"Pray for our country"— words indicative of the times. Washington has seen rough weather before and so has the economy, but we've always made it through the storm. The Washington Monument is a standing testament to this. The Washington Monument was only half-finished in the 1850s when lack of funds and the delicate state of the union forced construction to be halted. In 1885, the obelisk was completed, but forever marked by the unsteady times our nation had once faced— the marble used to complete the monument was a different color than the original marble. The two shades of the monument tell the story of our once divided country. We've been faced by dark times in the past, but we've always pulled through greater and more complete than before. So until we've hurdled our latest obstacle, please, pray for our country.

       Here are a few photos that I've taken with my phone using an app called instagram.

The Lake

The Lake Pt. II

Pillbug

Farmers' Market

Farmers' Market Pt. II

Farmers' Market Pt. III

       I have this weird delusion that I'm a lot more rugged than I actually am. I fancy myself the Brawny man or the hero of some western, but the truth is, if the zombie apocalypse were to come tomorrow I think I'd probably starve to death pretty quickly. I know this because this week I attempted to forage for my food. I decided that I would only eat what I could forage for three days. So, on day one, I got up at 0430, strapped the kayak onto the car and hit the lake. The plan was to catch my lunches and dinners for the next few days. The plan failed. After several hours on the lake, inadvertently submerging my phone and hanging a few irrecoverable lines in trees, I retreated home. By the early afternoon, the grasshopper sitting on the hood of my car looked mighty tasty. That's when I decided that I was basically attempting to prove that I could starve myself for three days. I gave up and rode off into the sunset like Shane, or maybe more like the coward Robert Ford. Regardless, I realized that my foraging skills are shit. I'll keep my fingers crossed the zombies don't decide to go apocalypsing any time soon.

       With foraging off the table, going to the farmers' market seemed like the next rugged thing. I love fresh produce —green tomatoes, red tomatoes, potatoes, cantaloupe, peaches, etc. We bought some of each and then some. Thankfully, that means no grasshoppers for me. And now I'd like to leave you all with a little joke that I just made up: "What did the dad say to the melonhead dating his daughter...? You cantaloupe."

Alexander's Southern Style Sweet Tea

Alexander's Southern Style Sweet Tea Pt II

       Feel special because you are looking at the first test-batch of Alexander's Southern Style Sweet Tea. Made out of five different brands of tea, we at Alexander's are looking for the teabags that will bring you the best flavor. All of our water is filtered before the brewing process to ensure the same great taste every time. Better than your grandma makes it, look for Alexander's to hit the shelves sometime in the distant future.

       Now that I've sold you on my product, I'd like to tell you just how much I love sweet tea. I am a sweet tea addict. I am so addicted to sweet tea that I had to buy myself a sweet tea maker at school just to get a fix. I'm so obsessed that I'm even backlighting tea in mason jars... so with all the good wishes of southern hospitality, I'd like to invite y'all to try some of my sweet tea and maybe you'll see why I'm vehemently hooked on the stuff.

This Just About Sums Up Indiana

Yes, I Went to Mars

Iris My Case

Gateway to the West

Gateway to the West Pt. II

       So I finally got to do a little bit of roadtripping this summer. The first stop on my three-legged journey was Chicago. The skyline made the hour of rush hour traffic almost bearable —you're welcome to the woman who saw me and possibly heard me belting out Bleeding Love with Leona Lewis. I met up with a friend in Chi-town and together we visited the Museum of Science and Industry as well as the Botanical Gardens of Chicago. After that I took off into space and took the picture of Mars featured above... whatever you're thinking, that's definitely not a photo of an exhibit at the MSI showing what a landslide would look like. I also bought a pipe in downtown Chicago. Swanky. Don't worry, I'm sure there will be pipe photos to come.

       Destination #2, St. Louis, was where I met up with an old buddy. We explored the Budweiser brewery where I bought about 50 koozies. Then we rode in spacepods up the St. Louis Arch. If you're claustrophobic and/or fat, I wouldn't recommend this. If you're claustrophobic, fat and afraid of heights, you can stop wondering why your boggart looks like a shiny upside-down "U." Fast and furious and angrily humid, my trip to St. Louis was a good one.

       The final leg of the journey brought me back home and gave new meaning to "triangular trade." Ok, so maybe paying an arm and a leg for gas doesn't warrant an allusion to the slave trade, especially considering there was no rum involved on leg three, but the heat was as oppressive as an overseer and my trip made such a pretty triangle that I couldn't help myself. 

       Well, so long summer.

       

A Baby Cope's Gray Tree Frog

A Baby Cope's Gray Tree Frog

The Swinger

A Midwestern Fourth

The First Firework

The Rocket's Red Glare

       Independence Day at Ft. Knox, KY.