It's the Mad City Model Railroad Show!

The biggest part of it, anyway. There was more to see in a few other rooms, but this is the main floor with the biggest layouts. Other rooms had smaller layouts and vendors galore, but no matter where I went, the floor was packed butts-to-bellybuttons with train nerds.

Mad City Rail Show '07

There were all kinds of model trains on display, from the classic Lionel toy trains ...

Mad City Railroad Show '07

... to some of the smallest scale models. These N scale engines, most just a few inches long, loiter in a maintenance yard.

Mad City Rail Show '07

Some of the models are big enough to climb into and drive!

Mad City Rail Show '07

I'm a big fan of steam locomotives, even when they're this small.

Mad City Rail Show '07

Some of the most eye-catching models weren't even part of a model rail layout.

Round pegs in a snow fall

The picnic area at Mifflin and Main.

After the snow

Stairs at the capital blanketed with the fresh snow we got Monday morning.

The cat with the warmest seat in the house

Weekends are the only time we have the luxury of a nap.

I woke in my easy chair to find that Boo decided to take advantage of Darling B's warmth and recumbency.

Found among the shelves of a local liquor store

"Tempered over burning witches."

There's nothing that can't be made into a novelty beer these days.

Smiley, Happy People

When the downtown fine arts center became the Overture Center, these faces, locked together like a jigsaw puzzle in the hippest 70's style, got painted the same faded army blanket green as the rest of the building, effectively hiding them from view. The only way you notice them now is when the sun hits them at the right angle, which strikes me as odd, given that the mission of the building is to be a showcase for the arts, and these are certainly a form of some kind of art.