random musings

the wonderings of a wandering mind

October 2007

Home: Halloween in Mt. Pleasant

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

[Photo]
CRW_7140.CRW, originally uploaded by [collin].

Unbelievable the number of kids out in Mt. Pleasant tonight.

After dropping a friend off in Northeast, I drove through Capitol Hill, Shaw, Petworth and Columbia Heights on the way home … and saw probably 20 kids in 20 minutes (that’s one kid per minute for those playing at home).

As soon as I crossed 16th street, however, I saw packs (PACKS!) of kids toddling from house to house (princesses and angels were big this year, with a strong second for little boys in vampire caps). I would hate pull a National Park Service here, but the count was easily in the hundreds.

I’m guessing not all of them were local, too. I saw every kind of car stuffed with kids heading into the fray — trick or treaters whose parents who had obviously driven across the city. One of the streets west of Mt. Pleasant Ave (not sure which, I drove for a very unusual 30 minutes looking for parking) was closed to handle the throngs.

Anyway, the secret is out: if you are under 5 and in D.C. looking to score some halloween candy then Mt. Pleasant is the place to be.

Home: Emergency Bathroom Remodel

Monday, October 29th, 2007

[Photo]
IMG_0852, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

So, a last week the bathroom vanity collapsed around 1 a.m. in the morning. On Sunday, we made an “emergency” trip to Home Depot, which of course led to an “emergency” bathroom remodel.

The most interesting part of the whole conversation is when we got to Home Depot and saw the exact same medicine cabinet that had collapsed the previous week ($99, fwiw). You would think we wouldn’t have even considered going down that road again, but … fortunately, thoughts of picking glass out of our cat’s hair won out.

home: halloween

Sunday, October 28th, 2007

[Photo]
IMG_0849, uploaded by [ecpark].

We had a couple of halloween parties to go to tonight (even though we only made it to one of them).

After many long evenings frantically digging through our closets, the lady sparkler decided she would go as David Beckham, and I decided I would go as the Pool Boy that my beloved brought back from Belize. You’ll notice the “Why Not Us?” Red Sox t-shirt which was a late addition … because the parties were poorly timed to coincide with Game 3 of the World Series (the nerve, really).

It’s incrediable how much you have to think when you are wearing a sarong. Getting in and out of the cab was almost comical, as was me sitting demurly on the couch (with my legs crossed at the knees) at the party. I don’t know how girls do it … well, except for Britney Spears who doesn’t seem to try very hard.

Wedding: The Abridged Belize

Saturday, October 27th, 2007

IMG_0356, Snorkeling off the Caye, Laughing Bird Caye, Placencia, Belize
IMG_0356, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

Now, there are always people who *say* they want to see pictures from the honeymoon, but aren’t prepared for the full 526 photo onslaught. For those, we have prepared something special: the 72 picture abridged Belize.

If you are looking for the full annotated story (the hard core Tasha & Evan enthusiasts, I presume) check out our more expansive “honeymoon” posts for a walk through our 10 amazing days in Belize.

Explore the Photo Set:
Honeymoon: The Abridged Belize

Home: 14 Years of Bad Luck

Thursday, October 25th, 2007

[Photo]
IMG_0831, uploaded by [ecpark].

We woke up this morning at 1 a.m. to the sounds of glass shattering. Never a fun thing to wake up to, we stumbled out of bed and found that the door to our medicine cabinet had collapsed into the middle of the bathroom floor. The cabinet had glass on both sides of the door, so we got a two-for-one discount on the 7-years of bad luck offer.

About a year ago, in our previous place, we woke up to a horrifically loud crash … I woke up with such a fright that I landed (literally) on top of the lady sparkler. Our bedroom closet shelving had collapsed. To this day, we don’t know if I was trying to protect her or if I was running away and just got stuck on top of her.

Anyway, all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put that vanity back together again. So, hi-ho, it’s off to Home Depot we go.

Website: theparkerfamily.org

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

theparkerfamily.org
vanya marx and czar natasha the great

Now that the wedding is over, we have to figure out what to do with tashaandevan.com … do we hold it in perpetuity as a last memento of the glory days of our engagement?

Sitting on the domain just seems unfair to the legions of Evanses and Tashas sure to follow (especially as evanandtasha.com appears to taken as well).

Instead, we have decided to take merge my web site (evancparker.com) with the engagement site, to form a brand-spanking new site called theparkerfamily.org. I had bought that domain for my parents for a Christmas almost five years ago (hi mom!) but sadly, nothing came of it (sorry mom!) and my mom ended up with a computer instead.

Anyway, if you want to keep track of the Sparklers from this point forward, you have come to the right place. You might want to grab our RSS Feed (if you are into that sort of thing) or sign-up to be notified by email when we post something new.

p.s. If you are wondering about the picture, for the last decade — dating back to when my vanity web site was unclevanya.com — my site has featured the same picture of my face on Karl Marx’ body that you see here. The new addition is the lady sparkler’s face gracing the body of Catherine the Great, who was arguably the most powerful female ruler of the last half millenium (it seemed fitting).

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