I went to Father's Day, and an art festival broke out

So, Elayna and shadesong, aware of the fact that I always miss Father's Day (since Elayna is down with her grandparents), threw me a surprise early Father's Day brunch, and took me to Crescent Moon (which is tied with Flying Biscuit as my favorite brunch place). We had a yummy meal (I had the salmon florentine), and then we headed into Decatur proper to hit Java Monkey.

Along the way, we had noticed that the Decatur Arts Festival was going on, so after caffeinating, we spent a lot longer in Decatur than expected. We hit all the booths, and saw some beautiful stuff. Nifty sculptures, paintings, etc. I bought a gorgeous Cavallin & Co set of playing cards that are a reproduction of a 1819 French deck. I wish they had this deck online -- it's just amazingly beautiful. You just don't find decks of cards like this anymore. It even comes in a handcrafted box, complete with a wax imprint.

We also got a caricature of Elayna made, saw lots and lots of dogs (including the largest dog I've ever seen -- a great dane who was bigger than some horses), bought gifts for a friend (both shadesong and I found stuff for the same friend separately -- it was stuff that just screamed this person's name), and wished we had a lot more money than we did. Got lots of business cards and urls, as there were some talented people there who should be supported.

Great moment: We're sitting at Javamonkey, and looking over the program.

Me, to shadesong: Oh, cool. Kristian Bush is here.
Elayna: Isn't George Bush the guy who cheated?
Me: Yeah, but Kristian isn't like him. He sings songs protesting George.
Elayna: Oh. Then how come he has the same name?
Me: Just because they've got the same name doesn't mean they're related. There are good people named Bush. They just don't happen to be close relatives of George.

After a couple of hours, we headed home, where they gave me their presents:

From Elayna, a copy of the new Weird Al CD ("Poodle Hat"), and the Peter David novelization of The Hulk.

From shadesong: Season 1 of Angel.

It's a good Father's Day. :-)

Happiness is a new Weird Al CD

Okay, I love this CD. Aside from nice parodies (including a song co-written by Lauren Christy), there's the artist parodies (something he's done a few times in the past with Talking Heads, Beastie Boys, and NIN). THis time, we get three of 'em including ones of Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan (with every line a palindrome), and, in perhaps Al's finest moment, a nine-minute parody of Frank Zappa that is nothing short of amazing (it even has a guitar intro by Dweezil). The CD also has some nice multimedia bonuses, including remixes and home movies.

Moxy Früvous now has only my second favorite Spider-Man related song of all time.

I'll have that plain, please

Me, to Elayna after she whined about wanting her dessert now: You want instant gratification on your Jello, don't you?

Elayna: No! I just want plain Jello!