State Fair 2009

It's the moment you've been waiting for all summer...the moment when you can look at photos and say "I would never eat that!!!" Yes, my friends, I'm in Minnesota for work and that means I dragged Kim to the State Fair to eat turkey sandwiches, fried cheese curds, and bacon dipped in chocolate. Rest assured that merely viewing these photos will not affect your cholesterol.





To see all the fun, click here.

Lobsters in Love

So, I am not suggesting this as a replacement for convergence. Let's just call it a pre-convergence apertif. M & I (or as my mom would innocently write it, S&M) would like to suggest that we converge upon some butter'd lobster tails in the lovely town of Clinton, CT (I write that with poetic license never having actually been to the town) , on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Apparently, there is a very good lobster shack there if you believe the godless, liberal media-type folks at the New York Times. What says you all?

Who will brake for lobsters?

Sucktucket (see August 2007)

I am glad to see that blogging has resumed for lo these two months or so. Why is it that every blog I've ever been part of has lost momentum (is it one of the laws of thermodynamics, Mr. Theriault?)?

We recently received a cryptic message from TSOD that indicated He may be lying in wait for us over Thanksgiving, were we all to gather in Connecticut One would happily consider doing so, despite the risks; however, how does one bow out of family holiday and invite one's friends over in full view of one's neighbors when those neighbors are said family? Hmmmm?

We are, however, long overdue for some sort of convergence, and I warrant that we are almost perfectly equidistant between Merrimack and Jersey City.

Plus, we have window treatments. We're adult homeowners now. We really are.









(ok, not really.)

Well, I Did Grow Up in Old Salem Village....

To see how I have transformed our kitchen into a small-batch dye factory, click here. Right now there's one pot of Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan) leaves and one of florets steeping on the floor of our 90 degree kitchen. And it just figures that I would decide it would be a great idea to boil many large vats of water on one of the most hot and humid days of the summer so far. (Despite the humidity, it really was fun).

Tuesday night will be Yarn Mordanting and Boil The Plants Again for a Couple of Hours night. And then the pots get to sit again for a while until I have time to strain them and then boil mordanted yarn in them. So stay tuned for more exciting action photos of watching pots of plant parts boil (YAY!!) and yarn turn colors that may or may not be expected.

New Trend in Outdoor Cooking Sweeps the Nation!

This was included with the cedar shed S & I built with some people at the community garden this weekend:





Let's hear it for proofreading!

My home away from home

Getting downsized to a smaller workstation with the new job was more than worth it -- no more high-walled tunnel/cave, and a return to a "room" with a view! (The stuffed lobster was bequeathed to me by the workspace's previous tenant. Not sure why said lobster has an enormous mustache.)

Unofficial Travel Drought Broken

Although never an official ban (except, perhaps, from our places of employment), M & I were musing the other day that we were soon reaching close to a year since either of us had stepped foot on a plane. In fact, our last bit of air travel was over Labor Day weekend last year to go to Minnesota. And prior to that it was an August 2008 trip to my most favorite of places: Columbus, OH. Our musings turned into yet another unofficial activity: a bet on who would break the never-declared travel ban. It seems that it will be me. My reward?

A trip to Columbus tomorrow.

Spleeny...

Who knew the spleen was so very exciting?

Mini Tacos for a Mini Vacation

With Noah just starting his new job, what was going to be a week-long retreat Somewhere Else turned into a week-long vacation home alone. More boxes were unpacked, curtains were purchased for bedroom and living room, many lunches with various friends and family were consumed. And then, on Saturday, I dragged Noah to North Conway, to fulfill my need to feel that I had at least gone SOMEWHERE. We hiked Mt. Willard (Michaela, you've done that one with me before) and it was rockier and more treacherous than I remembered, perhaps partly because it had poured buckets the day before and every footstep needed to be carefully placed to avoid slipping. The view though, as always, was worth it. And yes, we did eat at Cafe Noche...