a few weeks ago i mentioned that gub and i really enjoy paint by numbers, especially vintage ones. i gathered some of the paintings from our personal collection to display.

two of the paintings are cutouts in the shape of the usa, made by stephen & shauna from something’s hiding in here. they were on display in the hand.craft.it festival gub and i curated with our friend kristen. the exhibit featured 16 of these paintings in a grid, which looked really awesome. we ended up buying a couple of the paintings when the exhibit ended! be sure to check out their etsy store for great goodies!

– ryan

gubby and i were recently admiring a lebowski fest sticker with a silhouette of nixon bowling. it got us wondering about the nixon poster hanging in the dude’s apartment in the big lebowski. was it just a joke? did nixon really like to bowl?

after a little research, it turns out the white house has had a bowling alley since the truman era! the original two lane alley was a birthday gift for truman in 1947 and was located on the ground floor of the west wing. although truman did not like to bowl, his staff took full advantage and had a league. in 1955 the lanes were moved to the old executive office building. the space was needed for more important needs, like becoming a mimeograph room and later the situation room.

the current white house bowling alley is located in the basement under the north portico, which is the fancy front entrance to the white house. it was built in 1969 by president and mrs. nixon, who were both avid bowlers, hence the dude’s poster. the one lane alley was supposedly paid for by friends, but who knows with nixon. you can’t help but feel patriotic knowing the president has a private bowling alley!

check out a bunch of great photos of the white house bowling alley!

– ryan

inspired by gob from arrested development, i got ryan a gift certificate to go on a segway tour of atlanta for valentines day in 2008. with the certificate expiring soon, we went ahead and booked our 10 am tour during the winter blast of 2010. we bundled ourselves up and headed out on a three hour tour…

after the initial awkwardness, the segways were pretty easy to operate and really fun! the smirk, smile or laugh on people’s faces as you whizzed by was pretty hilarious. we felt futuristic! although we wish it hadn’t been soooo cold, it was pretty fun to spend the morning exploring our own city on a weird motorized personal transporter.

– words by gub & photos by ryan