American Gods

In a very important scene in the book American Gods, the main characters Wednesday and Shadow make their way to House on the Rock. Actually Wednesday takes Shadow to House on the Rock, more specifically the Carousel room. The pictures above are of the Carousel mentioned in the book where Shadow realizes that Wednesday is none other than the Norse god Odin.

98 and 23...

This is part of my Alabama trip. I went to visit my 98 year old great-grandmother on my dad's side. This is her one time this year to get to see me before I go back to Bahrain. I am her oldest Great-Grandkid.

House on the Rock!

These are flower pots. Believe it or not, I have a new definition of "Through the Looking Glass"... outside of Bahrain as a whole, this is it. We were greeted by these sculptures with flowers...and if you're wondering, yes, those are dragons and lizards on the pots.

This was a working piece of art. the frame is open and live music poured out from the moving instruments. It was beautiful. Brings a whole new meaning to music box... this was a shadow box in a wall with full sized instruments. :)
Welcome to the Infinity room. I'm at the far end looking back to the rest of the house.

Stained glass and Tiffany lamps were everywhere in this house. Also stained glass windows from churches were found at every corner. This is an example of both lamp and window. The window was turned on it's side, lit from underneath and used as a coffee table. Really neat!
This is the "Witch of Endor" Now, I can laugh at this for a few reasons, one being Endor. Endor is a planet in the Star Wars Galaxy where the Second Death Star got blown up.

More from House on the Rock in a later post!

Springfield!

at the Lincoln tomb--rubbing the nose is apparently good luck or something. I haven't figured this one out because Lincoln died in unfortunate ways as did most of his family... what luck?
This just made me laugh because I don't consider myself to be a responsible adult most of the time unless I'm in front of a class of high schoolers.... that I wouldn't really consider children most of the time anyway. So children must be supervised by a responsible adult... hrm.... certainly not me.

In the Land of Lincoln we hit up the Lincoln house, Lincoln museum, the Lincoln tomb AND a really cool museum on funerary practices in the US. I know I'm a bit morbid but I thought it was worth it to see the history of embalming and burial practices in the US. We were in the area, it was an entertaining stop.

St. Louis!

Look, look! It's an arch! A big one too!


Yep, Budweiser is from St. Louis. Went on the big tour. saw the horses, the dog, the whole thing. Kinda neat, even though I don't drink beer...
At Union Station St. Louis there was a cute mural and I had to get a pic of it. Mind you, this was BEFORE book 7 came out. I still think it's neat!

domestic tree hugger...

As opposed to the international tree hugger in April. This is actually at the Arch in St. Louis. I've been on a road trip with my mom hitting spots in the mid-west that I've wanted to see again. This is one of those sites (obviously).

Un-holy cow...

Yep, in the great state of Indiana, cows are not worshipped as they may be in India. This makes for not so great conversation when you have to explain your morning activity--herding a single cow that had gotten out of it's field somehow...yep that is a single cow, just one, out of the field and my mom and I spent a grand total of 15 min to get it herded back into the field (should have only taken 5--if that). Bessy just wouldn't follow our herding directions--obviously my mom and I make lousy herding dogs.

Back home again in Indiana...

Ok, I'm back in Indiana. I've seen one set of grandparents, the little sister, the Methodist church (several decent people that have known me since high school), and lots of time in the car.

So far, bacon is the big thing that I'm getting re-aquainted with. yep, I like pork.