Absquatulate

Baffin Bay?

View Larger Map Him: You know, if we want to see the northern lights and the midnight sun, maybe we should drive up to Baffin Bay in Canada, rather than go to Norway.

Me: ...

Him: It would be three days of driving at least...

Me: hmm....

Him: I think it's a good idea.

I think so too.

Outdoorswoman in the Making

At the top of Bubble Mountain in Acadia there were dozens of people milling about with babies, doggies, flocks of kids and fannypacks. Overheard while Fraz and I were taking pictures of each other at the top of our conquest:

13-or-so Year Old Girl: "Why to people do this?"
Mom: "For the views."
Girl: "Oh."
Mom: "And the solitude."

This represents approximately 20% of the total number of people on the top of the mountain.

Sleeping With the Raccoons

I live a life of relative comfort. I live in a house, I have a bed and a car, I can provide for myself and a cat. I guess sometimes we need to remind ourselves why we enjoy things like shelter, and heat, and blankets, by absconding to someplace where you sleep outside in a tent and take cold showers. Why yes! Maine for a vacation is an excellent idea! Let us thumb our noses as sanitation and germs and roast our food on a fire.

Upon entering into the arrangement of camping all fashion sense goes completely out the window. And that's coming from a New Englander, where fashion sense is near zero. Why? Winter. That's why. As a side note, I read a fashionista blog last winter when someone asked if hose was ever okay and the fashion maven replied "no". She MUST live in LA. Gawd. I don't know why I feel compelled to point this out, except that when fashionable people were seen on trails with thoroughly impractical outfits they are snickered at. Make no mistake.

Yes so comfort and warmth trump good looks in nearly every endeavor involving outings. The only exception might be the trip to Bar Harbor because that's as close as you get to civilization and even then, it's Maine. It's practical! And comfortable. And makeup free, which is an incredibly welcome change of pace all around. On the plus: your man (should you travel with one) will grow an adorable beard.

I get itchy if I go camping and don't get enough physical activity in. It's not because I'm a terribly active person at home per se, but that if I'm sleeping in 45 degree weather at night in a sleeping bag on a wooden platform, my days should exhaust me enough to ENJOY this arrangement. My hips still have bruises from sleeping on my side (I cannot sleep any other way) so to make that tolerable I should be dog tired at the end of the day. For the most part this held but on Tuesday when we went for the "nature cruise" I didn't get a hike in, and slept HORRIBLY that night. And although I am not a morning person, I discovered that there's something about waking up with the light (or Daniel) and stepping out in the chilled air that makes me feel refreshed and alive. Not sure how that would have gone had it been raining. Luckily it never did while we were there.

On this trip I also discovered that Chili Mac (canned chili and instant mac and cheese) is one of the BEST creations ever invented. S'mores are better if a kid makes them for you in earnest and that Swedish bananas are great, despite the banana part.

We had alot of time around the campfire making Swedish bananas, watching the kids make flaming marshmallow torches rather than s'mores, and trying a few local brews. I ate turkey dogs roasted over an open fire and lots of quick cooking oatmeal and green tea. The entire group went to Rupunini's for lunch in Bar Harbor before our "nature cruise" and I enjoyed a fantastic Asian inspired pulled pork sandwich. I can't believe I never took a photo of this gorgeous sammich piled high with tender pulled pork seasoned with hoisin sauce, chinese five spice powder, and dressed with cucumbers and greens. It was delicious, as Rupunini's often is.

All in all, we had a good time. When things with the kids got a little insane with three days of outdoor adventure whipping them into a frenzy, it's cool to see everyone fall into a storytelling game around the campfire and watch adults and kids alike roar with laughter at the absurdities we came up with. I managed to get two good hikes under my belt, even if they weren't the ones I'd originally hoped for in the first place. I got to meet up with my parents on a whim and completely unexpected while they stopped at Bar Harbor on their way to Nova Scotia. I saw two bucks, a doe and her fawn, two bald eagles, a plethora of harbor seals, and porpoises playing in the 54 degree water. I saw spectacular views from two mountains on the island. I saw the Milky Way and a moonset with Mars and Venus putting on a spectacular show. I got to eat my weight in Munchkins and not feel guilty about it. I got to sleep outside and still have a shower in the morning. I got to unpack my clothes and have them smell like woodsmoke. I got to have a great time.

Cruel Injustice

It's annoying that for the first (and probably only for a while) time in my life, where I have a whole 1.5 months more than I thought I would have off, my application for a passport is stuck in bureaucratic HELL. Maybe I should hop a random flight to .... Idaho! Wyoming! Wisconsin! Arizona!

Somehow that doesn't sound as exotic as Milan.

Toto, I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore

On a marquee outside a church, on the border of Worcester, while driving on Rte. 9: "Trade in your piece for peace."

It's Fate, Baby.

So Sunday was shaping up to be a nice ending to a very nice weekend. On the one hand I was bummed because it seemed like New Zealand may not be in the cards for me after all, at least not for working as a CFY because the pay is not so great and I have $20k+ in loans to pay back to the U.S. Government. Bummer. No matter, I'll just have to take a holiday sometime in the future to get down to NZ, or maybe think about doctoral work down there. So I'm settling into March of the Penguins to revel in the mating and chick rearing habits of the Emperor penguins and I check my email. To my delight I find out that an abstract submitted by a professor I've done some work with to the SSSR for review has been accepted for their international conference in July.

In Prague.

Can you say Travel Grant?

Questions

1. Is there any better flavor combination than dark chocolate and hazelnut?
2. Pigtails: old and busted or new hotness (for women over 23)?
3. What do you suppose the age limit is on Kaluha?
4. Good BBQ in Western MA: Where would you go?
5. Where is your favorite spot in Western MA for a day hike?
6. How about a day hike where you can return to a campsite for the evening?

Road Trip

This past week was punctuated by trips to Rochester, NY and Boston, MA with a stop in Amherst inbetween. It was alot of driving but it felt like what I needed. Photos will trickle up to Flickr as time allows, but let me give a big thanks to The Good Drs. Eirich for a place to crash, Ved & Bean, MoCo, Nagel & Ang, Jimmah, Rick, and Meg for taking time to catch up, and the folks at Auragen for letting me catch up with old co-workers.

After a stop off in Amherst for laundry and kitten retrieval I was off to Randolph to return the digital camera my sister was so kind to lend to me. As it turns out, the Boston contigency was having a gathering of their own, only two blocks from my sister's place! I wish I could have spent more time with the Geekery Crowd but I hadn't seen my sister and her husband in a while and wanted to spend some time with them too (and they were watching Babylon 5 which I had never seen before and Kat and I had to discuss how this was better or inferior than ST: TNG). Thanks John & Kat for a place to crash last night. Now it's time to give the car a rest and become a homebody again who only thinks of school work and SOAP notes (and try to work off all that delicious food that was foisted on me! :^)

Hittin' the Highway

So it goes like this:

I need to get out of town. I've been stressed out with life and school and well, with spring break coming up, I'll have a week (relatively) free of obligation. (Never mind the tests I have to study for and take when I get back from break.) The caveat? I have little to no money. Car driving will most likely be my method of transportation, and it begins Sunday March 19th in the evening in Boston (or thereabouts). So, do I know you? If so, feel like some company sometime that week? Will you let me crash on your couch? Bonus points for living in a warm clime and pointing me in the direction of a really cheap roundtrip fare. Who's up for a freeloader sleeping on their couch for a few days?

Buying a Hybrid?

Check out this incredibly detailed financial breakdown of the cost of owning a hybrid, and whether or not you'd save money versus buying a traditional car.

Electronic Camp

This coming weekend the swine and I have (foolishly?) decided to take our very first camping trip. Aside from a very few camping trips where all the details were organized by somebody else (hat tip to Julie!) I have very little knowledge of camping. So far our gear consists of a tent, two sleeping bags, and a flashlight.

I'm one of those people who asks alot of questions and does alot of research when learning about something new. Thanks to the wonderful world wide web I can find a primer for car camping, checklist of things to pack when car camping, beginners info on backpacking, and what is considered good etiquette for fornication in the great outdoors.

Some days I curse you internet, but today I kiss you.

I ♥ NY

I attended the GEL conference in NYC on Friday. But this post isn't about GEL. That will come later.

The great majority of trips to NYC were to visit family and while under the age of 17. Why does that matter? Because it means I was still a ward of my parents, and that means they controlled me, which is understandable. Or, I was on a school trip, which means I was the ward of other adults, which is understandable. It's only been recently that I've had the opportunity and means to travel to NYC on my own for my own purposes, rather than being tethered to familial obligations (and fears.) So for most of my life I would say, "I like NYC, but I could never live there."

This past weekend I liked NYC and I even THOUGHT about what it would be like to live there. That's a big switch for me. I couldn't tell you if my opinions about NYC were colored by where I had previously stayed and visited, or by my father, an Italian who grew up in a Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood and who apparently (he never says it directly) had his fair share of the rough streets in the 50s and so instilled in us kids a sense of caution and hyperalert viligance for our personal well being (even though he's lived in a rural town in New England for over 30 years he still locks the cars in the driveway and there isn't a snowball's chance in HELL anybody could break into our house; the front door is three inches thick and steel.) However this does mean that I have a general idea of how to get around, what to do, and can pretend to be a NYC resident: I walk in front of traffic without fear, I don't look anybody in the eye while passing on the street, I walk with a purpose, and I don't gawk at the skyscrapers.

This past weekend I stayed on the (upper?) west side (near Broadway and 76th) and I loved it. I loved the neighborhoods, I loved the brownstone tennants out on Saturday having a bagel breakfast and planting petunias around the trees on the street, I loved the people, I loved Central Park and I loved the small, out of the way places that I saw in my three hours of walking on Saturday morning: the goofy knick-knack stores, the fabulous diner across the street from my hotel, the shoe stores (OH the shoe stores!) the restaurants, the hubbub, the humanity. While I couldn't imagine settling in NYC, for the first time I could imagine myself living there.

Confidential to NYC: what's UP with all the DOGS!? Big dogs, small dogs, mutts and purebreds. How do you manage dogs while living in apartments!?

My adoring fans

Back. Some folks were wondering where we were, and well, I've decided to be a little quiet about where we go and when, just in case. And a good thing too, since the back door was unlocked when we got home. I blame Gwen, she's always looking for a way outside.

Our travels took us far across New England. Stops included Amherst, MA, Portsmouth, NH, Newburyport, Salem,. and Cambridge all of MA, then Bennington, Manchester, and Arlington, VT, before we turned tail and headed home. We stayed with friends and we can't thank all of you enough for your hospitality.

Danken:

• To TomatoMan for our first night's accommodations. He's a great trail guide and knows his whatnots about gingerbread pancakes (mmmm). I wish we could have stayed there a little longer.
• To Nance, Dave, and Kylie, for the second nights accommodations and for the tour of Portsmouth, N.H. and great Guinness. A shout out to Kylie who loves maps as much as I do.
• To the random but not stray black lab who bounded onto the beach at Plum Island to play with us. Which we did. We tried to find his owners but the locals claimed that he was 'a regular' and is allowed to just wander around. After cringing while he walked in the middle of the road directly in front of several SUVs and Volvos from NY we lead him back to the beach, where he found several other dogs to play with. Now I really want a dog. Godspeed Blackie!
• To the Black Cow Restaurant in Newburyport for reasonably priced and fantastic haddock.
• To Naava for talking us into Somerville from a completely different route than we were used to and for letting us try out her brand new sofa bed.
• To the art director or stylist or whatever of Scotland, Pa for capturing the condensed essence of the 70s.
• To the gas station attendant who finally got us onto Route 2 out of Boston.
• To the Alexandra B&B for a fireplace and a tiny little whirlpool tub in our room. GiddyUp. And for great French toast the next morning.

Nien Danken:

• To the building on UMASS for being so damned freakin' HOT.
• To the UMass campus for being so ugly.
• To that big rock at the end of Tomato Man's driveway which was low enough to the ground to scrape our bumper. Bad rock, BAD.
• To the first lady who tried to give us directions to Route 2 in Cambridge.
• Hell, to the Mass DOT. PUT UP SOME FREAKIN' SIGNS ALREADY.
• To the Black Cow Restaurant, for overpriced wine, dessert, and coffee. Seriously.
• To the Dunkin' Donuts in Cambridge for the worst coffee EVAR poured into a Dunkin' Donuts cup.
• To us, for not being hungry enough to eat that delicious tart that Naava bought.
• To the Peele Gallery in Dunby, VT for listing their hours as open every day of the week, when in fact, they are NOT OPEN TUESDAYS. How do we know? It says so on the door. Not on the sign on the road, not on the brochure, but on the door. Which faces away from the road. Idjits.

A Phatty McPhat Phat Congrats to Kelly and Rozzie for the birth of their son Cole. Welcome to the world, Cole!

OMG TEH AEWSOME!!!1!1!@

This past weekend was one of the best I've had since... well, since February, when a few of us old college buds descended upon Jess and her apartment in NC for a long weekend of insanity, tequila, and Dr. Mario. This most recent trip had everything you could hope for in a meeting of the internet minds. In short:

Danken:

• To the nicest hosts. Suz, Quinn, you guys are absolutely the best. Thanks so much for allowing a slew of strangers into your house!
• Quinn at the airport, complete with signage (how cool! someone waiting for me at an airport with a sign. I'm famous!)
• Suz, for the best homemade MacNCheese I've ever had. Tender, cheezy, and WOW stewed tomatoes really round it out!
• For the fairly uneventful trips down and back.
• Four... no, five machines set up in the kitchen for Quake, QW, QIII, Diablo II.
• Burnout2 on the Game Cube. Crashing cars has never been so much fun.
• Virginia Beach, lots of sun, our own patch of sand, great bodysurfing waves, awesome crab cakes and Yeungling on draft.
• Cute kids who were excited for the squishy guys to come visit. How adorable can a 3 year old be? Pretty damned adorable when he tells you, "You're BEAUTIFUL," when you are fresh out of the shower. Yeah, he was just buttering me up in case he needed something later but it was still cute. :^)
• M&M's, Chips Ahoy, Triscuts, cheddar, and lots of Pepsi. So much that the first night I was up until the caffeine wore off around 2:30am.
• Crazy eggs
• Frosted Flakes with turkey bacon. Yes, that's cereal, with bacon. It is good.
• Finally getting to meet Nifft in the flesh. Drat the luck forgetting my big ass axe at home!
• A string of exceptionally late nights.
• Central air.
• Macadamia nut coffee with real cream.
• Pig, for taking alot of time to comfort N8r T8r when he was fussy, and getting all googily eyed over him. :^D
• Phineas, for being a total kook and funny to boot.

Nien Danken:

• To the idiots at Continental who cancelled TM's flight with no warning. Damn STRAIGHT you put him on another plane ASAP.
• Jellyfish at the first beach we went to. Some bigger than basketballs!
• Detroit and the stupidist layout of restaurants ever. All were packed and had long waits and the food was teh sux0rs.
• The morons at Yahoo Travel and NW Air, who printed on my itinerary NORTHWEST as my airline for our trip home when in fact it was a Continental flight. Do you see CONTINENTAL on this page anywhere? Oh, my bad, it must be the "CO" next to "EXP" at the very end of the airline description, which starts with NORTHWEST AIRLINES. If it's Continental, freakin PRINT the whole name so we don't have to spend 45 minutes in line behind a whole family moving to Manila just so the ticket agent can say "Oh, no, that's a continental fight." GRR.
• Kodak DC3200. 41 pictures, that's all I get? *sigh*
• 99% humidity. Heavens to Betsy! Running a mile and a half in that kind of humidity nearly killed me!
• Deer eating all of Suz's blackberries.
• To the asshats who broke into TM's house and stole a Jar full of Change: May the devil slice your abdomen open fill your intestines with the change you stole and beat you with it. Jerks.

It was great to get home and pet the cats, but... quiet. And... there are no computers in the kitchen, no wireless network to get on, no little Ben running around being impish and funny. No N8r T8R to coo at, no Vedder snores, no Phineas making funny faces, and no 99% humidity to kick my arse while trying to run. A little sad, but the weekend was just amazing. Thanks to everyone who could make it, and here's to NYC in September!

Hear: oh SHIT that's our flight! || Feel: relaxed || See: dry heat || Cook: for lots of people || Go: to the beach.

Meeting people I've never met.

So, I never really thought I'd be heading to the house of someone I've never met to hang out with other people I've never met for a weekend in a city I've never been to. But ah, such is the miracle of the internet! (Although, I never would have done this if I wasn't going with my husband and meeting up with people I *did* know.) Heading south for a few days so posting will be light ("lighter than this!?" you incredulously guffaw. Yes.) I shall return Tuesday, after spending a weekend with a tomato, two or three creatures of indiscriminate nature (what is a Fraz anyway? How about Phin?), a pig, a Suz and her Quinn, a toddler, a N8r T8r, the intiminable Vedder, and many, many video games. So have yourself a great weekend.

Hear: A Perfect Circle || Feel: ready to leave || See: rain... no, sun... no, rain. || Cook: Woodland Omlette (baby bellas, chevre, fresh herbs, garilc) || Go: to Virginia

Ah, mini-vacation!

The past holiday was just lovely. Enough heat to make me just a shade of cranky, but only the palest shade. Lots of sun, a beach party on the lake, a house party next door with our neighbors who are cool. Then hiking down in Stony Brook Park through waterfalls on a day when in the city it topped 87 degrees, but down in the park it was cool, green and the water icy and refreshing! The beauty was leaving just as the throngs of ill-mannered kids and their equally rude parents arrived. We needed more charcoal than you think for such a little grill but look out, grilling has been added to our culinary repertoire. We then did lots of car research, cleaned the apartment, broke up some fights between Bean and Gwen, and had heart to heart talks that were nothing but good. It was a little lonely with most of our friends being out of town or otherwise tied up with familial obligations, but it was lovely just the same. Here's hoping your holiday was as pleasant as mine, if a little cooler.