The Lawn Dino and Other Tales
Dug
Originally uploaded by gnat23 I'm not going to say it was a spontaneous purchase, but rather something I had been thinking about and scheming for a long time. It started with a drive on Highway 92 towards Half Moon Bay, and off to the left are these huge orange tin dinosaurs for sale. Locals will know exactly where I'm talking about. They have lots of other things there, stone angels and fountains and mirrored spheres on pedestals and gigantic pottery, but in the front yard are half a dozen 13-foot dinos.
"Sheesh," escaped my mouth with a arm-waving flourish as we drove by. "I wonder who would actually buy one of those." And then my mouth remained agape as the realization thwacked me sideways. Well, duh, I would. I am that person, and I absolutely should.
We asked. It was prohibitively expensive. Our front yard would absolutely not be able to contain the massive counterbalancing tails. We looked around a bit more and I sulked away, defeated.
I started to ponder a smaller 6-foot T-Rex that was tucked in the back between an garden arch and a concrete birdbath. He was within my price range, I guess, if you can realistically set a budget for these things. We price-checked elsewhere and, well, their 3-foot dino was $500. But while he was cute, he didn't have much for impact. I mean, it's more unique than a garden gnome, but I wanted to be that house,, I wanted to be the one neighbors referenced for directions, the one that evoked squeals of delight from stoned teens, and the thing that eventually gets linked on Google Streetview for sheer awesomeness.
So I turned over my credit card, and a few hours later a pickup truck and two smiling movers arrived in our front yard with our new friend, Dug. And we are now THAT house, and it's just as awesome as you can imagine.
In other awesome news, we spent a random weekend at Bonnaroo, the huge music festival in Tennessee. Over a day and a half or so, we saw Primus, Arcade Fire, Bootsy Collins, Eminem, and Scissor Sisters. For various reasons, we missed Lewis Black, Henry Rollins, Bela Fleck, the Decemberists, NOFX, Dr. John and the Meters. I wore a pedometer one day and logged over 19000 steps. We spent three hours on the tarmac at Chattanooga and an accidental overnight in Charlotte trying to get home. The BBQ was pretty good tho.
Oh yah, then work had a party, where we got to see Daughtry, Sheryl Crow, and Maroon 5. Wasn’t familiar with most of those bands, but you know, free hot dog in the ball park in the sun with music, I’m not going to complain.
Other random little weekend trips, still trying to manage wedding planning, and well life is good.