Sometimes my work provides me with some unexpected photographic opportunities. On Friday I was asked to photograph a volunteer appreciation event that was taking place at the stadium prior to one of the home games of the local football team, the poorly named Edmonton Eskimos. I readily admit to having zero interest in this type of football, and even when I've won tickets in the past, I've chosen not to go (although I might have been convinced otherwise if Canadian football involved tailgate parties). I have, however, been sort of keen of being able to photograph inside the football stadium, if only to satisfy my addiction to taking pictures of empty seats. And satisfy that addiction I did. The volunteer event started well in advance of game time and I was free to wander around the relatively empty stadium in between the official program of the volunteer event and the game start time.



It had been raining just as we arrived at the stadium, so when I got my first glimpse of the empty seats, they were still covered in rain. A few players were on the field warming up and from my spot in the stands I got to watch as they tossed the ball back and forth and practiced running the length of the field. A few people headed towards their seats, but the majority held back and waited for the sun to dry what remained of the short rain storm.





Eventually the game began, and the referees, cheerleaders and players made their way out on the field. The stadium was by no means full, but as I was leaving (couldn't stay for the actual game), there were still throngs of people making their way to the stadium from the LRT.







It was a rather enormous spectacle. I haven't gone to any organized sporting event of that scale in a long time, so I rather enjoyed the novelty of the concession and it's stacks of hotdogs and hamburgers wrapped tightly in tinfoil. I didn't even mind the smell of spilled beer or the masses of rowdy and obnoxious fans. I suppose now after going to a football game I might as well give in and see a hockey game. Just one, so the experience can be equally novel.

Old Hollywood musicals are a guilty pleasure of mine. I don't love all old musicals (some are just too campy and ridiculous to be any good), but even when I think they aren't any good I still enjoy watching them. However, even with the abundance of Glee fans out there, I don't know too many people who share quite the same level of enthusiasm for this particular genre. When I was younger it was all about the songs and the dancing (some of it, I usually hated when there was a ten minute ballet tossed in the mix), but these days I have more of an appreciation of the colours. I'm not alone in my love of the costuming, set design, lighting... even apartmenttherapy commented on it recently. Not every musical pays quite the same attention to detail (which is painfully obvious in some cases), but the ones that do (An American in Paris, My Fair Lady), do it so well that I'm left in awe.


Throughout the year on Monday nights, the Edmonton Film Society screens old Hollywood classics at the Royal Alberta Museum. They run four series during the year, each consisting of eight movies organized under a particular theme. Much to my delight his summer's theme happened to be Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! Of course, I was either busy or just didn't attend the first six in the series, but when lucky number seven came along I made a date with Elize to check out "On Moonlight Bay" with the consistently perky Doris Day and Gordon MacRae. Not exactly my first choice of musical, since I don't really care too much for Doris Day musicals to me she will always be an actress who also sings, but that's because I was spoiled by seeing her first in Pillow Talk with Rock Hudson. But, like I said, even when I don't really think a musical is very good I still get some level of enjoyment out of it, so off we went.


I'll admit that I was a little surprised to see quite as big of an age discrepancy as there was in the audience. The average age had to have been at least 70. I felt positively juvenile in a room full of spritely senior citizens. But then I pulled out my knitting and balance was restored.


Before the movie we were treated to a short introduction from one of the members of the Edmonton Film Society, who gave a little background to the movie made up of funny little tidbits pieced from various wikipedia entries and assorted trivia. They acknowledged that the film was a very thinly veiled rip-off of Meet Me in St. Louis, a far superior film in all respects. The plot was predictable, there wasn't enough singing, but it was still funny. It was sort of surreal to watch a musical on the big screen. You gain a new appreciation for the films when you get a chance to sit with that many people and laugh at the absolute ridiculous of some of the scenes. The audience found some of the situational comedy in this film were particularly uproarious, especially anything involving the devilish younger brother who fabricated a story of an alcoholic and abusive father in order to get out of being caught asleep in class. Only in this era of musical, where the story and characters are so innocent, are we able to laugh at such broad humour without it having to be too dark.


Tomorrow night they're screening The Music Man (Robert Preston, Shirley Jones and a very very young Ron Howard). If I'm done the layout work for the freelance project I'm working on with Elize, we are going to try to celebrate with another evening at the museum. I hope we do, because I love The Music Man. It would be such a big finish to the film society's summer series of singing and dancing.

Since I started freelancing my working hours are completely unpredictable. That's entirely my fault, since I'm the one who decides that I will work later in the evening on a particular project. Of course this work schedule sort of disrupts my cooking schedule and this year, this summer in particular, I've been rather bad at cooking at home. *Slap on the wrist. My bad habits become even more regrettable when I finally do prepare a meal at home. It's so inexpensive and so easy. I don't know what the problem is. Suffice it to say, I leap at the opportunity to make an occasion out of home cooking, like when the gentleman suggested the other night that we make dinner together and eat a late night al fresco meal at our top-secret river valley lookout.

Eating late is tough for me. I start to get cranky and mopey the later in the evening it is till suppertime. Last night we didn't pick up our last few ingredients until close to 8pm, so you can imagine how pleasant I must have been. Understand of course that I grew up eating supper really early. I haven't quite broken the habit and since my first bout of aenemia I sort of let my cantankerous side roam free when the blood sugar levels drop. When I'm hungry I can be rather dramatic. I clutch my stomach and groan loudly. I plop myself down on the couch or daybed and let out exasperated sighs. I curl up by the window, staring outside and whimper rather pathetically (as pictured in the photo above). I'm a real treat. Most of the time I don't get any sympathy or I get a granola bar thrown at me (which will soothe the savage beast for a short period of time). Luckily, the gentleman was in a patient and understanding mood and encouraged me to quit my sulking and enjoy the fabulous view of the river valley sunset and moonrise. Even in my most sullen state I couldn't resist the charm of the High Level Bridge in the evening light.


It was really nice. We sat on the balcony for a bit and watched the trains pass by while the sun disappeared. We waited while the full moon rose up from behind one of the apartment buildings in the distance before we went back inside to cook dinner.




I didn't take any photos of our food prep, but we didn't make anything too fancy. Just a simple pasta dish... spaghettini with roasted tomatoes, green beans, ricotta and pine nuts which we paired with a glass or two of white wine. We ate back out on the balcony lit by the moonlight. My idea of an ideal summer evening.



All that was missing was the hammock on which to have a post-dinner nap.

I'm going to write a day by day breakdown of my visit to San Francisco, but first, here's a little summary of my evening out at the Hotel MacDonald for another behind-the-scenes tour organized by ArtsScene Edmonton.

The gentleman is a bit of a hotel connoisseur (on account of his good breeding and his work travel schedule... anyone who has had to do some business traveling in the past knows the value of a good hotel) so as a little present I bought us both tickets, so that we could take the tour and learn a little of the history of this Edmonton landmark while fraternizing with the young professional crowd on the Hotel Mac patio. Unfortunately, on the day of the party Edmonton was enveloped in smoke from British Columbia forest fires. As a result socialization sur le patio were cut short by the horrid air quality. Instead, the majority of the activity took place inside the Wedgwood Room. A few of us did venture outside briefly for a glimpse of the river valley that looking alternatively romantic and apocalyptic in the smoky haze.

Cue the music...


behind the scenes at the fairmont

Unfortunately there was nothing really romantic about the air quality. Throughout the day smoke had seeped inside buildings leaving people smelling more than slightly reminiscent of the backwoods, eyes reddened and voices hoarse from the particulate matter in the air. Sort of a hilarious lead up to an evening of networking in one of Edmonton's classiest hotels.



Other than the few minutes that I spent on the patio admiring the silhouette of the river valley, the rest of the evening was spent inside in the prettily detailed Wedgwood Room (inspired by the intricate work on Wedgwood china) snacking on the assortment of hors d'oeuvres and savouring our beverage of choice (savouring as the drinks were expensive. I heard more than a few discontented rumblings that a free drink was not included in the ticket price of this event).



I had worked later at the office than usual and as a result I didn't get a chance to go home in between work and the event. Of course I was carrying my laptop and camera equipment, but the coat check was a bit too open for my taste so I had the annoyance of carting around a heavy bag for the entire night (or rather whining for the gentleman to carry it for me, which he did). I guess I sort of expected there to be spots to sit. Ordinarily having to stand around wouldn't have been a problem, except my feet were absolutely killing me following the walking marathon that was my trip to San Francisco. Poor footwear choice on my part. I hadn't taken into consideration the amount of walking I would be doing during the day running from meeting to meeting, nor did I consider the different weight distribution from carrying my belongings in my pannier (so classy) versus a shoulder bag, nor did I think about the inevitable end-of-day foot swelling (always go shoe shopping at the end of the day). I probably could have avoided a lot of trouble if I had just thought to shove a pair of flats in my bag.



So, boring trivialities of my carrying too much and making poor end of day footwear choices aside (typical problems for me), there was some animated conversation with friends and a few assorted strangers while we all waited anxiously for our designated tour of the hotel to begin.




Our tour groups were large and fairly boisterous, which made it difficult to hear our guides. They gave us some general history of the building, with a few anecdotes about the hotel ghost and celebrity visits to the hotel.





The tour took us through the various spaces of the hotel, starting with the empire ballroom, the drawing room (once ladies only), the jasper room (for the gents), then upstairs to one of the suites on the 8th floor (reclaimed attic space), followed by a wander through the confederation lounge to the outdoor patio. I had originally been scheduled to go on one of the first set of tours, but the gentleman was running late so I swapped our spot for one of the later groups. It was a wise decision. It was dusk by the time we had finished checking out the suite. Wade had wandered down the hallway while we waited for the elevator to head downstairs and discovered a window that overlooked one of rooftop spires. You could just make out some of the lights from across the river. The view from the patio was equally scenic. It was a real shame that the smoke had prevented us from really taking advantage of the space. If only it had been misty rather than smoky.





We left shortly after the tour (and our little bonus tour where we got to see the staff-only areas), but I heard that the party (and after party) continued into the night. I took my tired feet home.

My younger sister and I have just returned from a six day trip to San Francisco. There was a bit of a crazy seat sale when I first came back from my spring break trip to Washington and New York and the younger sister and I decided that we should plan a sisters trip (well, a fifty percent sisters trip since my two older sisters were unable to attend).

It was a busy six days and the Alessandra and I had a great time exploring the different neighbourhoods of the city. Our schedule went more or less like this... we woke up, took our turns getting ready, then headed out the door of the hotel, sometimes stopping for a danish at a nearby cafe and then we would walk to our neighbourhood of choice. We would check out the sights for a bit, then grab lunch (great recommendations of where to eat from my friends Tom and Lisa, as well as one of my coworkers). Then we would wander around some more, grab dinner and then head back to the hotel to recoup for the next day. Seems sort of tame but when you take into account that we averaged around 15km of walking a day (with a fair amount of San Francisco hills thrown in more good measure) we definitely needed time to rejuvenate our tired soles. We went out a couple nights, but mostly I used the downtime to download and edit some of the photos and video I shot during the day. Which meant I actually posted daily photo updates from our explorations. Which of course means that I'm sort of on top my vacation photos for once. And to top it all off, I've even edited my vacation video.

six days... seven minutes. Enjoy.



sisters in san francisco

The last five days have been dedicated to folk fest. Things are sort of back to normal but the younger sister and I are off to San Francisco on Wednesday so I'm sort of busy making sure that I complete a bunch of things before I leave. One if those things is this summary of my weekend at Folk Fest. This is sort of a lazy post, since I'm just posting the videos (and their brief descriptions) that I shot over the course of the last five days. But those videos took a bit of work to edit, so in the end it all balances out.

Wednesday

A friend of mine had a pair of tickets to Van Morrison's performance at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. What a windfall! It was the one night I didn't have tickets for. After work I met the gentleman at the university where we hopped on the bus at the park n' ride which took us directly to Gallagher Park. The line up to get in spanned three blocks, but the queue moved along quickly. Once inside we met up with some friends who had found a spot on the hill, then wandered down to get some eats. After our al fresco dinner we headed back up the hill, just in time for Van Morrison to take the stage.



Thursday

This is the first time that I have taken in the entirety of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. Over the past few years I've been able to attend a couple days, but this year I bought a weekend pass (and one for my younger sister for her birthday) and we planned to attend the entire weekend.

Well, not exactly the entire weekend. We didn't do the full experience, which would entail arriving early for the tarp lottery (we had very experienced and generous friends who were the appointed tarp-masters...). Younger sister and I are also a bit susceptible to the heat and sun, so we paced ourselves and went a bit later in the afternoon/evening, since she faints at the drop of a hat and I just get heat stroke.

Thursday night was just the right temperature. We walked to the festival grounds with our friend Lisa and then found the rest of our crew higher up on the hill. We positioned ourselves for the evening show. None of the Thursday performer's really dazzled me. Gord Downie was off and Ben Harper failed to ignite any enthusiasm in me. But the lovely thing about Folk Fest is, that even when the performers on stage fail to really excite you, you can revel in the company of your tarp-mates or neighbours on the hill and take in the gorgeous view of the crowd and the glowing downtown skyline behind the stage.



Friday

Friday night at the folk fest... younger sister and I arrived late. Headache earlier in the day (me) and post-work meetings (her) meant that we weren't going to make the six o'clock start time. We reached Gallagher Park just in time to catch the very tail end of what looked like quite the popular session on Stage 6. The sun was setting and bathed the sitting crowd in perfect pink light.

The tarp crew had secured a pretty good spot at the mainstage, so I was close enough that I could get some fairly decent shots of the stage with my super-zoom. The Levon Helm band got the crowd off their feet to dance, which was a good start to the main performances of the night. There was a brief appearance by Basia Bulat during the procession of the volunteer lanterns. Following Basia was Calexico, the definite highlight of my night. At the end of Calexico's set (which was awesome), they invited Bassekou Kouyate on stage to play during their last song. Then the cold started to set in and younger sister and I headed back across the river while Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba ended the night of music on the hill. We crossed over the bridge (which was dark), admired the view of downtown reflected in the river and then met the gentleman in Riverdale and were escorted home. The previous night there was a great shot of the hill lit up with candles (which I neglected to photograph at the time), but this evening all that we could see was the glow of the mainstage lights.



Saturday

On Saturday the younger sister and I arrived later in the afternoon as we watched the Cariwest parade and visited the market briefly in the morning.

Our first session was "War and Peace" with Sarah Harmer, Basia Bulat, Jill Hennessy, and Terry Morrison on Stage 6, which always seems to feature the artists that I come to folk fest to see. Once that session was complete, we caught the very tail end of the concert with Debashish Bhattacharya, pioneer of the Indian slide guitar. Younger sister and I ran into my good friends Wade and Phil, who were almost always at different stages than I was. We parted company at that point, W&P off to the beer tent and younger sister and I to the food tent area, where we supped and then headed to the prime tarp location (thanks again to the tarp masters who stood in line).

And that's where we spent the rest of the night, ideally located for the evening's mainstage acts. The bare spots on the hill started to fill in during the four-part harmonies of bluegrass artists Dailey & Vincent and Malian singer and guitarist Vieux Farka Toure. The threat of rain was made good during Sarah Harmer's set, but our tarp was soon retrofitted with umbrellas to provide shelter from the elements. Despite the rain Sarah Harmer managed to get people on their feet and once on their feet they could no longer resist the call to dance. The rain frightened some people away, but their premature evacuation proved to be a poor choice as Brandi Carlile was a quick crowd favourite. She even got the crowd to sing three part harmonies (it did sound pretty good on the hill despite the off-key groaning coming from the people standing behind me). Younger sister and I made our own exit during Colin Hay. We crossed the river while the pedestrian bridge was still lit up and you could still see the glow of the candles on the hill when you got to the other side. I managed to get a picture this time.



Sunday

The younger sister and I arrived earlier on Sunday to catch a session with Alejandro Escoveda who we missed on Saturday. Alejandro was joined on stage by Basia Bulat and Dala as well as Brandi Carlile, so we got a bit of a reprise of the previous evening's mainstage performance.

We sought shade in the beer garden and enjoyed the midday mainstage performance by Te Vaka through the speakers. We were sitting close to Stage 1, so we were within earshot of the early afternoon performance by Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens. My parents were visiting so I wasn't going to be able to stay for the evening mainstage, but the younger sister and I had a little taste of the final mainstage at the 4:30 session on Stage 6 where Jakob Dylan performed with Colleen Brown, Brandi Carlile (she seemed to be everywhere) and Jimmy Rankin. It was a great session. The mood shifted from leisurely and relaxed to upbeat. During the final song of the set the siblings and I did not resist the call to dance.

It was a beautiful way to end the weekend. It was a hot and sunny festival, but younger sister and I managed to avoid heat stroke by pacing ourselves even more than we usually do. We tended to arrive late and leave a little bit early. We didn't see every act that we might have wanted, but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. We left hydrated (cherry lemonade by Stage 6!) and slightly sunburned. No heatstroke or fainting for either of us though. Success!



Oh, one more thing. On Sunday as I was leaving the beer tent I heard someone call my name and looked around to see a couple sitting on the grass. The gentleman in the group raised his glass to me and said, "Raffaella... local celebrity blogger [insert interrobang here]"

"...yes?" I responded, curious because I had no idea who this fellow was and if I do get recognized for something rarely is it my rather unpopular blog (although thinking about it, I might have seen this couple sitting near some mutual acquaintances earlier so maybe I do know who they are but didn't recognize them from behind the brim of my sun hat).

"Keep writing," the gentleman said and his lady friend smiled. I laughed and nodded sheepishly and then wandered on my way.

But as you can see, I did follow the advice/request of this mysterious stranger and as evidenced by this post I have kept writing.

Late this afternoon, after I had finished up my meetings at the office, I cycled down to the park to meet up with Lisa before heading to a nerds' night out. I arrived a little bit early and found a spot in the shade to work while I waited for Lisa to arrive.



I have really taken to Ezio Faraone park. Even though I only lived about three minutes away from my current apartment, my visits to this park were so infrequent. Now I treat the park like it is my backyard and love spending time there working or relaxing. There is lots of shade so I don't have to worry about dying from heatstroke and there are always people there, whether they are basking in the sun, jogging or cycling through, or torturing their bodies with boot camp deep lunges, bench dips or sprints on the grass. My one wish is that the City install WIFI so working there might be a bit more efficient (yeah, yeah... I know I can tether my phone, but I'd rather not).

Once Lisa arrived (also by bike), we sat and conspired about our collaborative projects and then at about 5:20pm we hopped on the multi-use trail to get to the drinks establishment where the nerds were gathering. After getting around the city by foot for so long, I feel sort of lazy when I arrive at my destination after only a couple minutes. I also feel like I've cheated time a bit.




I've hung out with the nerds once before and had ended up spending most of the evening talking about photography. Tonight though, the drinking establishment was full of rowdy old men who had were celebrating the end of a work golf tournament. They were so loud and raucous that it was almost impossible to hear any of the conversation that was taking place at the table. So instead we played a little game I invented called "Guess their Profession". It was a very entertaining game, particularly when some of the drunken golfers started lifting up their shirts to compare their (unexpected) tattoos. They kept to themselves and didn't bother our table, but my seat looked towards the bar and all the craziness at the bar was a bit like watching a reality show (my guess for one pair at the bar was bounty hunters).

Around 7 o'clock the reality show at the bar switched to something a bit more soft-core. We tried to avert our attention, we really did... but this couple at the bar started up with the most ostentatious mating ritual. The close talking, the mutual jutting of hips, the clumsy spilling of beers, the sunglasses coyly clenched between the teeth all led to the eventual sucking of face. No exaggeration. This display of drunken affection was akin to watching someone afix a vacuum cleaner to the face. And then there was the leg drape and the painful drunken goodbye. I've witnessed this type of behaviour in the wee hours of the morning (back in the days when you might occasionally find me at the discotheque... woo hoo Club 54!), but rarely do I see it before eight on a Tuesday. I've never been to a golf tournament but I guess they are pretty crazy times. Pandora's box must have been opened by the whole Tiger Woods scandal.





The gentleman was chiding me tonight when he asked what I was blogging about tonight and I answered, "oh, just the nerds' night out." His response, "must have been crazy. You were home by eight." If only he knew all that happened. I've only posted about the stuff that was PG-13.

So the bike is proving to be rather useful. I haven't tackled any major hills with it, but for the little slopes it's proving to be fairly easy. I did learn today that the handlepost hinge on the Dahon might be part of a recall, so I need to take it in to an authorized Dahon dealer to get it inspected. It's okay, I needed to take the bike in anyhow. I'd like to replace the rear rack with one that will allow me to hang some panniers. Although I really love the basket that Sarah is letting me borrow. Unfortunately it just doesn't work all that well when I want to carry my laptop. And of course I would still like to switch out the grips. The right-hand grip keeps coming off while I'm riding. I'm on the lookout for natural cork grips to match my new saddle.



The ride is only partially pimped.

I'm going to a birthday party tonight. Now that I have dedicated space in the closet to hang all my dresses I've discovered a few that I haven't worn in a while. Most dresses I can get away with wearing to work or for an evening out. But this lace dress has never seemed to fit the office environment. But it's making an appearance tonight. I don't care if no one else is dressed up.

So with all the recent thundershowers I'm still getting frequent migraines, but I've gotten better at recognizing the warning signs that a bad headache is approaching and helping to lessen the symptoms a bit by taking some Tylenol with caffeine before I find myself completely debilitated. It doesn't work every single time, but it does help ease the onset of the pain.





On Saturday I was fine for most of the day until the early evening, when I started to feel a bit of a dull throb, which I hoped could be attributed to my not eating until quite late in the afternoon. But I had been having quite a busy day... I kept up with the weekly ritual of the visit to the market. The gentleman's younger brother is coming over for dinner tomorrow and I had to pick up the remaining items for the southern style feast. Following my acquisition of these items, Lisa and I cycled across the bridge to Redbike. We were both on a lookout for some flat bungee cords that we could use to secure cargo on our baskets, but unfortunately the ones we were looking for weren't available. I ended up picking up a new honey coloured Brooks saddle for my bike, which Redbike's owner Cliff, very helpfully changed for me. My friend Billy joked that now that I have a Brooks on my bike, I can call it "Brooks and D(ah)unn" and fit in with the country-music crowd. Har har Billy. Har har.




The change to a new saddle was done mostly for aesthetics, but most people I know who ride with a Brooks rave about how comfortable they are and that they are worth the effort it takes to break one in. So I decided to make the bottom-commitment. Even though the gentleman disagrees with me, I like how the Brooks looks with the Dahon. It reduces the sportiness of the bike and makes it a bit more classy/classic looking, which is definitely something I was looking for in a bike. Speaking of classy ladies and classic bikes, one of my cousins in Italy posted this old photo of my nonna heading out for a ride on her bici. I never got a chance to meet her in person and it makes me happy to see photos of her riding her, particularly ones like these where you get a little sense of her personality.



My decision to go with the Dahon was prompted by a couple things. (1) We have limited space in the apartment for storage. There is a bike cage down in the parkade, but parkades are so inhospitable. I like my bikes to remain off-leash as long as possible. A smaller bike meant that during the summer it could live out on the balcony (with a protective seat cover in case of rain) and during the winter it can live in our little laundry room. A full-size frame just wouldn't fit. (2) The Dahon was a much more inexpensive option, especially since I bought this bike second-hand. However, aesthetic changes aside, I'm finding the smaller size of the bike to be lacking in a few things. One, is the ability to hang a basket on the front without it looking weird or affecting the steering too much. Two, is the ability to hang panniers on the current rear rack. Now these are both things that I can modify on the bike (and had I ordered new I could have ensured they were included), but it's sort of a pain to have to sort it out after the fact. The third item, is also open to modification, but the relatively narrow handlebars is a wee bit annoying. Thankfully I haven't been going on too long of rides with the bike, but the type of trips I've taken have been such that increased cargo capacity would be a great improvement and also make the bike a more ready transportation option, particularly when I'm looking to transport my computer or photo equipment. These were all things I had in mind before I bought my bike and almost all extras I would have needed to include. The only difference now is that I'm adding those same extras to a frame that I managed to get for much cheaper than I originally anticipated. More on that as I continue to use and muse about my bicycle.

By the time I came back from Redbike, the gentleman had also returned to the apartment from his errand running. We walked to Elm together so I could get a sandwich for my very late lunch, but by the time we got back home I had another headache. It was rather unfortunate, because I was planning to get some cleaning done in preparation for Sunday's dinner party and also I had hoped that Tom and I could meet up for a late night photo excursion and potentially a movie. I tried taking a nap, but the headache just wouldn't go away. The gentleman was absolutely lovely and and went out to fetch us dinner because I was sufferin' from the ole migraine pains. He coaxed me from the apartment down to the park where we ate our dinner in what is essentially the closest thing to a back yard that we have. Even though the food didn't taste quite right (it never does when I have a migraine), I felt great relief sitting out in the breeze. Props to the gentleman for making sure that I still enjoyed my saturday evening, even with a headache.