D is for...

delighted to bring you

La Vida Encyclopedia: Volume D!

It's been a while (*ahem... four months) since I've written a LVL Encyclopedia entry, so I thought I'd post a few of my current "D" favorites:

Dairy Godmother, the

Two weeks ago, I hung out at my sister's apartment for a week in Alexandria while Dan worked in D.C. completing a short fellowship with C-SPAN. Besides once again seeing Wicked (still love it!) and catching up over dinner with friends in Georgetown, Dan and I also decided to visit the famous Dairy Godmother for sundaes.

Besides their creamy frozen custard, this sweet shop is famous for two things: cute atmosphere and a visit from the president and his daughters.

I appreciated the adorable fairy tale theme, with a giant magic wand in the front window:

stars to distract from the office space foam tiled ceiling:

and wands for sale at the front counter:

Yes, even though President Obama's visit was over two years ago, The Dairy Godmother has immortalized this claim to fame in a chalkboard and by bedazzling the chair Mr. President sat in, of course.




Dan and I were kind of surprised that the shop sold only three flavors of frozen custard at first. I like the old-school simplicity of it, though, like an old ice cream parlor you'd find on a beach boardwalk or something. Besides, what's better for sundaes than plain ole vanilla?








We walked around the surrounding area (Del Ray in Alexandria), which has the most charming main street and neighborhoods. There were bungalows with over-flowing window boxes that made me want to overhaul the front of our house. Might have to be a summer project I try later in August. There were coffee houses and book stores that I wanted to peruse. Oh, and there were enough puns on the main street to make Carrie Bradshaw happy-sigh. For instance, a sign for a meat and cheese shop read, "Let's Meat on the Avenue" and a Mexican restaurant pronounced itself "The Tac-O the town!" Let's just say the Dairy Godmother is in good com-"pun"-ny with these other cutesy stores.


That was bad. I'll leave the puns to the Del Ray business owners. On to the next "D" entry...

Dogs on parade

When we're in Richmond for the 4th of July, Dan and I like to go to the rinky-dink Ashland parade. There are no floats, no marching bands, and no beauty queens waving. Nuh-uh. Instead, there are kids riding red, white, and blue bikes and dogs.

We go for the dogs. Should I say, more precisely, Dan makes me go to watch the Bassett Brigade. He had a bassett named Lucas that he loved as a kid and he never gets tired of watching these droopy guys mosey down the main street. They crack me up too because inevitably one of them will catch wind of an interesting scent and he's off in the wrong direction while his owner tries to coax him to finish the course.

This year, we snapped a pic of this guy in his Independence Day best. Gotta hope that isn't paint...

Of course, the dogs on parade isn't the only thing this event has to offer. It usually ends with the lawn chair brigade, where a troop of retirees march down the street with a lawn chair looped over their left arm. They stop and unfold the chairs with military precision and rest every so often. It never fails to kill the Ashland attendees every year!

DSLR camera

Why I want to save my tutoring money to buy one of these babies:


* I want my boring pictures of dogs on parade to come out clearer


* I want to take pretentious photos of trees and leaves and title them "Leaves Series 1" and "Tree Series 2"

* I've heard repeatedly that a DSLR camera is magic and will make my pictures brighter, clearer, and the people in said photos will look prettier and their hair will appear amazing, but of course the camera will airbrush the rest of the body to be cellulite and hair-free. Or at least this Italian girl is hoping for the latter things.


* Yeah, I had to Google "DSLR", I'm not sure what "aperature" is exactly, and I couldn't give an eff about learning about "white balancing", but I like pretty pictures. In the modified words of David Sedaris, "Me snap pretty one day".


Basically, I'm not looking to become another wannabe photographer. I just want to be able to have slightly better ones for me and my blog. Keeping sort of an online scrapbook, challenging myself to try new things and documenting those efforts, and being able to share bits of my very ordinary life with other is what I like best about keeping this blog. I'm planning on slowly saving money to get a DRSL... errr... DSLR camera and lens to have some more fun on here.


And yeah, if I save my pennies and actually get one of these babies, I guess I'll have to pick up a "Photography for Dummies" and actually learn more too as I don't think simply clicking a button will do much. Perhaps a future Just Do It challenge?


Just had to get one more "D" in before I ended with my favorite:

Dan (also see: Danimal)

Enough said.