Also, yesterday we went to my most favoritist local event, the Beaver Queen Pageant! It is a yearly event to raise funds for the Ellerbe Creek Watershed (thereby protecting the local beaver population), and is filled with many tragic puns and double entendres and overall abuse of the words beaver, tail, and dam. Different people compete to become the Beaver Queen and their friends bribe the judges to ensure that they win.

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Peace, Love, and Beavers, Durham.

I drive under the bridge where Chapel Hill Road passes over 15-501B.
Here it is:



And after 6 months or so of doing so, I begin to think, hm, what is that little splotch of white? could it be paint?



no! somebody much braver (and probably younger and at a developmental stage where mortality seems like a very silly concept) left a garden gnome lounging on the bridge, keeping an eye on the traffic passing below. It was very nice of them to do so and makes me smile now when I pass that way.

Here's me and Sandy galloping furiously away on the back of a magical unicorn



also, I smashed my finger :( my brother in law says it is not broken but I am not convinced.

with my random photos of Durham project! And I took a LOT this weekend!

Here is one of my favorite sights in Durham, Major the bull:



and, because, I'm 12:



hee hee.

there are actually random urban legends about what is hidden inside of his balls (a million dollars from a bank robbery is a popular one).

On a totally unrelated note (except I was hoping to see them downtown yesterday), a movie called "Main Street" is being filmed in Durham and I keep hearing about Colin Firth and Orlando Bloom sightings! We really hoped to see them yesterday when we were running around with a pony-sized paper mache unicorn (and taking pictures of testicals). That would have really impressed them, I bet.

edited to add: I wasn't deliberately making a pun with the post title but now it's making me laugh.

Also, last friday I had to scrape ice off my car before I left for work. the past 3 days, it has been in the 90's. are we not going to get a spring?

Also, Lisa took this amazing picture that represents the many, many things that make Durham the particularly strange place that it is:



Thanks for letting me steal the photo, Lisa! I have gotten very behind in my strange Durham project. If you want, you can go ahead and update my blog as well as taking photos, ok?

This is one of my favorite random things in Durham!
It's an old abandoned shopping center in the process of being torn down! ( Unusual, I know. )

A project I've had in mind for a while is taking photos of many random and silly things that Derm is full of. I am a big fan of strange roadside attractions, i.e. South of the Border, and I think local ones are just as fun, if not as spectacular. And Durham seems to be a particularly good place to find them; for example, I worked in Wake county for about 9 months and the only things I ever wanted to take a picture of were the giant acorn and the canada geese that decided to lay eggs in front of the entrance to the Cary mall. So anyway, to kick it off, here are a couple photos I took today:



I would really like to know more about the history of this! It's just a heap of rocks by the side of the road, with a sign on top (well, I guess you can see that). Why are they so special they get a sign? Are they like the tree that owns itself? Why don't they have a mailbox?

And this one makes me laugh every time I drive by it:


Well OK, then. I guess I will keep out of your dumpster.