friends « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

friends

friends / photo / weekend — Comments Off
2
Oct 16

On our return trip, an all-too-brief stop

On our way back to Bloomington we had the chance to stop and have lunch with our friends Justin and RaDonna and Atticus. Justin and I worked together for about two years in Birmingham. Now he’s at the big G in Nashville and we’re at the ol’ IU in Bloomington and who would have seen this coming in 2004?

That is what we didn’t talk about. We did discuss work, and the state of things, and how awesome Atticus is, and when they’re all coming to see us and how the length of the drive was seriously curtailing our ability to visit for longer and various big ideas we all have.

You say this a lot, but they are just some of the sweetest people, and it takes no time at all for JT and Rad to be your friends. Then it just feels like you’ve known them forever, and when you do have the chance to reunite, it seems like you never left. You need more friends like that in life, because there would never be enough of that sort.

friends / Monday / photo — Comments Off
8
Aug 16

Pictures from the weekend

Allie and I spent part of the weekend watching the bike races:

But later she found a cable on the ground and curled up inside of it:

So now I have to leave circles everywhere, apparently.

Also, we hung out with The Mayor and her parents for a dinner party:

And I saw this at the office this morning. No idea, yet, what it is. Any guesses?

Probably some sort of drying air circulator or something like that. But I like the handles. Has a very Sean Connery-era James Bond feel to it.

family / friends / history / IU / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
8
Jun 16

A walk around part of the IU campus

Today one of our friends and colleagues gave us a walking tour around the main part of the campus. It is a big place. Quite attractive. Almost all of the buildings are made from local limestone, so it sort of looks like Hogwarts. But it is also big enough that a quick walking tour makes it all a bit hard to digest. (Mostly I started wondering what they aren’t good at here. The reputation of this place is pretty incredible.) It’ll take a bit of time.

But, here, this is part of our new building, Franklin Hall:

When I was up for my interview at the beginning of the year the students were still working away in Ernie Pyle Hall. The great journalist was an Indiana student and that’s his statue out front, there. When the students come back in the fall they’ll see his statue there, the famed Ernie Pyle desk inside and a lot of new opportunities.

Franklin dates back to 1907 but is right now enjoying the finishing touches of a $22 million renovation. You can’t go inside just yet. Next month, though, we move in. (Which is fine, I’m ready for a break from lifting and carrying cardboard.)

Franklin Hall was once the library, and later an administrative building and will now be home to the newly created Media School. It is going to be an incredible facility. My office is in there somewhere:

Right next to Franklin are the Sample Gates. Designed to look older than they are. They only go back to the 1980s, but the gates have a weird history prior to that. In the 1960s a donation toward building some version of the gates was consider “wasteful alumni spending” and ever since then alumni everywhere have been sure to spend their own money wisely.

Anyway, they are named after Edson Sample’s family:

In a twist of fate, it was long-time University director of scholarships and financial aid Edson Sample that provided the funding to build the Sample Gates in honor of his parents.

Schweir, the historian, says walking through the Sample Gates makes her feel like she’s stepping back in time. Starr, the artist, views them from a 21st century perspective.

“Every time I walk by it now, I don’t just see the Sample Gates,” says Starr. “I see Obama and Edward from Twilight and zebra skin and cheetah skin. You really transform the psychology.”

It took 90 years to get there.

We built our new grill and gave it a tour tonight:

I tasted beef and roasted vegetables. No Edward from Twilight, though.

adventures / cycling / friends / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
25
May 16

More outdoorsy pictures

The Yankee and Matt. He threw a flat right there, and that was basically the end of our ride.

And this was the next-to-the-last ride here. But we’re not going to make a big deal about that. I’m kind of tired of it, and … some other thing … about it. I started riding bikes as stress relief and … some other thing. And then it became about exercise and then, finally, I discovered that there was a freedom thing to it. But I only noticed that because I really started noticing the sites. Here are some sites:

adventures / cycling / food / friends / Monday / photo — Comments Off
23
May 16

Stuff we’ve been doing

Two roads diverged on a paved path and I — I took the one that went up.

Well it went up a little.

We were riding bikes, obviously:

This is in Columbus, on the Chattahoochee Riverwalk:

You are standing here on a bridge across the river. On your left is Alabama. On your right is Georgia. Not pictured are two guys, one on a kayak and another on a paddle board. I just assume they were the Georgia Coast Guard:

My biscuit and gravy from Plucked Up Chicken. I miss it already:

Now, as I’ve said here before, go get yourself some lightly breaded chicken and some spicy pineapple marmalade. Put it on a fresh biscuit:

There was a Game of Thrones party last night. There were costumes. Those are staying in the private collection — but the group managed a great beheading shot. Also, there were snacks:

A little more detail on Ned Stark’s head:

Baked goods are coming. Inside, he was a cupcake:

We went back to Columbus today for another bike ride (that’s about 150 miles in the last week) with Matt the former grad student. He’s getting married in the fall and continuing his studies in South Carolina.

We’ll get maybe another ride or two in with him before he goes, but no more Plucked Up, sadly.