Pub Quiz and Scotch

Project 365: Day 5

I have a soft spot in my heart for Pub Quiz at the DBar. It always proves to be an interesting, fun and usually somewhat silly evening and last night was no exception. Above is the photo of the day featuring Tyler and Dmitry and two glasses (plastic cups) of scotch.

Last night was the last hurrah at Pub Quiz for one of our most valued members. Eric is now Dr. Eric and will be heading out to California at the end of the month to start his post-doc! He leaves some big shoes to fill and he'll be missed! Congrats, Eric!

Below are some bonus photos of the silliness:

Macro Fun

Project 365: Day 4

Yesterday after work I wanted to play with the macro lens that I bought with the new camera, so I just sat on my porch and photographed some of the plants there as close up as possible and with as shallow a depth of field as I could. The above image is part of that exercise. This is a Dianthus flower. The whole bloom is about an inch across. I am loving this macro lens! It also works really well as a portrait lens, throwing the background out of focus quite nicely. I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of macro photos in the coming year. :)

Bonus Photos

Basil:

Another view of the Dianthus:

And this creepy little bug on my dill plant. It's only about 1/4 of an inch long:

Chips

Project 365: Day 3

So, my landlord just had the deck repainted - bright white! I feels like a new pair of sneakers that you want to get a little dirty. And it used to be a lovely slate blue. I'm kind of sad to see the "improvement". But he didn't have the guys repaint the wall of the porch, so now in comparison to the bright white porch, this wall looks a little dingy. The little chips in the paint don't make it look any better, but I like the green pot that I have hanging there.

Lottery

Project 365: Day 2

As an additional little surprise, Mac got me a Birthday lotto ticket. I really thought I was going to win $50,000, but as you can see, I won $2. My first thought was "I can buy 4 bananas with that" since the little bodega near my house does lottery tickets. Then Mac convinced me that I should use it to get another $2 lotto ticket and see if I do any better.

Fizzy Lizzy

Project 365: Day 1

This is from the lunch that Mac and I had in Lambertville on my birthday. These drinks are really tasty.

OK, I know - super boring photo to start this whole project, but it can only get better from here, right?

Project 365: Getting Started.

Well folks... I gonna do it. I got a new camera, it's a new year for me and I've been thinking about doing this for a long, long time. You've seen them before, this is nothing new, but it's a great personal challenge for me to start shooting more photos and to get to know my new DSLR. The photos won't always be great (as you'll see in these first few entries) and they probably won't be posted every day, but I will take photos every day and be honest with myself and you about posting photos that were actually taken on the day that I say they are. They won't always be exciting, they probably won't always be good, but they'll be there.

So here's to documenting my 33rd year!

Birthday Fun

I had a great birthday this year, but I did a horrible job of documenting it, so you'll have to enjoy just a few photos. I woke up crazy early, kind of excited about the day, and cleaned off my desk. This might sound silly, but I really like to start my year off right, and decluttering the desk seemed like the right thing to do. And I did feel better, and tired, after doing that, so I went back to bed and actually slept in a little bit, which is a minor miracle for this early bird.

I had given Mac the charge of planning something fun for the day and he did a great job. We started out by heading to the Golden Nugget Flea Market in Lambertville, NJ. We took the scenic route there and just enjoyed the drive (part of which was on Rt. 612). We enjoyed browsing the flea market, but neither of us bought anything. Maybe next time...
Our next stop was for lunch in Lambertville. We ended up at a cute little deli (see the Project 365 photo) with great sandwiches. Then we walked over to the River Horse brewery for a tasting and tour. We missed the official tour, but Mac had been there before, so he showed me around. It's a small operation, but they put out some good brews. And for $1 we got to taste the 4 beers they had on tap. It was a really fun end to our little jaunt through Lamberville.

Our next stop was (for me) one of the most exciting parts of the day. We headed into Philly and drove straight to Calumet Photographic, where I plunked down some hard earned money for my new DSLR: a Nikon D90! I got the kit with a zoom lens and I splurged for a really nice 60mm macro lens as well. I'm really looking forward to getting to know this camera.

Our next stop was to drop our stuff off at the hotel where we stayed for the night. It was a really fun splurge to get a hotel for the night, but it worked out great. A bunch of Mac's friends were in town for Drexel's graduation and they were staying there as well. We then headed out to meet up with Kim, Mike and Meg for delicious dinner at Ariana Afghan restaurant.

I really love Afghan food. It's so flavorful, but not too spicy. We sat at the table in the window where you sit on cushions at a low table. The restaurant is BYOB, so I got to enjoy some of Mike's homebrewed beer and Kim brought a bottle of wine, too. It was a lovely dinner, even if it was a little warm in the restaurant.

And what's the best thing to do when you're a little warm? Go get ice cream, of course! After dinner we walked over to Franklin Fountain and stood in line for some delicious ice cream treats. The wait was totally worth it, especially since we were entertained by the 4-year-old in line in front of us. She was really excited about getting ice cream and was thrilled to have an adoring audience. It was pretty funny.

After dessert, Mac and I headed out to meet up with his friends for drinks at a bar close to the hotel. It was nice to meet his friends and to enjoy the warm evening with some cool drinks. After that we all walked back to the hotel.

I had to work at the Paper Source on Sunday, so I headed out of town pretty early, but Mac stuck around to catch up with some more folks who were in town for the weekend. I dropped him off at brunch in Philly and headed back into Princeton. It was a great way to spend my birthday!