Nerdy Thirty for Spinster Librarian!

I am 30 in 4 days, officially. So on Sunday, the coolest among us went to Astoria to the Beer Garden (and, apparently, Bohemian Hall), an outdoor picnic-y happy-go-lucky place to celebrate my gigantic 3-0!

Here's what happened:
1.It was raining.


2.We took a school bus from my house!!! On a Sunday! It came to my front door and we got on the school bus and opened the snack bag and ate our snacks (Mini Pringles and Smartfood popcorn and Pretzel Goldfish)

3. The sun came out when we were on the Grand Central.


4. I wore a PLAID cowboy hat that Joe and Gail brought back from Colorado!

5. I ate a little of everyone's potato pancakes...and then Bobby got me my own!

6. Lots of people wore cowboy hats!



7.Special guest stars include (but are not pictured in their entirety):
Cass, Rich and Carter, John and Bean, Paul and AnneMarie, Burns! Dawn, Bobby, Michelle and Melissa, and Schmelly Melly!

Plus, Mr & Mrs. Beyrer, Mom and Pop Conn, and Mr and Mrs. O'Hara! And my Dad! And Scotty! And Erin, Brian, and Liam!
Of course, Always Special Guest Stars Joe and Gail, Alicia and Katie, Shannon and Cat!
8. Katie snuck in this beautiful cake (for which I was a little nervous):

I'm sort of not a rule breaker.
9. Gail and John did not come to blows:

but all of my gal friends ganged up on John and said "We are not afraid of you, John!" Alicia is very empowered by this show of solidarity. He'll turn you against each other ladies! You'll never know how he planted the ideas in your mind.
10. Gail beat everybody at Connect Four, with the exception of Melanie and Joe B., Gail's husband. Everyone else, however, was trounced.


11. Then some of us went back to Gail's house to play Rock Band:

where Gail and AnneMarie bonded:

Katie developed her "thinking face"

"It's all for the music, dude"
And Paul was deemed "hopeless" by Gail.

But that's because he is a real rock star, and therefore cannot pretend in a game.

All in all, it was a superduperfantastic birthday party, even with the rain and the mud!

But one thing I didn't tell you...we weren't allowed to dance. I guess they're a little Amish at the Beer Garden. It was like being in Footloose. I know what you went through, Kevin Bacon. The dance is in me, too. And sometimes it's just gotta come out!!!!

Super Crafty Time

A little embroidery for New Baby Zeke and his sister Megan:


Then, trying out the reverse screenprinting with bleach for the ol' library craft time!

I have this thing about mushrooms lately.

And, I just embroidered a onesie for Miss Kayleigh Lindstrolm: Tatter's New Baby Girl! Congrats Tatter!
Pictures to follow!

Aunt Sandy comes to visit!

IMG_9870, originally uploaded by feathermar.

Aunt Sandy came to visit us this week. She's the supergreatest and I love her very much. She reminds me of all the best parts of my mom, and her voice is exactly the way that it has always been, and she just so nice to us!

And maybe you're a little jealous, and that's okay.

TODAY, WE TALK ABOUT GOATS

A conversation I had a few weeks ago:
"...well, it turns out he just fainted. Like one of those goats..."
My sister/brother-in-law/father/friends "Goats?"
"Yes, like the goats that faint."
"You're making that up"
"I swear that I am not. There are goats that climb trees, too. But I don't think they are the same kind. We talked about it at work. And looked it up. I'll send you the link"

So, here it is:

Wikipedia's Article on Fainting Goats

And the goats in trees are the third "Natural Phenomena You Haven't Seen", but the others are pretty cool, too, I think

New Blanket!


Also, Happy Dr. Richie Dr. doing it!

You did it! You did it!

It's my Seanie's Big Birthday!
Happy Birthday Seanie! The Big 0-2! Sweet.



Look at my friend! Adorable! Happy Birthday, Friend!
Love, Aunt Feather

This is the kind of good time you missed:

And babies! You missed all of the babies!




And playing with the big kids! You missed playing with the big kids!

(check out Gail and Joe's fancy schmancy pool)
You missed the Feehans and the Beyrers! All boys!


You missed the band

(I missed the tops of their bodies, but you can see that they were there, as Stephanie is pointing them out)
You missed the cupcakes:

Theresa and Shannon got their first lesson in decorating with frosting tips--a little messy on a hot day, but it kept them both occupied when they were bored! heh heh

And you missed Ed's crazy floats!

This is Theresa and Stephanie on the swan! Awesome!
You missed jumping in the new pool:

Joe flips in!
And of course, the end picture of Ed:

"Ed, will you go to the prom with me?"

Heh heh.
Good times, friends

I made these bee-yoo-ti-ful cushions

for Gail's big fourth of july bash.
I also was super mad today. Hulk mad. I'm on the verge of printing up "I hate phone companies" t-shirts and giving them out to everyone I know. Maybe what I really hate is cell phone salemen. They have replaced the stereotype of used car salesmen to me. They misrepresent things. I have a loathing for them. I see red today.
Let's admire my lovely fabrics:

Met a boy

IMG_9058, originally uploaded by feathermar.

on Friday night. He's pretty jolly. He has his arm around me. I don't totally love that he smokes a pipe.

Things I love about physics:

There was a plan at one time to make something called a Superconducting Super Collider. What was it supposed to do? I don't know. But it has two "supers" in its name. And that's always a good idea, I think.

The physicists have plans for something called a Large Hadron Collider, and then more plans for a Super Large Hadron Collider.
Hadrons have something to do with quarks, which have something to do with particles. All of this, not so interesting...although quarks have nice names: up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom are all "flavors" of quarks. I also like the words quarkonia and strangelet.

Tshirts about physics to come! Yay!

Did I tell you

IMG_8347, originally uploaded by feathermar.

that my sister is a Very Important Person? Honored by her school's PTA, because she is so cool and a good teacher and nice and kind to all the animals. This is not a great picture of us. But she is the super coolest person I know...and that's saying a lot--because I also know myself.

ha. i kill me. ha. metaphorically.

I don't know what you are doing this summer...

but Farmer Gail's might be the greatest place I'm going! As Bea said yesterday, Gail and Joe's yard is "full of delightful nooks and crannies."

a lot of nice flowers are planted or planting

this is part of a sequence of pictures involving me, Shannon, Katie, and some swans.

No, that's not the glare of the sun. We're really that pasty.

Also, we saw the horseshoe crabs mating:

There were dozens of them. It was super weird to see them all swimming towards us in the water. In all honesty, I have never seen a live one, much less so many live ones. They came near us, hovering, like sea roombas.
And then, we sat for a while and hung out, listening to the Indigo Girls and the B52s for free while some suckers paid for the tickets...heh heh

Quickly, I will tell you about my friends:

adorable

Also Adorable

Come on now--I know I lucked out with a perfect picture here.

It may not look it, but this was a very adorable and gentle hug and head pat from Lochlain to Seanie.
And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

Wait, what? Don't ask how he got down...
And a tea party for good measure:

"one Lump or two, Ed?"

Driving out east

Driving out, originally uploaded by feathermar.

We went to Peconic this weekend with Gail and Joe and I found my LOMO camera in my car and took some super pictures! Yay fisheye! Yay film! happy happy happy me!

moar funny pictures
This is Katie's dog. He'll do anything for a laugh.