Something #6

Last Saturday I was feeling a little bit better. Jon was gone all day working in the studio, but we had planned to eat lunch together.

I rode my bike to Arenberg Castle which is the campus where Jon spends most of his time, I'd say 85% these days. Anyway, it's a nice bike ride away and there are trails behind the castle. I thought I would explore this area after lunch a bit and get that exercise we were chatting about the day before.

Here is a picture of the castle from Jon's Flickr page. You should check out his photos. I think they are really good~ wish I had a better word than "good," because most are beautiful, but there are over 1,000 of them. What can I say? The man loves to take pictures.

The following photos are mine. One thing I forgot to mention in the last post: as I was going through the photos from 2007, I realized that I was not that great of a photographer. I hope they have improved, but realize that there is still room to grow. Anyway...

At lunch time we ate in a conference room. I'm not sure if we were supposed to be in there eating, but it was a special experience. The castle was built in 1515. Can you imagine?

1515!

Detail of the sculpture just above the capitals of the columns.

Even this fireplace was installed and used before the US was established (!)

1775

There are frescoes on the ceilings.

And even more behind the layers of paint on the walls.

Pretty cool, huh? Not a bad place to have lunch.

Afterwards I set out on my bike...

Then I remembered your little something in my pocket. I like opening the somethings outside of my house, mainly because I think you would enjoy that too.

Here she is! Something #6. It's flat and the picture totally cracks me up. I like your use of mixed media and vanishing point.

Let's open her up, shall we?

Oooh! Yay! Pretty PINK paper!

and...

Matches!

Yippee! We totally need matches. Jon dropped this same book in the toilet the other day. Oh, wait, the matches are gone, but I do see a note. Clever packaging for a note Steph!

It's a note about Tex-Mex. I am missing aspects of Tex-Mex, really just the cheeses - queso fresco, queso blanco, Monterrey Jack, etc. I was having a hard time finding beans, particularly pinto and black beans. The only beans that are readily available in the grocery stores are garbanzo, white, kidney and a few other legumes. However, I did find an Indian store that carried pinto beans. Woo hoo! I have also found some decent tortillas and the avocados are great! I should look for salsa to see what they have. Jon was asking about tomatillo salsa the other day ~ ahhhhh. Tomatillos.... My mouth is watering just thinking about it. And, another odd thing is that I have a had a strong craving for tequilla a couple of times. It just kind of hits ya. So, I'll be looking forward to happy hour whenever I come home...

Whenever that is.