The Latest Craft Project: Maple Syrup

One of Jason's favorite economy bloggers lives in New Hampshire and started tappng his maple trees and making maple syrup a couple of years ago.  Jason (who hopes someday we have a house in the woods of New Hampshire or Vermont, or, really, even southern Massachusetts) thought this was the coolest thing ever.  He forwarded me links to the maple syrup blogs and I read them with interest.

So we have this huge maple tree in our backyard.  The maple is probably at least 50 years old. It has fiery orange-red leaves in the Autumn and Jason suspected it was a sugar maple.  As the weather got colder and we couldn't go to the beach anymore, he started researching tapping the maple tree and determined that we could put 2, possibly 3 taps into our big tree.  Because Jason always needs a project.

It takes the right kind of weather for the sap to flow.  Basically, you need it to get below freezing at night, and above freezing during the day, which means that mid to late February here in Rhode Island is a good time to start.

The day after Winter Storm Nemo, Jason got started.

(Btw, this is my favorite)

The day after the blizzard was actually pretty warm and sunny (relatively speaking), and the coming week's forecast was for 40 degree days and 20 degree (and colder) nights.  Perfect!

First, Jason drilled a small hole in our tree and inserted a tap (which he had already ordered special to be prepared for the perfect day).  Then he attached some tubing.

Then he tapped in the 2nd tap.

And attached the tubing, and snaked the tubing into 2 gallon jugs we had saved.  The sap immediately started flowing.

This was the first day's haul.  1 gallon, plus a little bit in a 2nd gallon.

We tasted it.  Well, Jason tasted it, and after assuring me it was fine, I tasted it.  Turns out maple sap tastes like slightly sweet water.  Not so bad.

Then, THEN the sap really started flowing.  Jason brought home a 7 gallon bucket from work and while we were gone for a couple of days, the bucket overflowed!  So he brought home 2 more buckets.  As of last Friday night, he had collected around 24 gallons of sap and decided to try boiling it into syrup.  Usually sap cooks down at around the rate of 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup.

Jason used my large roasting pan and 2 stock pots for the boiling.

Boil, boil, boil.

We figured it would costs us a lot in natural gas, but that this would be a fun experiment and worth a higher utility bill.  Jason checked the gas meter during the boil and turns out, we probably spent $4 or $5 total.  Not too bad for the amount of syrup we got.  Real maple syrup is expensive!

Ideally we would be doing this over a wood fire with a fancy evaporator and such.  And we would have a 20-acre farm.  But we work with what we have.

Jason monitored his sap closely and topped it off periodically.  We had a few taste tests along the way and marveled how the taste gradually took on the familiar maple flavor, and started turning a pretty golden color.

14 hours later, the syrup was ready to bottle.

We wound up with 90 ounces of  syrup!

That's more than we were expecting.  We have a grading sampler that we bought in Vermont a few months ago that shows examples of the 4 grades of maple syrup: Fancy, Medium Grade A, Dark Grade A, and Grade B.  Our syrup is closest to Fancy, but just a little darker.  Turns out, the earlier in the season, the more sugar in the sap.  And the more sugar in the sap, the lighter the syrup because you don't have to boil it down as far to get the final syrup.  I'm really excited to see how it changes as the season progresses over the next month or so.

Not only does it look pretty, but it tastes so, SO good.  Really yummy.

I mentioned on Facebook today that after our successful syrup, we might be in the market for a sugar bush in Vermont or New Hampshire.  I might not have been completely kidding...

Knits

This blog is kind of becoming my "show everyone who isn't on Ravelry what I've knitted lately" blog.  But this morning a friend of mine sent me an adorable picture of her daughter in the sweater I knitted, so I just have to share:

Adorable, right?  I also made her a little hat.  This is a yarn called Paton's Beehive Chunky and it is a super soft acrylic.  After making this sweater, I stocked up the next time Jo-Ann had a sale.  It is SO soft! 

(Since I have my own wool allergies, I usually make baby stuff out of acrylic just in case baby is allergic too.  That way my hands don't itch, and neither does baby.)

I made this sweater over Christmas for one of my counselors in Young Womens. 

The gauge on this is pretty small (size 4 needles, for the knitters).  Usually I shy away from finer knitwork because I just don't have the patience for it, but we watched a lot of movies with my parents over the holidays and it was the perfect time to knit something more time-intensive.

Finally, I whipped up this little cowl for myself after going for a walk with a friend on a cold and blustery day.  I commented that I would love to have a cowl because my neck was cold, but I didn't want to go all out with a scarf.  She knits as well and said, "You could knit one up today!"

She was right.

Christmas Knitting

I didn't do a ton of Christmas knitting this year, but I also got a late start and didn't have a whole lot of spare time.  There's actually one project not pictured here that I finished, but haven't gifted yet, so I'll have to wait to post about it until I send it since the mom of the recipient reads this blog.

My first project was a cabled hat for an older lady who rides the same bus as me.  We live near each other so maybe once or twice a week for the past couple of years we wind up at the stop at the same time in the mornings and then we chat on our way into work.  She's always interested in whatever I'm knitting on the way in if I happen to have brought my latest project on the bus with me.  She wears black all the time (like a true New Yorker, which she is in her heart), so of course I made her a black hat.  It's really difficult to see the cabled pattern in black, so here's the hat I made her:

And here's someone else's hat in a color where the cables show up better:

Next, I made matching tams for our niece Anya and her brand new baby sister, Mira.  My SIL Sarah sent me this picture of Mira in her hat, which is hilarious and which prompted Jason to comment that she looks like one of the mushrooms in Super Mario Bros.

Well, she was a preemie.  She'll grow into it.  Sarah assures me that Anya's looks adorable, but she wouldn't keep still long enough to get a good picture of her in the hat.

Finally, this is the project I was talking about before with the Ocean-colored yarn that I wanted to make into an afghan, but made into a sweater instead because afghans are tedious.  Anyway, I made this sweater for my mom.

She has rheumatoid arthritis and is home in bed most of the time, so I thought this would work well as either a sweater to wear when she does go out, or as a cozy bed jacket.  She loves it and I'm so pleased!

Pants

I spent part of last night wide awake, thinking about the whole pants thing.  This morning, I started writing a post, but it turns out that Joanna Brooks has done a lot of the explaining and linking for me already.  So go check out her post for some background.

Joanna Brooks's point that not all Mormon feminists feel the same is so important.  Some women want an extreme and immediate change, and some women are willing to work within the current structure and wait patiently for changes that they hope will come.  The truth is, individual Mormon feminists don't necessarily feel the same from day to day - at least I don't.  Sometimes gender issues in the Church weigh heavily on my heart.  Sometimes they don't feel like such a big deal.

I didn't wear pants yesterday.  The reasons are twofold.  First, I hate pants.  In fact, the only pants I have are a couple pairs of jeans.  I have no problem with pants wearing at church, I just think church is one of those things that it's good to dress up for, so I wouldn't have felt comfortable in jeans, personally.

Second, I wasn't really sure if pants wearing was the statement I wanted to make at church.  When I first heard about Wear Pants At Church Day, it seemed a bit silly.  (The fact that wearing pants could actually be a political statement just shows how weird we Mormons can be.)  However, the ugliness and vitriol that emerged on the internet and in the personal lives of the organizers over the last week has astounded me.  Based on the comments I read last night at Feminist Mormon Housewives, a lot of people were emboldened to act because of the outrageous personal attacks heaped on the organizers and those who joined the movement early on. 

I am lucky to live in New England, where Mormons are rare, but, in that subset, liberal Mormons are fairly common.  I'm not overly vocal about my political positions, but by virtue of being a woman lawyer who voted for Obama, it's probably safe to make some assumptions about where I stand on things.

Yesterday I wore a red dress to church because it was our ward Christmas celebration and we sang at the Lessons and Carols service in Cambridge. I felt Christmas-y.  After reading the experiences from women literally all over the world, I wish I had passed over the red dress for my purple satin shirt and a skirt. I doubt anyone in my ward would have noticed, but because of the threats levied on the women who planned to wear pants, I wish I had worn purple to express my solidarity with my Sisters who were threatened.

Jason wore a purple shirt and a purple tie.  OK, so purple is his favorite color and he wears that shirt a lot, but yesterday he made a purposeful choice to wear the purple.  I am so proud to be married to a man who thinks gender inequality and patriarchy are kind of dumb.

As Jason drove us home last night, I read to him about the "Pantscapades" on Feminist Mormon Housewives.  Most of the women seemed to have positive or neutral experiences.  A few had negative experiences.  Jason's overall observation: The men in these womens' wards were generally much more supportive than the women.  While bishops and other male leaders wore purple ties and gave the pants-wearing women high fives, they got the cold shoulder or odd looks from some of the women. 

He was right.  If the pants wearers experienced negativity it usually came from other women.  I know I'm probably the five hundred millionth person to say this, but women are so, so hard on one another. 

I've always considered myself a feminist, but recognizing the issues in the institutional Church has been a fairly recent thing for me.  My husband is great; my current church leaders are great.  I feel listened to and respected in all that I do in my ward in my calling as the Young Womens President.   But there is an ache that comes from feeling that within the institutional Church, as a woman I am not quite equal to the men. My friend Kristine expressed this concept so well in a short but poignant post she wrote last year.

There is a lot of beautiful theology in the Church about women and men and our divine potential.  I think that's why so many of us stick around.  We can't deny the spiritual experiences we have had, and we cling to the potential that we see both for the Church and in the eternities.

Helping Out A Little

On Wednesday, our bishop sent around an email requesting church members to head down to New York or New Jersey for the weekend to help out people affected by Hurricane Sandy.  It's been a few weeks since the hurricane hit, but there is still a lot of need in the area.  Jason and I talked about it and, amazingly enough, we didn't have anything going on this Saturday, which is rare for us.

Well, we planned to decorate for Christmas and clean out the garage, but this seemed a little more important.

So we went down with a few other people from our ward (Mormon for congregation).  There were 7 of us from the Central Falls, RI ward, including one of my Young Women who wanted to come.  Anyone 16 or over could come and help.  I don't think she realized until the day of that she was the only person under age 22 going, but I think she's glad she went.

(As we were driving home, she told me and Jason, in kind of an amazed voice, that all of us grown ups are pretty fun.  That opinion may have been negated by the completely boring lesson I taught the Young Women this morning at church, but my scheduled teacher had a family emergency and I had an hour to prepare, so, you know, you win some, you lose some.)

We left yesterday morning at 5:30 and drove to Rockaway in Queens.  We could tell once we crossed over the bridge into Queens that something big had happened.  We started to see piles of construction debris in front of houses as we drove by, and noticed that a lot of businesses were closed.  The Mormons had a designated meeting spot, where we found the rest of our group and the 7 of us set out for our first house.

We wound up in the basement apartment of a house that had been pretty gutted already and stripped down to the aluminum framing.  I initially thought that it was the basement of someone's house until I talked with the teenage daughter who was there helping us out, and realized, when she started pointing out where their bedrooms and living room were, that it had been their apartment, not just storage for the house upstairs.  It would be bad enough to have your basement flood, but they lost absolutely everything.

As if that wasn't enough, they had just finished fixing up the entire apartment a few days before the hurricane hit.  We wound up smashing up their brand new bathroom with brand new sink and toilet and bathtub and brand new tiles because the drywall behind it all had been soaked through and had to come out.  Because of the storm surge, the apartment had been filled with 8 feet of water.  We could see a watermark way above our heads on the tile in the bathroom.

So we pulled up their tile and subfloors and we knocked down the bathroom, hauling out the debris and leaving it in a pile in front of their house like all the piles we had driven by earlier, for the city to come and collect.  We shoveled and swept and tried to leave the apartment in as good of condition as we could so that they would have a relatively clean base to start over.

The thing that blew my mind was how upbeat the family seemed.  We met mom and the teenage daughter, and then mom's brother and his son showed up to chat with us and see what we were doing.  I know they've had a few weeks to absorb this, but I don't think I would have been so easygoing about it all if I had lost everything.  Mom made hot chocolate for those who wanted it.  At the end, we took pictures, hugged each other, and we left.

We only had an hour and a half left until we were supposed to wrap up work, so we tried some of the other houses on our list, but either no one was home, or there were other groups there helping.  I think there must be a general list of homes that need help that is distributed to all the groups, so sometimes the same house winds up on more than one group's list in a day.  I was so thrilled to see how many groups there are helping. We saw lots of Mormons in our yellow vests, but also many, many other groups.  Even a group from Minnesota!  That's a long drive.

After dropping off the big tools back at HQ, we searched for a place to eat dinner, and had to drive for awhile because, of course, the storm surge flooded stores and restaurants too.  Everyone is rebuilding, but it's a slow process.  I was happy to see a few different distribution points where churches and other community groups were handing out  food and clothes to those who lost so much.  The family we helped was lucky that they have family nearby who didn't get flooded and who could take them in while they fix their place.  But I'm sure there are other people who don't have a good support system, and who are dealing with construction and lack of power all on their own.  I was happy to see that so many in and out of the community are pitching in.  It's definitely needed, especially as winter is coming.

Eventually we found a diner and ate dinner, then 3 of us drove back, while the other 4 headed to a local Mormon church building to spend the night.  Jason and I wish we could have stayed, but we had Evensong this afternoon up in Cambridge, and would have had to leave too early this morning to be of much use.

I'm so glad we went.  We played a very small role in the overall effort, but I'm glad we got to help that nice family, and I hope we eased their burden even just a tiny bit.

This is me prying up the subfloor.  I only did a small bit of the hardest labor, but I was pretty proud of this.

Ireland, October 19-20, 2012

As I travel more here and there, I'm discovering that the 1^st day on a trip to Europe is always the worst simply because you are sleep-deprived and trying to keep yourself awake to adjust to the time change quickly AND trying to enjoy wherever you are because it’s one of your precious, precious vacation days. 

Here’s how it went down for us.  Friday evening our plane took off from Boston at about 6:45 PM.  I watched a couple of movies on the TV in the back of the seat in front of me, did some knitting, ate dinner, and basically had a nice 5 hours on the plane. 

Nice is relative, of course.  Economy class still means no legroom, even if you’re flying on an international carrier.

Then the flight landed at 5:10 AM, Dublin time.  Which is 12:10 AM, Rhode Island time.  Which is usually when I’m maybe starting to think about going to bed on a standard Friday night.

Instead. We got off the plane, got our rental car and took off for Dublin city center.  Where, of course, nothing was open yet because it was only 6:30 in the morning.  We had downloaded Rick Steves’ Ireland 2012 on the recommendation of a friend, so we spent a little time looking at the Dublin section to see what to do.

(By the way, Rick will be making further appearances in this travelogue.  I highly recommend his guidebook.)

I think Jason was a little disappointed with me during our trip because I didn't have much clearly in mind that I wanted to do while we were there.  See, I’ve always wanted to come to Ireland (I have Irish all over my family).  Honestly, though, I didn't know much about Ireland, other than scenes from movies, or the fact that I love the lilting rhythm of an Irish accent.  So the whole trip was kind of like seeing a really great movie without having heard any buzz about it already, which happens very rarely.  I had no expectations other than, “Yay!  We’re in Ireland!”  The fact that everything we experienced was fun and so Irish and breathtaking and sweet and lovely was just icing on my already-excited-to-be-in-Ireland cake.

Anyway, back to a dark morning in Dublin.  First off, we decided not to lug the camera around so there aren’t any pictures of us in Dublin, sadly.  But I’ll link to the places we went.  Our first order of business was getting breakfast.  We found a pub with a sign that said they served breakfast starting at 7 AM, but it turned out the sign lied, and breakfast didn’t start until 7:30.  So we wandered aimlessly around the area of the city north of the river, until we found a cafeteria with 4 breakfast items + toast + tea for 4.95 Euro.  Lovely!

I ate a big pile of mushrooms and sausage and black and white pudding and was full and content and ready to tackle Dublin.  Have I mentioned how much I love Irish/English breakfasts?  Because I do.

We wandered down the streets full of shops, then down a street with a ton of big statues, ending with one named O’Connell, who we found out later was kind of a big deal, and across the river to the Tourist Information center, or TI. We grabbed a pamphlet for an Irish music pub crawl, with the thought of going later that evening.

We walked down Grafton Street, with Jason remarking the whole time about how deserted it was.  When we came back a few hours later, I realized why he was so amazed.  It is hopping midday on a Saturday!

Jason took me to St. Stephen’s Green, which I love.  It’s a big garden park in the middle of the busy Dublin city center.  Even though there weren’t any flowers blooming in late October, there were lovely trees changing color.  Also, there was a big pond full of hundreds of ducks and a group of swans and a bunch of these weird little black birds that the Irish lady I asked said are “water hens.  At least that’s what my father always called them.   I’m not sure if that’s what they’re really called.”  (Imagine that said in a lovely Irish accent.)

I could spend hours watching ducks.  Well maybe not hours, but awhile.  They are hilarious and they kept quacking at each other.  Then the swans would float majestically by, looking down their beaks at the squabbling ducks.

Also, remember, the sleep deprivation was starting to set in at this point.

After St. Stephens Green we went to the Trinity College Library to see The Book of Kells.  The displays were all really interesting and informative.    There are also a bunch of other very old texts there in addition to the Book of Kells.  At the end, they shuffle everyone into the Old Library, which contains thousands of old, old books and is very long with a rounded wooden roof that is beautiful. 

Then we went to check out the Cathedrals.  The exteriors, at least.  Our first stop was St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which wasn’t open due to a graduation ceremony taking place.  Still, it was fun to see the outside, and the little park next to it.  Then we walked over to Christ Church Cathedral.  We looked at their schedule and made note of an Evensong service later that day.  Because, as we learned in England last summer, if you go to a service, you get into the cathedral for free!  Such a deal when Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s in London are each something like 16 Pounds, just to get in.

We made the mistake of walking around the Christ Church grounds and having a seat at a nice table next to a snack shop.  The sun was shining so nice and warm and we both started dozing off, to the great amusement of a man sitting at the table next to us. 

Have to stay awake!  Have to get used to time change and not lose chance to explore Dublin!

We decided to get some lunch and wound up wandering back to Grafton Street, which at this point was bustling.  Grafton Street is the place to be, with lots of shops and restaurants and street performers, not to mention the many people walking up and down the street taking this all in.  The energy in the crowd perked me up a bit, but I was getting hungry again.  We walked around in circles for awhile and wound up in this nondescript pub on Grafton Street with terrible service.  However, the chicken and mushroom pie I had was quite tasty, so that’s good.

The next stop was the National Museum of Ireland, which is FREE, everyone!  Rick Steves talked it up, and Jason suggested we go there.  It was fascinating.  Remember, I know nothing about Ireland.  For some reason, all of the European history classes I’ve taken never really talked about it.  I can tell you all about the Tudors in England, but nothing about what was happening contemporaneously in Ireland. 

Turns out, quite a lot.  I mean, I knew England did its whole colonizing thing with Ireland, but I learned so much about Irish history on this trip.  For instance, did you know that there have been people here, building things, for over 5000 years?  More about that in my next post, but, really, fascinating!

I think some of the most interesting exhibits in the museum had to do with what has been found in the bogs.  Seriously, it’s kind of unreal.  There’s this whole weird bog thing going on in Ireland where stuff is thrown in and preserved incredibly well for hundreds and thousands of years.  Gold jewelry, tools, animal skin clothes, books AND bodies, or pieces of bodies, with hair and eyelashes intact, as well as the contents of the stomach.  So this guy was hit over the head with something hard and thrown in the bog, and, oh, by the way, he had oatmeal for breakfast.  Crazy!

While we explored the museum, the tiredness was seriously kicking in.  I had to keep sitting down in the museum because my back and my feet were aching.  Then I’d almost fall asleep sitting there.  At that point it was probably about 3 PM and I had been up for about 34 hours.  As we finished up in the museum, I told Jason, I think it’s time to find our hotel.

No Evensong service.  No pub crawl.  Just, please, a bed.

So we walked back to the car, which was a couple of miles away at this point, and drove to the hotel, only to be told that some of their rooms had damage to them so we weren't actually staying at that hotel, but at a different hotel a few miles away.  O…k… 

The second hotel was fine, if not quite as nice as the first one looked.  It was right next to the Aviva Stadium where rugby and soccer are played (and taken very seriously).  I read some reviews of the hotel online and, hilariously, one review talked about how the hotel was fine, but those obnoxious rugby fans really ruined his time, while a second review talked about how perfect the hotel was for the rugby game and the after parties. 

We got to our room, I took out my contacts (in my eyes for 36 hours at this point) and fell asleep.  It was 5 PM.  Then we woke up at 10 PM, stayed up until 2 AM and woke up at 8 AM the next morning, feeling much more perky.

Saturday the 20th was actually Jason’s and my 5^th anniversary, which is why we went to Ireland in the first place.  Celebration!  Our celebration on the actual day consisted of us saying “Happy anniversary” to each other periodically throughout the day as we stumbled through Dublin in a sleepy haze.

It’s ok, though.  It got better.

Latest Crafty Projects

First of all, how cute is this?

If I do say so myself.

That was a set I knitted for our friends' baby who is due at the beginning of October.  I need to find a better photography background because that particular tabletop makes the colors look a little wonky, but you get the idea.

Now I'm working on Christmas.  A couple of months ago, when I found some Lion Brand Homespun on sale in pretty colors, I got it into my head to make blankets for a couple of Christmas presents.  Homespun isn't my favorite yarn, but it's very soft and warm when knitted or crocheted, and has pretty multi-colors that make it interesting looking.

When I taught myself to crochet years ago, I started out making blankets, with varying degrees of success.  The first afghan I made for my mom, and one end of it has the telltale slope inward of the beginner who doesn't know how to properly turn and start a new row.  My first granny square afghan went to my best friend, and then promptly started unraveling because I hadn't yet figured out how to finish off my ends in a way that would hold.

But I got better.  When Jason and I started dating, I crocheted him a deep purple afghan that was cozy and warm and that we still use in the winter.

However, I've discovered that I just don't have the patience to make a whole blanket anymore.  At least not when my spare time for knitting or crocheting is so limited and I want to make sure I get enough things made before Christmas.  I've been trying to get going on an afghan for someone, and I've started it 3 different times. 

The color is called "Ocean" and has lots of pretty blues and greens and purples on a neutral background.  So I thought a ripple blanket would be nice.  I started knitting one. 

Bored.

Then I switched to the crochet version of the pattern, thinking maybe I would be more interested in crocheting after mainly knitting for so many years now.

Bored.  Also, this is taking FOREVER.

So I found a knitted afghan in a cool cable pattern.  I spent a few hours on this one, mostly during road trips in August.  But then I got bored and found myself playing Spider Solitaire on my laptop in the evenings when I should have been knitting.

SO, I've scrapped the afghan idea and am going to make the person in question a fluffy cozy sweater for Christmas.  I started it last night, and I'm already feeling entirely better about the project.  I'll post pictures once it is gifted (ie, after Christmas).

A Day In Rhode Island

{I originally posted this in my healthy living blog, but Jason requested I post it here too, so here you go.}

Jason and I bought too many Groupons this summer!  We got excited when all of the Groupons for the summer activities started coming out in May, and we snapped up a bunch.  Now we're struggling to use them all before they expire.

(For instance, since there was cruddy weather last weekend, I don't think we're going to get to use the stand-up paddleboarding Groupon before it expires. At least we can use the face value for a credit.)

On Saturday, we kayaked all day.  We bought Groupons from Narrow River Kayaks, thinking we would go twice for 4 hours.  Instead, we used both of them and kayaked all day.  Well, we didn't kayak ALL day, but for a long stretch.  Let's just say, today I am still feeling my lats.

My boss recommended this spot to us a few years ago and ever since we've tried to go back at least once a summer.  When you put in, you can either kayak up the river, past the lovely rich peoples' homes and boats, or head down the river to where it flows into the ocean, beach your kayak and play at the beach for awhile.  Since we had tons of time, we headed up the river first.

The thing you should know is that the tide was going out the whole time we paddled upriver.  If we paused for too long, we started going backwards.  We paddled further than we had in the past, and Jason figured we paddled upriver, against the tide and a strongish breeze, for about 2 1/2 miles.  In case you were wondering, that means Jason and I are awesome.

Then we turned around and went to the beach for a couple of hours.  All told, Jason thinks we paddled for 6 1/2 miles.

After we returned the kayaks, we drove to the beach at  Quonochontaug.  We checked out Quonochontaug last Fall, when Jason's brother was visiting, mainly because in the X-Files, it's the place where Mulder's family has a summer home.  And, yes, we are big nerds.

(Dear X-Files writers,  After living in New England for awhile now, I have to question your sense of geography.  Supposedly Mulder grew up on Martha's Vineyard (an ISLAND) and his family summered on the mainland in Rhode Island.  This makes no sense.  What also makes no sense is how Mulder was able to get from DC to Martha's Vineyard (an ISLAND) is just a few hours, no problem, with no thought of things like ferry schedules and such.)

We went for the nerd cachet, but discovered that Quonochontaug is this absolutely beautiful private community.  We also discovered on Saturday that in September, we could just wander around the restricted community beach.

This is a little-known fact about Rhode Island: the beaches are amazingly beautiful, the water is still warm in September, and after Labor Day, no one is around to make you pay for parking, or to keep you off of restricted beaches.

We rounded out the evening with dinner at Aunt Carrie's (which I keep wanting to call Sister Carrie's)  It is apparently a Rhode Island institution, and Jason took his parents there the last time they visited while I was working like a chump.  So good.  SO good!  Scallops of perfection!

Such a perfect Rhode Island day.  Sometimes this state drives me insane, with its corrupt politics and cronyism and bankruptcy, but it really is a lovely place.

Gardening and Such

One of the things I absolutely adore about owning our home is that we get to do what we like with the yard.  For example, there was this juniper tree in front of the house that I hated.  It was too tall and completely blocked a trellis on the front of the house.  We found a landscaping plan when we were going through the house's papers after closing and it turns out the juniper started out pretty small.  Whoever did the design either didn't take into account how much it would grow, or figured it would be trimmed back a lot more than it has been. 

Also, it had a huge dead patch in the front.  Also, it was full of prickers that made it painful to wrap Christmas lights around it.

So one of the first things we did was have someone rip out the juniper tree.  Yay!  Now there's an empty space (which we have filled with veggies and flowers) and we have a big grapevine climbing up the trellis.

This is the year that Jason and I have gone a little nuts with the gardening.  Well, I've gardened in the past, and have been content to putter along, reading a bit about container gardening, but basically throwing things together willy nilly and seeing what happens.  Jason, the Scientist Boy that he is, has made this into a Project, complete with research. 

For example, he's made all of our potting soil.  All of it.  We do the majority of our gardening in containers, so that's saying something.  He researched the perfect mixture and figured out we could get a better growing medium for cheaper per gallon than if we bought it at the Home Depot.

The plants seem to love it and we've been eating peas, cucumbers and zucchinis for a few weeks. 


All of the tomato plants are full of green tomatoes waiting to ripen.  We're going to have a bumper crop.


In addition to veggies, I have loved planting my favorite flowers.  Well, to be fair, the house already had 2 giant hydrangea bushes, which is one of my favorite flowers.  During blooming season, I always have a vase full of hydrangea blossoms in the house.


Dahlias are another of my favorite flowers.  I planted our first dahlias last year.  Squirrels dug up 2 of the bulbs, but the 3rd soldiered on and gave me a bunch of beautiful red flowers.  The bulb actually made it through the winter and is blooming again right now.

A few months ago, I planted more dahlias and some peonies and watched with anticipation as the the plants grew.  Only, it turns out the plants I thought were peonies are actually more dahlias.  Apparently I planted more dahlias than I remembered AND the peonies bit the dust for some reason.

No matter.  These are the dahlias I thought were peonies:


Fantastic, right?  I think they look like the lion flowers from Alice in Wonderland.

Old Lady Time

So I'm starting to knit again.  Again? you ask.  Did you stop? 

Well, yes, kind of.  I had a flurry of knitting pre-Christmas and then I started this darling vest for a friend's baby boy who was due in March.  I made almost all of the front of the vest and then I ran out of steam.  Busy days at work meant I would much rather sit on the loveseat and zone out while watching TV than keep my hands busy with knitting.  When I'm really busy at work, I don't have that extra energy at the end of the day.  My brain is tired.

However, work has slowed down a bit with the summer, and I find myself itching to dive into the big pile of yarn that I've accumulated in the guest room closet.  If only so our future guests will have some place to put their clothes, rather than being stared down by a mountain of yarn when they open the closet door.

Last weekend, Jason and I drove up to a concert at Tanglewood.  It's really the first long drive we've done this summer and when I realized I would be sitting in the car, in the daylight, for 3 hours on the way up, I figured I should make myself useful.  I grabbed a couple of skeins of yarn and some big needles and started a charity hat to donate to the Rhode Island veterans this winter.  A few years ago, I connected with a local woman on Ravelry who collects charity scarves, hats, gloves and blankets for local veterans every year around Thanksgiving.  I can bust out a warm hat in no time.  It keeps my hands busy AND does some good. 

By the time we drove up there I was about halfway done.  Then we sat on the lawn for a couple of hours waiting for the concert to start and I almost finished it completely.  The only thing that stopped me was when my decreases got too small, and I didn't have any double pointed needles to transfer my stitches to.  It's only a matter of about 10 minutes to finish it at this point.

Today we're going on another long drive and I have a baby sweater and hat to make for a baby shower at the end of August!  Then I will finally finish the vest for my friend's baby.  Good thing I made it for a one-year old, because I think that's about the time he's going to get it...

In the meantime, I'm starting to think about Christmas knitting.

Wardrobe

First, you should know I am a Judgey McJudgerson.  I make lots of superficial snap judgments all day long.  As do we all, I suspect.  Don't worry, I get my comeuppance.  I do dumb things like fall down in the middle of the street for no reason whatsoever.

True story.  Happened today.  My ankle turned and BOOM!  On the ground.  I was a little shaken up, felt super embarrassed, scraped my foot, and was kind of a little annoyed that not one person asked me if I was ok.  Where is the love, downtown Providence?

Anyway, there are certain wardrobe items that I do not tolerate and I will make snap judgments about you right there on the spot if I see them.

1.  Tights worn as pants.  Tights are not pants.  Leggings CAN be, if they are thick enough and you have a long shirt that covers your whole bum.  Tights are those things that you (and the whole world) can probably see your underwear through.  I especially judge that girl I saw walking on the Brown campus wearing BLACK PANTYHOSE as pants.  No.  It's not even about me being a prude.  It's just tacky!

2.  Stacked heels/heels higher than 3 inches.  Especially if you're walking in teeny tiny inefficient steps that tell me those shoes are KILLING your feet.  Let's just all agree right now that it's ok to wear cute yet comfy shoes at all times.

3.  Jeans that are too small causing your muffin top to spill out and probably not be contained by your skintight shirt.  If Stacy and Clinton have taught me anything, it's to wear my size.  As I've gained weight, I have purchased some new clothes.  I'm not happy about the bigger sizes, BUT I know I look nice.  When you wear things that are too small for you, you make yourself look heavier.  I saw this one girl on the bus who was actually pretty tiny, but because she insisted on cramming herself into a size 0 instead of, say, a 6, she looked like a hot mess.

4.  Clothes that are obviously being worn with the sole purpose of attracting the male gaze.  Visible thongs, tramp stamps, and the like.  Seriously, ladies, get some self-esteem.

5.  Cropped pants and knee-high boots.  OK, I only saw one woman doing that last winter, but it was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. 


Today's writing prompt.

Scared

I have a very vague memory of going to a carnival with my grandparents and being scared out of my mind.  The lights!  The noise!  And me screaming in my grandpa's arms! 

I've been told that I was only about 18 months old when this happened, and that there's no way I could remember it, but I do.  I remember the music and the loudness of the crowd.  I remember the yellows and reds of the lights on the rides and the games.  It was terrifying. 

I'm sure my grandparents thought I would love it and it would be a fun outing.  All they got for their trouble was a shrieking toddler.

Sorry about that.



Source for prompt: The One Minute Writer

Writing

I used to write all the time.  When I was 7, I spent a lot of time in my grandparents' office, hunting and pecking out fake National Enquirer stories on their electric IBM typewriter.  Actually, I guess the stories were more of the Weekly World News variety, since I didn't really write about celebrities, but about happenings and creatures akin to Bat Boy.  To this day, I still don't type correctly because I honed my typing skills on my own with no regard to asdf  jkl;.

My best friend and I wrote stories. Well, actually, we spent a lot of our time making lists of characters and character traits - eye color, hair color, personality, country of origin.  We created an entire dynasty. I was Lesley Fletcher, she was Diana Peters, and our characters were married to twins, Dave and Nick Bennett.  Lesley and Dave had 4 kids and Diana and Nick had 5. They had innumerable grandchildren. Oh and Lesley had a sister, Leah.

We would sometimes get started on stories, but we never got too far. I have many beginnings. I have a notebook full of about 2/3 of a young adult novel I wrote about our characters all meeting in junior high. I think all-told, I wrote 2 complete short stories about our characters that actually had a begining, middle and end.

I also kept journals.  I have several attractively-bound notebooks from Pier One full of the scrawlings of my overdramatic high school self.  Although I understand the point of keeping journals for posterity, I think I need to make sure there's a clause in my will to burn certain of those notebooks upon my death.  I blush to think about some of the ridiculousness in them.

In high school I had a terrible Freshman English teacher, but the one thing she did that I liked was to have us do weekly writing exercises.  I wrote 3 or 4 more complete stories based on her writing prompts and I was just happy to have an excuse to write.

I'm not trying to say I was a good writer.  Just that I wrote and I loved it.

8 years ago (holy cow!  8 years?!) when I started this blog, it became an outlet for me.  It got me through my last year of law school and studying for the Bar Exam.  The angst of moving to DC without a job, and, even though I didn't write about everything, the drama of the 2 years of dating Jason.  Then our wedding, whereupon I became boring, and the blog faded away.

I miss writing, though.  I am on several listservs for freelance writers because I have a not-so-secret desire to leave law and to write for a living.  The market is tough for freelancers, plus it takes a lot of time and energy that I don't really have.  So I just read through the advice emails and tuck them away for some vague future.

Today I thought about my blog and realized I do have the opportunity to write, multiple times a day if I want to.  I looked up some writing prompts online (I heart the internets) and I'm going to make an effort to write, at least once a week, based on those prompts.  I will be a writer again!

Latest in Knitting

Now that Christmas is over, I can share some of my latest knitting projects with you. Note to self for future: cell phone camera under fluorescent lights don't make for the best pictures. Oh well.

First, I knit a darling sweater for my niece Anya (who I'm sure is today having a rude awakening as she realizes there are no longer 8 adults around vying for her attention and catering to her every wish).
The pattern is Helena and has a really pretty design on the bottom that I tried to capture as Anya was running around:
Next are the 4 hats I knitted for the family that the Young Women adopted as their Secret Santa project this year. In the midst of my crazy work schedule and the holidays, for some reason I thought knitting 4 hats in 2 weeks was an awesome idea. Because I'm insane, I guess.

The first hat for the dad was Tweed Hat, knitted in this super soft chunky yarn that striped nicely.
You can't really tell in the awful, awful lighting above, but the stripes are white, gray, brown and black.

Next, I made the Chunky Slouch Hat for the mom, using the same soft chunky yarn as the above hat, but in turquoise.
I actually think I might have messed up the pattern a little, but it turned out cute anyway and the pattern is such that you can't really tell.

Finally, I made a hat for each of the little girls. The first was loosely based on the Equinox Hat, which I previously made for a hat knit along on Ravelry, sized down for a little girl:
It's hard to see in the lighting, but this is a nice light pink fluffy yarn.

The second is one I made up. It's a basic roll-brim hat, with my first attempt at using multiple colors in a row.
Someday I would like to get into colorwork, but I have a feeling I'm going to have to relearn how to knit in order to do it well, since I taught myself to knit and I know that I don't hold the needles and the yarn correctly.

Finally, I knit a Hobo Hat for my assistant, since she's always been an enthusiastic cheerleader of the knitting projects I've shown her.
It's a lovely soft alpaca yarn in dark teal and she loved it.

I planned to get a lot more Christmas knitting done, including something fairly ambitious for my mom that I've been planning for awhile, but I ran out of time. Next year...

Time Flying

The good news is, I'm sleeping better again. However, I'm still crazy busy at work, and my usual 3-5 times per week morning workouts have instead become showing up at work at 7:30 AM.

Yay.

However, Jason and I did this on Sunday night:

Last night we decorated the outside of our house, and I'll take a picture of that someday. In the meantime it was, like, 70 degrees here in Rhode Island today and that's not helping my disbelief that the last day of November is tomorrow.

Sick of Being Sick

Jason and I are in Vermont.  It's 3:49 am and I have been awake since 1:15 am.  There are a couple of reasons.

One is some family drama that has been swirling around in my head and preventing me from getting a solid night's sleep for almost 2 weeks now.  No fun when work is also busy and I need to be able to focus.  Last week when Jason and I were out running errands one night I actually took off from a stop straight into the intersection when the green arrow came on, but my light was still red.  Thank goodness the drivers who were turning left and would have been completely justified in running into me were paying attention.

I'm sure that wasn't related to sleep deprivation AT ALL. 

Needless to say, after we ran our errand, Jason drove home.  I think he could tell it really shook me up because he's gone pretty easy on the teasing about it.

The other reason I'm up is because despite taking my prescription meds, today's migraine wouldn't go away.  I'm out of the prescription drugs, so I popped a couple excedrin.  The headache is waning a little, but now I'm buzzing from the caffeine.

Basically I'm a hot mess.

The migraine thing had been a huge issue lately.  I think it's due to my overall stress level, but also to my lack of attention to my diet.  Even though I've come to the conclusion that wheat seems to be a migraine trigger for me, I've kept on merrily eating wheat in some form pretty much every day.  And I've been getting migraines every couple of days.

Also, my jeans continue to get tighter.

This needs to stop. 

Right now, at 4:03 in the morning, I'm not feeling strong-willed enough to make powerful, enthusiastic declarations, but I do know that I need to make some changes and that I'm just really tired of feeling semi-ill most of the time.

Costumes!

So usually I'm kind of ambivalent about Halloween - at least the costuming aspect of it. I'm wearing an orange sweater and a black skirt today. On Saturday at our ward Halloween party, I wore all black and these little black and orange kitty ears.

(Hilariously, the cat ears freaked Tiny right the heck out. He got all low to the ground and his tail puffed up to about 3 times its normal size while he looked at me with wide eyes. I kept trying to freak him out, though, so now he's kind of used to the ears. He still doesn't like them and stares at me until I take them off, but his tail doesn't puff up anymore.)

The point is, my Halloween costumes of late have been either completely half-a**ed, or nonexistent.

On Friday I was IMing with a friend of mine and she sent me a link to a discount costume shop. I immediately started going through the costumes, looking for pretty things. I'm kind of annoyed generally by the whole slutty costume phenomenon, which seems to get worse every year. I saw a costume for a slutty Harry Potter this year. What?! That doesn't even make sense.

Anyway, I like the pretty costumes. When I was in high school, I actually rented a Southern belle costume one year. The hoop skirt was a major drag to sit at a desk in, but I felt lovely and all day long the cute outgoing boys (you know, the ones who were frat boys in college and are now lawyers or finance types) would do things like take my gloved hand and kiss it while complimenting me in a fake Southern drawl. So that was fun.

Friday I bought this costume:
And this costume, which I hoped would match a pretty headpiece I bought on a lark several years ago when I went to my one and only Renaissance Faire (it was a hoot):
And they just arrived! All weekend long I felt kind of silly about buying them, but now I'm so excited to go home and try them on after work. I may need to wear them even when it's not Halloween.

Swim Across America 9/10/11

Every so often I post something on my healthy living blog that Jason informs me is of general interest and I should post on my regular blog. This is one of those posts. So if you think you've already read this on my other blog, that's because you probably did. For everyone else, I did an open water swim! Here's the report.

Saturday I swam my first open water swim with Swim Across America! I raised $920 for cancer research at Women and Infants Hospital right here in Providence. At the end of last week, I was getting a little nervous. Hurricane Katia was creating big swells on the Rhode Island beaches, and rumors of rip tides were floating around.

However, the water on Saturday morning couldn't have been better:

Not only did the swells really die down, but unbeknownst to me, the beach at Wheeler State Beach is protected by a breakwater because it's also the same area where the ferries head out to Block Island and Martha's Vineyard. So the water was actually pretty smooth - much smoother than any of my practice swims.

Here's the route for the swim (we mile swimmers made the loop twice)I signed in and got my yellow cap and my number

Plus, a sweet tat (which is still secured firmly on my shoulder, despite several showers and a workout swim yesterday morning)

I ran into my Masters coach and introduced her to Jason, but she was a little distracted because she had been assigned to watch over Clara Walker, the 86 year-old former Olympian. Clara is a native Rhode Islander who swam in the 1948 London Olympics. Amazing! She swam a half mile on Saturday. Clara Walker is my new hero!

After I registered there wasn't much to do besides wait.I also snagged a pineapple Chobani for Jason, since he didn't have the chance to eat before we left, and they had food for the swimmers.

Jason snapped this picture while I was dutifully listening to the announcements and safety instructions.Right after the announcements, I bumped into a woman from my Masters group. We wound up having a mutual-appreciation conversation (I complimented her speed, she complimented my kick) and she made me feel much less nervous about the upcoming swim. It's always nice to have a buddy. She and I lined up together and ran into the water together, then she took off (because she's super fast).

The 1-mile start (the half-mile swimmers had pink caps and started about 10 minutes after us).After the 1st loop, I thought, "I have to do that again?! Maybe I should have done the 1/2 mile...", but then the 2nd loop flew by and before I knew it, I was finished.

Done!I met both of my goals, which were, (1) Finish, and (2) Don't be last.

About 30 seconds in, I realized I hadn't asked Jason to time me, and I had forgotten my waterproof watch. Darn it! However, Jason said we started at exactly 9:00 and he's pretty sure I came out of the water at 9:29 almost exactly. So I swam the open-water mile in 29 minutes, which I'm very pleased with, considering it's only about 10 seconds off my fastest pool time.

Jason and I spent the rest of the day at the beach. We stayed at Wheeler for awhile, then headed over to Scarborough, where the lack of breakwater meant we had some fun waves to jump. We also both got completely fried. Note to self: Jason hates touching sunscreen and will thus not apply it evenly, or even completely, on my back. My back is currently 3 different colors of tan.

All in all, the swim was fun and I'm glad I challenged myself. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of events I can swim next season.

Garden!

We live in an old industrial city in New England, which means the soil probably has lead and chromium and all sorts of fun things in it. So even though we now have a house with a yard, we're all about the container gardening, at least when it comes to vegetables and herbs.

Our backyard is lovely and shaded by 2 big oak trees and a maple, which is fantastic for dozing in the hammock on a warm Summer's day, but not so conducive to growing things. All of our gardening has to be done on the front stoop and in the front yard. I think we have done a pretty good job with keeping things looking tidy even though it's all right in view of the street.

We got started a little late this year. I planted the seeds in the little peat pods in a timely manner and they grew and grew, and then they started to die because I was really busy and didn't transplant them quickly enough. But I managed to salvage some of them.

Here's where we started, with little seedlings in containers on the front stoop.
The plants love the sun and being outside. We just have to stay on top of the watering because they drink like crazy.

Here are the pepper seedlings from several weeks ago:

Here are the peppers now:
I planted 3 types of pepper seeds and have no idea what is growing. There are a few flowers now, so hopefully we'll have some fruit soon. I'm hoping for banana peppers, but I may be way off.

Tomato seedlings from a few weeks ago:

Tomato plant now:
The tomato plant is HUGE and has a ton of baby tomatoes and flowers all over it. Not to mention we have two more tomato plants growing elsewhere in the yard that we planted a bit later than this one. I see some tomato canning in my future.

Originally I had one cucumber seedling that survived my earlier neglect. It looked a little puny so I dug a hole in the container and planted a bunch more seeds just to see what would happen.

Here's what happened (the original plant is on the left, and all the new seedlings are in the middle and on the right):

I think every single one of those cucumber seeds decided to grow. Jason and I knew we needed to cull the herd, so I pulled out all of the new seedlings except for a couple. Then we felt guilty about the cucumber deaths on our hands and I replanted the majority of them into two other containers we had.

Now the cucumbers are taking over the world.

Or at least our yard.

Seriously, they wind all over the place and grab onto other plants and just climb up them. We have one plant next to the big tomato and a few days ago I had to untangle the cucumber from the tomato and redirect it before it took over completely.

So far we only have one cucumber, which is just about ready to be picked, but all of our cucumber plants have about 37 blossoms each, so I think we'll be drowning in cucumbers in a couple of weeks. Anyone have a good pickle recipe?

Even though I don't want to plant anything we're going to eat in the yard, I'm happy to plant flowers. Earlier this summer I bought and planted three red dahlia bulbs. Then the squirrels and/or rabbits dug up 2 of the bulbs. One of them disappeared after it had already sprouted a stem and some leaves. But they left me with 1 and the first blossom showed up just the other day.

Dahlias are one of my favorite flowers! The plant has a bunch of buds on it now and I can't wait for when they all bloom.