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You know how people put plastic animals and strange pieces of art in their front yard?  Flamingos are a common lawn ornament.  So are those weird shiny orbs that sit on a pole and reflect light.  Some people like pinwheels...

My Polish neighbors love lawn ornaments.  Their house is directly across the street from mine.  They not only have flamingos, but they have santa clauses, panda bears, and of course, spider man.  Oh, yeah... their panda bear wears a conductor's cap and holds an american flag...

A while ago my dad was visiting my house.  His car was in the driveway and he was in the backyard.  I saw his car rolling down my driveway, without him in it.  The brake must have been off because it traveled all the way across the street, busted through my Polish neighbor's picket fence, and flattened many of their ornaments...

The neighborhood went crazy.  Joseph, the man of the house, came running out accusing me of drinking of driving.  He doesn't speak English and didn't understand that the car rolled by itself accidentally.  People started gathering around to see the commotion.  It was a very eventful day on Webster street... 

I had someone fix the fence right away.  I'm not sure what happened to the ornaments, but I'm guessing they got a proper burial...

So the questions for you are:

1.  Is it typical for Polish people to have lawn ornaments?

2.  Do you have a favorite lawn ornament?

3.  Is there a nice traditional Polish gift I could give to the family to show how sorry I am? 

This weekend I was lucky enough to eat dinner in a greenhouse.

Plate and Pitchfork is a dinner event held at different farms throughout the summer.  The food for the meal is from the host farm, the wine is from a local winery, and the cooks are from the most popular restaurants in town.

After drinking wine in a field, we were given a tour of the farm, and then seated in the greenhouse for the meal.  The food was great and our table even won a prize in the night's contest.

I went camping at the coast this weekend.  So nice to leave town and get a little dirty...

I finally gave in and bought a big stove and air mattress for the trip.  We were car camping so why use the backpacking stove and thermarest?  I can tell you the upgrade made life much nicer...

One other thing I learned - check the weather report before you go.  At 3am I woke up to rain on my face and had to put the rain fly up in the wet darkness.  All part of the adventure, I guess, and a good excuse to stay in the tent all the next day...