got a late start yesterday and saw cool shit
first, today is the forty-fifth anniversary of the moon landing. raise your glass to neil armstrong and buzz aldrin and michael collins and all the men and women whose hard work and dedication got them to the moon and - more importantly - back home.
it's still such an amazing thing, that human beings have walked and played golf and taken pictures and left their bootprints on the moon.
yesterday my sister and i went to newport, ri, as a random day trip, and even tho the weather was eh (cloudy but not hot and humid) and we got a late start, fun was had. the black ships festival was going on, but we got there slightly too late to take real advantage of it, plus we ended up going to see the touro synagogue instead. it's the oldest synagogue in the country (altho not the oldest congregation, which is in new york) and we coincidentally met a guy who has belonged to it for thirty years. we were standing on the corner looking at the little map we got from the visitors' center, and this guy asked what we were looking for. so we told him. and he said, basically, "it's right there" and "i've been a member for thirty years". so of course he had to tell us about the place - it was founded by spanish and portuguese jews, it was one of only two buildings to survive the revolutionary war (the other was an anglican church), the rabbi when this guy joined the congregation was irish and the mayor of dublin had belonged to his first irish congregation. also the cantor at the time became a rabbi at eighty. which, wow.
they also have a community center across the street, which used to be farther down the street but was cut in half and moved by horse-drawn cart at the beginning of the last century. those poor horses. it's not a small building.
i took some pictures.
that's the synagogue. the door on the left is where the women enter. (it's an orthodox congregation - men and women sit separately.)
the building on the right is the synagogue's visitors' center, which also has a museum inside. the building on the left also belongs to the synagogue but they're still fixing it up. the flowers and landscaping are lovely.
this just made me wonder how many jews fought in the revolutionary war. i mean, some of us had to.
a random window from the seamen's church institute, which was near where we had dinner.
after dinner (fried clams, fry-fries, and cole slaw for me, cod for my sister) (oh my cod!) i got some fudge from a pretentious and overpriced chocolate store - i wanted some fudge and it was there - and then i missed pretty much every exit driving home. >.< but i have fudge. :D
now i'm watching the strain and because i only half paid attention last week, i have almost no idea what's going on or who anyone is. however! it's got kevin durand as - apparently - a russian cop/fbi agent/law enforcement of some type, and i can get behind that. (so far all he's done is talk to his cat, but he was wearing a badge on a chain around his neck like law enforcement types do on tv, so.)
oh, he's with new york pest control. still russian, tho. kevin durand speaking russian is kind of hot.
i have almost no desire to go to work tomorrow. bleh. altho coworker d comes back after having been out since the beginning of may, and that will be nice.
it's still such an amazing thing, that human beings have walked and played golf and taken pictures and left their bootprints on the moon.
yesterday my sister and i went to newport, ri, as a random day trip, and even tho the weather was eh (cloudy but not hot and humid) and we got a late start, fun was had. the black ships festival was going on, but we got there slightly too late to take real advantage of it, plus we ended up going to see the touro synagogue instead. it's the oldest synagogue in the country (altho not the oldest congregation, which is in new york) and we coincidentally met a guy who has belonged to it for thirty years. we were standing on the corner looking at the little map we got from the visitors' center, and this guy asked what we were looking for. so we told him. and he said, basically, "it's right there" and "i've been a member for thirty years". so of course he had to tell us about the place - it was founded by spanish and portuguese jews, it was one of only two buildings to survive the revolutionary war (the other was an anglican church), the rabbi when this guy joined the congregation was irish and the mayor of dublin had belonged to his first irish congregation. also the cantor at the time became a rabbi at eighty. which, wow.
they also have a community center across the street, which used to be farther down the street but was cut in half and moved by horse-drawn cart at the beginning of the last century. those poor horses. it's not a small building.
i took some pictures.
that's the synagogue. the door on the left is where the women enter. (it's an orthodox congregation - men and women sit separately.)
the building on the right is the synagogue's visitors' center, which also has a museum inside. the building on the left also belongs to the synagogue but they're still fixing it up. the flowers and landscaping are lovely.
this just made me wonder how many jews fought in the revolutionary war. i mean, some of us had to.
a random window from the seamen's church institute, which was near where we had dinner.
after dinner (fried clams, fry-fries, and cole slaw for me, cod for my sister) (oh my cod!) i got some fudge from a pretentious and overpriced chocolate store - i wanted some fudge and it was there - and then i missed pretty much every exit driving home. >.< but i have fudge. :D
now i'm watching the strain and because i only half paid attention last week, i have almost no idea what's going on or who anyone is. however! it's got kevin durand as - apparently - a russian cop/fbi agent/law enforcement of some type, and i can get behind that. (so far all he's done is talk to his cat, but he was wearing a badge on a chain around his neck like law enforcement types do on tv, so.)
oh, he's with new york pest control. still russian, tho. kevin durand speaking russian is kind of hot.
i have almost no desire to go to work tomorrow. bleh. altho coworker d comes back after having been out since the beginning of may, and that will be nice.