July, July! And a Little Bit of Baltimore...

So after getting back from DC, it's been pretty much business as usual -- or what is usual for the non-travelling times. I spent early July re-reading the Harry Potters (and finishing a tragically early ten days before the new book's release), hanging out, and learning how to be a good Powhatan since being assigned to the Powhatan Indian Village at Jamestown (as opposed to the ships or the fort, etc.). Interesting tidbits and anecdotes to follow with photos as available:

-- Mark's 4th of July party on the 7th of July (photos: Sally, Mark, Ashley, and me; and Jeff (being Jeff), Sally, and me.)


-- My first tomato! I finally decided the best way to eat it was plain, so as to best savour its own flavors and lovely red color. So perfect...

-- We had a couple of special conferences have events at Jamestown one weekend. Since I was working both events working late at these receptions until 9ish, as opposed to the normal 5 or 6pm, I had some mornings free for bike rides on the Colonial Parkway and James River plus fun times in a museum temporarily free of visitors with energetic staff members. The first evening, some of the Village staff had some time to kill after dinner and before the guests arrived. After visiting one of the other sites, one Village employee decided to attack the Fort by scaling the wall and climbing through a gun port, bow and arrow in hand. The skirmish that followed was sadly not captured on film and we wanted John to repeat the event the following evening when we'd have a camera on hand. Brilliant. (photos: Cow on a farm near the Parkway; my bike at a nice picinic spot along the Parkway; and some of the Indians standing around before a night event.)



(photos: John climbing into the fort; the unsuspecting fort staff; John, armed with a garden hoe; Indians to the rescue as John is chased onto the roof of the blacksmith shop by Greg and Brian from the fort; and Greg and Brian come armed with pikes to fend off Indians Justin and Jay.)





-- The other Stephanie and I had planned to go to DC for a couple of days, but decided to visit Baltimore instead for something different. On the 17th, we drove North to her parents' house outside of DC and proceeded on to Baltimore to visit the National Aquarium for the afternoon. I went a bit turtle crazy (my favorite was the pig-nosed turtle!), was fascinated by the bizarre camofloged fish, and got to pet a dolphin when chosen to participate in the dolphin show. After an extended afternoon of fish and such, we made our way to a different part of the downtown/harbor area for a bit of happy hour before venturing back to her parents' house in Northern Virginia ("NorVa" for those Viriginians "down South"). The next morning, after a relaxing morning, were astonished to encounter the worst traffic jam that we'd seen in ages (stopped completely for about two hours and travelled less than a mile on the highway), finally limped into Richmond, exhausted and starving, before making our way across the river to Claremont for a coworkers birthday party. The long day didn't end there as we were strongly encouraged to then head out to celebrate a friend's new job, nearly going to an Eastern European "rave" (club night at a local bar with a ridiculous $20 cover charge -- icky). V. fun trip, v. exhausting... (photos: National Aquarium; Australia exhibit in the Aquarium; a couple of turtles; more turtles! Look at the size of his noggin!; hmmm... pondering (and nearly depressing) thought number one...)





(photos: Inside of the main section of the Aquarium; a frog fish; a rock fish; after all of the questing in Scotland last year, I found puffins at last; and depressing thought number two...)





(photos: The sharks were really big and a bit scary-looking, as Stephanie demonstrates her look of fear; me (my butt in the khaki capris and blue shirt) petting the dolphin; downtown/harbor of Baltimore; and what is this woman doing while stopped in traffic? That's right! She's picking berries by the side of the highway.)




-- Harry Potter! So I became increasingly excited for the seventh Harry Potter book. In preparation, we had a group outing to see the fifth movie upon its realease and I even found a fabulous musical group called "Harry and the Potters" (a punk-ish rock duo of brothers writing Potter-inspired songs such as "Voldemort Can't Stop The Rock," "S.P.E.W.," "Stick it to Dolores," and "Cornelius Fudge is an Ass." Genius.). The night of the midnight release, Heather, her husband Morris, and I went to attend the v. corporate release party at a local Barnes and Noble. The festivites were fun, with partygoers being sorted into houses (I got Slytherin... what the heck?! Really?), costume parades (including a guy with a tshirt that said "Harry is not a horcrux. Get over it!" on the front and on the back "And Snape is evil"), tattoos, and trivia. We were getting tired by 11pm, so the last hour was a bit difficult but receiving the book was well worth it. I finished a couple of days ago and absolutely loved it. I'm still giddy about it on the inside... (photos: Me and Morris getting excited about Harry Potter; we're on the cover of the book! Well, nearly...; Heather shaking it like a Poloroid picture (because it is one); me getting sorted; and Heather demonstrating her pheonix face.)





-- We watched "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America" one night -- also genius. It made us even more glad that we'd registered for the chance to buy Spice Girl reunion concert tickets.

-- Played Laser Tag at a local park one night. Quite intense, but also quite a lot of fun. I was worried that these guys were going to be a bit too into it when they brought out their box of laser tag gear (complete with laser tag grenades), mused over the glory days of modifying various toy guns for laser tag capabilities, and lamented the absence off their friend with the laser tag tank. Much more fun than anticipated.