photos

Our Christmas parade in downtown Charleston is one of the most random collection of people and things I have the pleasure to witness all year, and this year was no exception. I was holding out hope for cops on Segways all decorated for the holiday, but maybe next year.

KING TUT WITH BUBBLES!

We really hoped that the driver of this eighteen-wheeler was a trainER, not a trainEE, considering the rather sharp left turns that are necessary to get the truck on the parade route.

Basset hounds!

… and a tree made out of chain link.

The rest of my photos are on Flickr.

Chopper and I went to the annual exhibit of crèches at Mepkin Abbey for the first time today and were amazed at what we found.  The exhibit, which sadly was over today, was fantastic.  The variety and quality of the crèches on display were startling.

I shot many photos with my 50mm lens (which I continue to adore) which are all available for your viewing pleasure in my Flickr photostream.

Our favorites:

This one is cut from a duck’s egg by a Vietnamese woman selling crafts on the side of the road.  I’ve blown out eggshells to dye them for Easter before and I am just stunned at how delicate this is.  The lines are very clean.

This more abstract wooden piece was Chopper’s favorite.

We couldn’t figure out what kind of dark stone would be readily available in fairly large pieces and were extremely surprised to find out the figures are carved in coal.  The photo doesn’t quite do justice to how luminous the surface is - almost more like metal than stone.

And finally … a wise man who has a startling resemblance to comedian Jeff Dunham’s puppet José Jalapeño on a Stick.

I’ve had an evening of unadulterated cute.  First, Chopper and I watched all the special features on my newly arrived WALL-E special edition DVD, followed by the movie (for the fourth time, yeah).  It is my favorite movie of all time.  Yep.  It sure is.

Chopper had Paisley with him during the movie and at the end, I decided that it was time again for a feeding frenzy of mealworms.  Mmm.  Paisley sort of fell off Chopper onto the down throw I’d been using and stayed curled in a ball.  I fed her some mealworms off a spoon (what, spoiled?) and then busted out the camera.

Tell me this isn’t stupendously cute.

More in her photo album on Flickr.

Paisley is two months old today.  When we were at Mom and Dad’s this weekend, we introduced her to a new favorite treat: live mealworms.  Not my pick, but hey.  More photos on Flickr.

For the weekend, we returned to Lynchburg, Tennessee for the Jack Daniel’s 2008 World Championship International Barbecue with Mom and Dad.  A good time was had by all.  Again, more photos on Flickr.