mom's visit

i've not written in over a week mostly because i was so busy with my mom's visit. she came in wednesday night and stayed until this morning. we had a jam-packed, fun time.

i had to work a good part of thursday because we were preparing for a big event for sexual assault awareness month. we did a free movie in the park where we showed the lifetime movie, speak, staring kristen stewart (of twilight acclaim). the event went so well! we had about 100* people there and mostly everything went off without a hitch.

mom and her friend sarah helped put up flyers around the park.


although they were a bit cold, i think they enjoyed the show.


mom's main purpose for being in town this week was because her friend was visiting. sarah works for the michael feldman show and they had a broadcast from columbia on saturday. if you don't remember, or didn't know, we met the michael feldman show four years ago when they were on their bus tour. they visited mom's house in cape may, nj. mom struck up a friendship with their stage manager. hence, the connection.

so on friday evening, after a busy day of shopping for mom and me, we met up with the what d'ya know folks and went out with michael, the cast, and some of the accompanying crew of the show. i was pleased that they chose hunter gatherer as their restaurant for the night. what a great representation of the fantastic food in our city. it was great to meet these folks again. they're all really fun to hang out with and share laughs.

on saturday mom, baldman, a friend, and i all went to the watch the broadcast show. of course, that was really neat to see. and we got to hang out backstage for a minute waiting for sarah to be ready. a bonus to that excitement was that while waiting, i got to sample hunter gatherer's new high gravity beer and homemade chocolate fudge from a fan. yum!

after the show we spent a better part of the day bumming around columbia and eating more good food before sarah caught her evening flight back to wisconsin.

saturday afternoon i was able to show mom the bee hive. everything is still looking really good! there is larva growing, and more eggs being laid. still can't find the queen. i'm beginning to think that she was unmarked even though she's supposed to have a little marking to help me find her. but i know she's doing her job. they have laid comb in about 4 or 5 of the foundation. and some of the comb is capped off, which is fantastic! things are progressing very well!


mom, the bee-uty queen


suiting mom up


opening the hive


mom takes a peak


frames set to the side

on sunday we went strawberry picking, which has become an annual event for me. i tried to take the somali kids like i usually do, but they were not to be found. oh well, that'll give me an excuse to do it again before the season's over. i'll have pictures of the strawberry picking when mom emails them to me.

*yes, the 100 people included about 25 homeless men. but they ate the popcorn and watched the movie so they definitely should be included in our count. still even if they weren't, 75 people is an excellent number for our the first year of this event!