word, "Wahoo!"

I'll start where I left off. Thursday Amy had to work half the day so I had breakfast with Katie and Andrew, and then we went for a walk around the university. After meeting back up with Amy all four of us headed to the Big Sky Brewery for free beer tastings, then I went with Amy to get her nails done.



After that her family started to arrive, so we went to the hotel where everyone would be staying and hung out with them at the hotel bar. Then we were hungry so we headed out to dinner, and after all the chatting and drink ordering and appetizer eating and dinner eating we finally left three hours later. Everyone was pretty tired so we just hung out at the hotel a little and went to bed.

Friday I went with Amy and another bridesmaid to meet the groom Andy at the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula for a Fourth of July pancake breakfast. We ate the last of the pancakes and bacon and visited the booth of the Montana Surveying Reenactment Corps where the men were dressed like the olden days and displayed old surveying tools. They had some old odometers for wagons, and guess who already knew about those? That's right, I did. From there we headed to Amy and Andy's new house so they could show it off to her family. She also showed off the mosaic I made her, which matches her blue house perfectly.



After hanging out at the hotel again it was time to head to the wedding rehearsal at the church. We bridesmaids made a stop for ice cream on the way. The rehearsal went fine, except that her mom couldn't figure out how the lighting of the unity candle was supposed to work, which became the running joke for the rest of the weekend. From the rehearsal everyone went to dinner, which was extra exciting for me because my friend (and sophomore roommate) Melissa met us there. We haven't seen her since Katie's wedding two years ago. The dinner was good and fun, and the fun only continued when everyone (guys, girls, family, etc.) all headed out to the bar. Finally poor Amy got tired and ready for bed, so we headed back to the hotel to sleep.


Here we have Katie, Me, Amy, and Melissa. I already miss those girls.

Saturday was the big day. I woke up a little earlier than planned and headed out for a walk to a couple of the Saturday markets downtown. Then we were supposed to start getting our hair and makeup done at 9:30. That went on for a few hours in our hotel suite, until we were finally all beautiful and ready to head to the church. There we got Amy into her dress and shoes and proceeded to wait longer than expected for the photographer to show up. Finally she did so we took lots of pictures (well, I didn't take any, but I was in several) before whisking Amy away so arriving guests wouldn't see her.

The ceremony was perfect. Everyone immediately became teary-eyed when Amy's dad led her down the aisle. I didn't forget Andy's ring. The unity candle part went smoothly. It was all very nice. Afterwards a Mustang convertible met them outside as we all blew bubbles and cheered loudly.

The reception was SO MUCH FUN. It was at a park next to the river, and there was good food, lots of local beer, and an amazingly fun band. Everyone danced the night away and had a great time.

As you can see I don't actually have any pictures of my own from the wedding or reception, so if I get those any time soon maybe I'll share them. But I will leave you with this photo of Andrew, because when it comes to Amy and Andy's wedding in Missoula, we all felt like this:

The Secret Art Project, Finally Revealed

Here is what I did over my Christmas break. I made tile mosaics in wooden tea trays. That means I cut tons of glass tiles with my "nippers" (wearing latex gloves and eye protection, of course), I painstakingly glued every piece of glass down and tried to make all the little shapes fit, I grouted the tiles at least twice for each tray, I polished them, and I painted or stained the trays themselves.

And now for my portfolio:

This is the first mosaic I did. That means the first ever in my whole life. I gave it to my grandparents in Richmond.



This is the second one. I gave it to my grandparents in Santa Fe.



This is the last one, and my best work I think. I gave it to Aunt Caryn. Also, she made me sign the back "AB 2006," so some day when I'm famous and people are spending the big bucks to get their hands on one of my tile mosaics, hers will be extra special because it was signed "AB" and no one will realize that is me, but it is.