Ten on Tuesday

10 Things to Do When It's Too Hot to Go Outside‏

1. Eat ice cream or frozen yogurt or sorbet!
2. Take a cool shower.
3. Go to an ice cold movie theater and catch up on your movies.
4. Wander around the Egyptian galleries at the Met.
5. Hang out in the penguin house at the Central Park Zoo.
6. Go to a fabric store and fondle the crisp, cool cottons and linens.
7. Stay home, keep the light off (if possible), crank up the air conditioning, and channel surf in front of the TV or...
8. ...surf the Internet.
9. Wander around a craft store (AC Moore, Michaels) and get inspired.
10. Spend the day knitting at your favorite air conditioned yarn store!

Knitting update

Yes, there actually is some knitting going on around here.

Exhibit A -- My Ladybug socks

Details on Ravelry. I'm attempting to make these two match up. We'll see how that goes.

Exhibit B -- Jim's Trekking socks

Details also on Ravelry. I had him try them on over the weekend and they're fit perfectly.

That's it for know. Just some pink and blue socks for my baby and me...

Quick Weekend Update

I'm at the house on dial-up, so I can't upload any pictures for you (will do that tomorrow when I'm back on a high-speed connection). But here's just a few things.

• We cancelled the Hildene event this weekend. Late Friday afternoon the program director for Hildene called Jim and told him that there was standing water (from the past week's torrential rains) on a portion of the lawn where we were going to camp--the portion that we needed to drive across to get to where we were camping--and that we needed to be really careful about not damaging the lawn. After getting off the phone with her Jim thought about the lawn situation, plus the forecast for some more rain this weekend. We've had vehicles get stuck in on lawn when it's been really wet, as well as tearing up some of the grass, and we decided that since we had low registration numbers for the event anyway, it might be best to cancel, rather than risk the damage. When we called Hildene, the program director said is was just a small puddle. Excuse me? I overheard her first conversation with Jim and that is not what she said to him at all! Regardless, we were cancelling. We were able to notify everyone who had registered for the event, who were disappointed but understood the situation.
  
  Well, last night several thunderstorms moved through the area dumping a ton a rain. Thank God we cancelled! Not only would our ground condition problems have increased, but with the kind of rain (and wind and hail) that occurred, we might have had tent damage from those storms. And there's more rain forecast for today! (It's very overcast right now.) Although we hated to have to cancel the event, it was definitely the right call given the circumstances.
  
• Punkin has been pretty adamant that the Trekking socks I'm knitting for Jim were way too narrow, so I stopped working on them until I could do a fitting. Well, tried them on him last night and they're just fine. They make it over his heel and they're not too loose nor too snug. And he actually seems to like them! Yay!
  
• I decided to split my ball of Ladybug yarn so that I can attempt to make them identical. We'll see how that goes.
  
• Jim picked up his new truck, which replaces his flambe truck. He's outside playing with it now, cleaning it, looking at the compartments, dreaming of how he'll use everything. I'll post pix later.

OK, that's all for now. I really need a cup of tea so that I can wake up. Later!

Saturday Sky -- Ominous Sky Edition

Late afternoon, looking east from Bennington, Vermont as a thunderstorm approaches from New York state. Unfortunately I didn't capture any of the giant lightning bolts we saw, but I think you get the idea...

Eye Candy Friday -- the Saved-My-Ass Version

Wanna know why this is eye candy?

It's beautiful to me because it's FREE wi-fi when I needed to simultaneously be on a conference call and an Internet live meeting AND it's beautiful because it's a delicious breakfast at Dot's in West Dover.


I was supposed to do this down the road at an Internet cafe (at $30 for three hours of access). However, despite calling them this week to make sure that they'd be open at 10 so that I could go online, they decided not to open today until noon. Three other people got hosed by them this morning too.


From now on, guess who's going to get my wi-fi business whenever possible...

Cannon update

Nothing really earth shattering--just an updated article in today's Rutland Herald.



By the way... if you happen to be in the Manchester, Vermont area this weekend my unit's going to be doing a living history at Hildene. Not sure if we'll have the loaner cannon with us, though. We still don't know if we can get someone to haul it over to the site...

Gee--didn't tell you about Jim's truck fire, did I? Jim's OK, but the insurance company totalled the truck. Let me go write a post about that...

Eye Candy Friday -- Orchid Edition

The Amazing Vermont Bloomin' Orchid!

This is the orchid that I bought from Ikea when we first moved into the house and that stayed continuous bloom for two solid years. This past May it finally gave out and the stem started to die back. I thought the plant was done, and after constantly making flowers for two solid years it clearly deserved a rest.

Well, turns out that the old girl wasn't quite done yet. She started sending out that stem last month, and now the flowers are coming back.

And can you believe that I have never fertilized or repotted this plant at any time during the last two solid years?

Man, that plant sure likes Vermont!

Ten on Tuesday -- Favorite Vacation Moments

Even though I'm always traveling around the northeast, I really can't say that I vacation much, so I'm not so sure I can come up with 10 vacation moments. But I guess you can turn any time away from home into a vacation, however short it may be. So, in no particular order, here goes...

1. My first (and so far only) trip to Disney World with Jim (2002). It was for a conference that my company was sending me too, and they offered reduced hotel rates for additional night, so he came along. I absolutely loved the Electical Water Pageant on the lake behind the Contemporary Resort. I was running around squealing like a little girl. (Jim was very amused with me.) I also had a blast--and one of the best frozen margarita's ever--in Epcot.
2. Seeing Don Henley in concert at SPAC with Punkin, then leaving work early so that we could drive down to Giant Stadium the next day to see Bruce Springsteen, then driving back up to Saratoga that same night (1985).
3. Watching the Palace Illumination (not the fireworks filled Grand Illumination) at Colonial Williamsburg, with the Williamsburg Fifes and Drums marching up and down the green (Christmas vacation at Colonial Williamsburg, 2000).
4. Hanging out with my high school friends who drove up to Saratoga to visit me. We had a little party on the screened in porch of the trailer I rented on Saratoga Lake (early 80's). Another night we went to Mangino's for dinner. Punkin forgot to take her fork off her salad plate before our waiter cleared it. She didn't realize that her fork was missing when her entree arrived. When she finally did realize it was missing, our waiter disappeared--for a long time. When he finally reaappeared and asked how our meals were, she told him "I wouldn't know. I don't have a fork." Thus began the story of the legendary "Saratoga Fork Quota." (You know, they only have so many forks for the whole town...)
5. Deciding to fly down to Miami--having never been there before and not having a hotel reservation--all by myself on the spur of the moment just so that I could see turf racing at Hialeah (winter 1982).
6. A weekend trip to a bed and breakfast in Kennebunkport with Jim. We had Dinner at an amazing restaurant near the inn. I had the most wonderful salad with pecans and a Gorgonzola vinaigrette dressing that was to die for! (2002)
7. Watching meteor showers at reenactment events held at Hogback Mountain (1995-1997).
8. Seeing Niagara Falls for the first time--illuminated, on a crisp cold winter night, without tons of tourists around (1988).
9. Taking the cable ferry across Lake Champlain (every year).
10. Every time I go up to the Hubbardton Battlefield and look out over the mountains.

Eye Candy Friday -- Misty Meadow Edition

Fog over Howe Field in Wilmington, Vermont.

This weekend the LHA is holding its annual Time Line encampment event on this very site. We're going to have reenactors who portray everything from early Roman soldiers to Rev War and Civil War to 20th century military. Really quite a site to see!

So if you're anywhere near Wilmington this weekend, stop by and say hi! I'll be dressed as a Civil War babe and my unit will be firing our loaner cannon.

You know, that fog almost makes it look like this event could actually be a multi-time period version of Brigadoon? Hmmmmm...

What's your flavor?

I saw this on Melissa Morgan-Oakes' blog and I just had to try it.

Mint chocolate chip ice cream wakes up people's taste buds, and you do the same thing when you walk into a room. The chocolatey bits represent your sweet, flirtatious side, and the minty flavor represents your high energy level. You are smart, witty, and you make a great first impression. Your friends value your advice, because you tend to see things from a fresh new
perspective.

OMG! That is so my favorite flavor!!! Actually, any kind of mint ice cream does it for me.

What's your flavor?

Pictures of FOs!

As promised, here are my socks!

And Jim's Liberty Cap!

Not so neat, but I didn't have any reference material available over the weekend so I just winged it. I told Jim that I could redo it after looking up the proper way to embroider, but he said it was fine the way it is. Isn't he sweet?

He looks thrilled, doesn't he?

FO's for a July 4th Weekend

Can you believe, I've got TWO FO's for you. My hand painted socks (yay!) and the obnoxious lettering on Jim's Liberty Cap (about time yay!). Unfortunately, I'm on dial-up Internet access here in Vermont, so I can't show them to you just yet. But trust me--there are pictures, and if I can find myself a wi-fi connection today I'll upload them for you. Got some errand running to do today, so maybe I'll stumble upon modern technology some free Internet. But for now, I hope everyone had a great July 4th weekend.