Blog Fodder

Well, since I have been sick, there isn't much to post on the blog.
Well, not much besides that it is... Lychee Season!
Whee! I love fresh lychees.

Now - the first time I had lychees was last summer when my dear Mother-in-law bought me some, before then all I had had was the canned kind in the syrup. The canned kind are too sweet and overwhelming that way.

But fresh lychees are much better. It is like eating sweet flowers in grape form or something. I love them. They were also the favorite of Emperor Li Longji's favorite concubine Yang Yuhuan. Just for a little Chinese history lesson.

If you want 5 tips for making the best lychee martini, I did the research for you - click HERE.

You just peel them, and eat, although watchout for the seed inside. You can't eat it - it is slightly poisonous... and it would crack a tooth.

I took some pictures of a lychee I ate.. It was more on the redder side than it looks here... Hey - I told you it was a slow day here... eating lychees is better than blowing my nose which is the only other thing I've done today!!

SOCKS ARRIVED!!

Oh my goodness. I am so happy that Susan's Super Socks finally arrived. I was really starting to get worried that they would never get there (not that I couldn't re-knit them, but wouldn't that be such a bummer?)

I'm enclosing two pictures here of the socks sans feet. Susan has such delicate feet, and let's just say there was no way my big clodhoppers could model these. But she modeled them like crazy on her blog (no one can ask anything more from a person who receives something one has made than the enthusiasm level you had about the project while making it!!)

She posted a fantastic blog entry about them, so go over there and see what they look like on her actual feet.
Susan's Blog Post

Her Incredibly Fun Cats are in on the great fun as well.

I'm so relieved they got there. (the socks not the cats).


What are the details?
These are my first completed pair of socks made out of sock yarn.
Pattern: Madder Ribbed Socks from "Knitting Vintage Socks" by Nancy Bush
Heel: Dutch Heel
Toe: Pointed Toe
Yarn: Socks that Rock
Color: Ruby Slippers
Needle: size 1 (2 circulars) from Knitpicks
Note: The pattern says to leave 3 inches for the toe, but my toe only took 2 inches so I had to go back, rip out and re-knit the 1st sock




Isn't it interesting the way the purple pooled at the bottom of the ankle area? It did it on both socks (although one slightly more than the other) so it looks kinda cool.

One awesome technical thing is that I learned how to correct a mistake in stockingette and also how to pick up stitches while knitting these socks. I admit, before these socks, I used to just frog (rip back) all the way to wherever the mistake was and start knitting again. But now I know how to drop a stitch on purpose and then pick it back up again in pattern. I have to say to all of you out there who are scared (like I was) to try it... just try it!! Worst that can happen is you'll have to frog anyway back to that point.

What else is new with me? Ugh I am going to stay home sick today - I feel miserable - Sore throat, achy head. What the heck? It is summer! No one is supposed to get sick in the summer! Ugh I am heading back to bed.

No News Is maybe not good news?

Hey all, Not much going on here. I was hoping to have been able to post some handknit pictures... but even though I sent Susan something Priority Mail I guess it hasn't gotten there yet. I think I am going to start using something other than the US Postal service... I have been very disappointed as of late in how long things take to get places... It is certainly not as fast as they say.

Other than that things are good. H. went to a Diehards meeting. The Diehards (not the British military group) are a group of people that love Vanguard and investing in index funds. Since learning about them and their methods from this book, H. has been quite a fan of the group. He paid his money to go to this meeting a long time ago, so we weren't able to go to my Uncle John's 60th Birthday.

So wish my Uncle a happy belated birthday.

well I better get going to work. Have a fantastic day!

Back from the Finger lakes

We went to the finger lakes this weekend - up in Bristol, New York for this:

Meg and Travis got married. Megan was one of Harland's buds in college.

It was a really beautiful day, and they got married on a hilltop overlooking Canandaigua Lake.
This is the view from a small park about a mile down the road from the wedding:

Beautiful.


Here's us mucking up the view:

We had a really nice time, we stayed at a beautiful and wonderful Bed & Breakfast. It was romantic and the innkeeper, Sheryl was really super nice. It was hands down the best bed and breakfast we've been to. If you are ever in the area, you should check out the 1795 Acorn Inn I can't say enough good things about it.



The area is well known for its vineyards.



We also went to see the northern side of Canandiagua Lake... and took a tour of the NY Wine and Culinary Center. At the Wine and Culinary Center, we tasted several area wines including rhubarb wine (although it was crazy sweet - like juice).

Shenandoah!

Hello, We went to Shenandoah again! (if you want to revisit the entries for the last time we went click on October 2006 in the right panel). This time we dragged Harland's sister along. She is not much of an outdoors person but as fate would have it, the treadmills in our Gym didn't work yesterday morning so we convinced her it would be good exercise.

It rained a little on the way there, and so the views were quite foggy/smoggy/hazy. Here is a picture at one of the overlooks.


We walked part of the Appalachian Trail (the AT for short) and then hiked up to a "day shelter" called Byrd's Nest 4. When we got there - there was quite a field and there were two deer. The shelter was occupied by a bunch of Carpenter Bees, so we turned around.


Along the way to the Byrd's Nest #4, we saw some pink lady's slippers.


It was a nice little hike, there was also a mystery bush that the bees love and it was very pretty but I have no idea what it is. I consulted my Newcomb's Wildflower guide, as well as my instant wildflowers and my Peterson First guide to wild flowers I had when I was a kid, but to no avail. Does anyone know what this bush is??


Here are some more pictures of us at the overlook.



And then while driving on the way out, we saw a mama bear and a baby bear (who was clinging to a tree). I tried to get a picture as we drove by but it was unsuccessful. There were a bunch of idiots out of their cars blocking the area and taking pictures (hello, BABY BEAR AND MAMA BEAR - NOT SAFE!!). Unfortunately, I totally got a terrible picture. See that dark blur behind the tree in the middle? That's mama.

Haha. Oh well at least I got to see it, Poor Harland and Teresa in the front didn't get to see the baby bear hanging.

Stove Review

Hey There!!
Well I finally had time to write a little blurb about our gear. First up (on request by my dear Uncle Buddy) is our new stove.

We had quite a time deciding on a stove. There a lot to choose from and the technology these days really has made them be quite durable, easy to use and light. After a while we were down to three: The one I liked was the MSR Whisperlite (because it white gas which you can get in a lot of different countries and eventually we want to backpack in Australia), Harland liked the Primus Etapower (he liked the convenience of the canister fuel and the pots), and we ended up compromising with the Jet boil, which is awesomesauce (and it was on sale which was a bonus).


First of all everything packs into the pot which is nice.

It is easy to set up and with the little feet on the canister it is very stable.

You don't need to prime it (yay since I am a bit scared of setting my eyebrows on fire) and it starts with the push of a button, literally.

It also boiled our water in less than 2 minutes.

Cons... well this isn't really a con for us - but if you hike in very cold mountains, sometimes you can have problems with the gas being cold. But I think that happens with all canister stoves.

So that is the end of the first review. I give it two thumbs up.

BTW, my cilantro and dill finally sprouted new leaves. Their first real leaves that look like grown up plants. The rosemary and mint never did come up. I am going to have to purchase a rosemary plant and steal some mint from my dear Mom's herb garden.

Camping Again!

We went back to Prince William Forest Park again this weekend. First we hiked around the park (this is what I have pictures from, I forgot to bring my camera to the campsite).

First we hiked to the old Pyrite Mine. They used to mine pyrite for sulfuric acid. And here I thought it was only used to trick people into thinking you had gold. :) The mine area was being worked on this weekend - they are planting trees to encourage the growth of a hard wood forest. 70 some years later and the water and land here is still polluted from the mine. If you look on the hillside you can see volunteers planting.


Then we hiked down to the falls of the Quantico Creek. They are about 2 feet high at the most. Still it was a very nice day for a hike (cool and breezy) and although the hike back up was rough on poor little out of shape me, it was all worth it. Here is a picture of the falls. Lovely, no?


The if you look closely in the second photo, you can see some laurel. I took a close-up shot on the side we hiked down. (editor's note, I have no idea why but this picture disappeared).

I also took a picture of us. Don't we look happy to be out and about?

And when we were resting a bit on the rocks, we noticed a little still pool in between some rocks! And there were little polliwogs! Maybe tadpoles? It's funny - you can see the clouds reflected in the pool. That why it looks kinda odd.

So the deal with the Park is there is a backcountry area. You have to file for a permit (permit's free) and then get a key and go over to a section of the park that is next to the Quantico Base. But I guess the Marines cut the locks and replace them to keep the National Park Service on their toes. And so we (and two other sets of people) had keys but they didn't work. And there is nothing the NPS could do - so we had to hike to the start of the trail. It probably added something less than a mile (and it was all downhill on the way in) but I was already tired. But Harland encouraged me and so we hiked in and camped. Carrying all the stuff... well... let's just say that my pack has made me very aware of certain muscles. I'm on the wrong side of sore.

It was a very peaceful night - no thunderstorm like they predicted (yay!) and I am fairly well rested. The birds were quite chirpy this morning, including a very close-by and rather loud cardinal. We also saw a deer grazing on the hike in last evening.

I'll start posting reviews of our gear this week, hopefully starting tomorrow. I wish I had some action shots... but I forgot to take the camera out of the day pack when the whole key thing got me flustered. We might go **somewhere** next weekend hiking, but I dunno where yet.