What's Robin Up To?

Home Improvements - Front "Yard" Edition

2011-06-11T13:14:00.003-04:00

Ok, so "yard" is a bit of a stretch, more like front SIDEWALK, but that's what you get when you live in a city. As I walk through my neighborhood, I am constantly looking at all of the plants and window boxes folks have out on the sidewalk and the front of the house. I have had window box envy ever since I moved into my house.

I finally called this guy in Jenkintown, Ed Wreen, who makes a lot of the window boxes you see in Fairmount. He came over and we discussed what would work best, and 2 weeks later I had these 2 beautiful wrought iron, made to order, window boxes.

Ed had a lot of designs on his webpage, but really, the ones that I liked the most were these simple ones in the neighborhood with "collars" on the posts. Ed had no problem making the boxes with these collars and I really like them. Unfortunately, Ed does not also provide the inserts for the boxes. I looked at some online and at the big box stores and decided I eventually want to build my own inserts later this summer. For now, I bought 6 already potted flower pots at Home Depot and placed them in the boxes. I think they look great!

What do you think?

Here's the whole look of my front "yard" from the street.

Home Improvements - backyard edition

2011-06-05T22:49:00.006-04:00

Now that it is springtime, I have been (ok, my handyman has been) very busy making a few additions to my house. One of the first things on the list was to level out my backyard space. When the sellers replaced the water/sewer line to the street, they did not extend the pipe (and, the drain) to its original location in the center of the patio. Instead, they placed the drain in the corner where the walkway meets the large part of the patio. By doing this, the sellers sloped the patio so that the water would run down into the drain. That's fine, but the slope was such that I could only put my table and chairs in a certain location and the grill, which was placed at the most level part, was not level either. Hot dogs had to be placed a certain way so they didn't roll off the grill.

I spoke with my handyman about leveling and putting in pavers. He thought that would be more hassle than it was worth and suggested leveling the patio by adding a wooden platform/floor. This would allow any water to continue to flow toward the drain w/o all the hassles of digging up the back and messing w/ my a/c unit. The idea was to have the wooden planks flush against the highest part of the patio and then on pillars, or whatever they are, where it is above the current grade.

Below are 2 progress pictures where you can see how the 2x4s were placed and how high the platform is at the deepest part of the patio by the drain. Sorry for the poor picture quality. The camera on my blackberry is shot from being tossed around in my purse.

In the picture above, you can see how the beams are flush against the far side of the patio. However, in the picture below, you can see just how sloped the patio was.

The platform/deck was finished a couple weeks ago and I am sooooooo happy! How great it is to sit at my table in the middle of the patio! I could not do that before w/o wobbling. My plants are also no longer sloped. It is so nice!

The next step will be to add some planters and/or a bench w/ storage. We'll talk more about this in the next couple weeks. Once those are added, we plan to stain the whole thing to match the wood coloring on the fence. I was also thinking it would be cool to add a partial percola, but I'm not sure if that would work. It might block some of the sun coming in my windows, and I don't want that.

It is so nice to site out there now. My neighbor, who actually grew up in my house, has already told me that she is jealous and wants one for herself.

For now, I'll stick w/ the little bistro table and chair set I found on craigslist last year. Next year, I'll buy something different, maybe a little table w/ an umbrella? I was eyeing a cute little set at Target, but not sure if it's in the cards to purchase this year.

Updates

2011-06-05T15:15:00.002-04:00

Mmmm, seems I've been neglecting things again. Before I left for Costa Rica, I finished the Dipped Infinity Scarf, which seems to be all the rage lately. I bought my yarn from Black Bunny Fibers, which Carol dyed in a beautiful Oceana colorway.

As much as I loved it, I thought it would make a great birthday present for my sister. As I expected, she LOVED it and wouldn't take it off all weekend, even though it was pushing 90 degrees outside. Here I am modeling it just after I finished it:

Just before I left for Costa Rica, I started my first ever Pi Shawl, by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I decided to be very basic (since it was my traveling project) and do the concentric circles version of the pattern. I had a bitch of a time getting it started b/c I don't crochet and the cast on required the use of my left hand, which is basically useless. Here's a picture of it as I was just getting started.

I am making it out of Madeline Tosh Prairie, in this gorgeous Moss colorway.

I know I owe some pictures from Costa Rica. I ran out space on the account and have figured out how to add pictures (from flikr) w/o exceeding my space limit. I'll add pics to the original posts soon.

It . . . Is . . . Done!

2011-04-28T23:12:00.003-04:00

Two years and 36 squares later . . . .

I would post more pictures but it appears I've reached my capacity. Not sure if that's capacity for the month or capacity in general. Oops.

Home

2011-04-18T16:56:00.001-04:00

I'm not back 24 hours and already I'm missing Costa Rica. It was such a great trip!

Is this heaven?

2011-04-16T11:55:00.002-04:00

Kevin Costner's dad in Field of Dreams thought that heaven was was a baseball diamond in the cornfields of Iowa, but I know he's wrong. Heaven is Tabacon in Costa Rica.

The various hot spring pools are so relaxing. The waterfalls act as massages. You just go from pool to pool to pool and then maybe into a cool pool before heading back to a hot pool.

They also have a gorgeous spa where your services are performed in outdoor open air huts in a jungle setting. So nice.

It is so hard to leave here and the relaxing pools, but now we are waiting to board our bus for the long ride back to San Jose. :(

Another one bites the dust

2011-04-14T16:40:00.002-04:00

What do I mean you ask? Well, you can cross off another fear of heights issue that has been conquered. First it was hot air ballooning, then it was the zipline, and now it is horseback riding! Last time I was on a horse I was 6 and freaked out when it started moving. Since then I've been afraid to get back on one. Its the whole loss of control issue. I was really nervous and wanted smack one of the guys on my trip for making all these jokes while I tried to prepare myself. It was scary getting on, but once on and a few feet under my belt I caught on and had fun. My horse's name was patas blancas or white feet b/c she had 4 white feet. We rode for about an hour and then were to hike down a waterfall but I wimped out half way down due to a cold I had that had moved into my lungs. The steps back up would have been too strenuous on my sick lungs. Afterwards we rode back and has lunch in town.

The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent at the hot springs at Tabacon. Heaven!

Monteverde to Arenal

2011-04-14T16:39:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, we boarded our bus again for Arenal and the Tabacon Resort. However, before we left we managed to get in a quick hike. I was sad to leave but was excited about our next location. The bus ride was another 4.5 hour ride thru narrow, windy and dusty roads thru the dry tropical forest back into the wet tropical Forest.

There are many treats here, but the first is the Arenal Volcano. It is an active volcano that is one of the few in the world, if not the only one, that is perfectly conical in shape. Our first glimpse of the volcano was from the side of the road at the other end of Arenal Lake, which is a man-made lake. We were so excited that it was a clear day and that the entire cone was visible. Apparently there have been times where months can go by and the volcano cone cannot be seen. So of course we stopped for photos before proceeding along the road around Lake Arenal. At the end of the lake was a damn that provided perfect picture opportunities at the end of the day as the clouds began to gather round.

The next stop was Tabacon. For those that have never of this place, Tabacon is a resort nestled on top of numerous hot springs. The hot springs have been carved into beautiful rivers, pools and waterfalls of varying size, depth and temperature. It is a tropical paradise. We had very expensive dinner at the hotel and then made it to the hot springs with a half hour to spare before they closed for the night. It may have been a short time but it was heaven. My favorite so far is sitting under the waterfall while the water pounds on your back and shoulders.

Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

2011-04-13T11:22:00.000-04:00

Today was frigging awesome! Definitely the best day of the trip so far!

First of all, we are in Monteverde which is a cloud forest in Costa Rica. We are about 4500 feet above sea level. Our hotel, El Establo, is on 119 acres of land, including primary forest with lots of trails the views go all the way down to the gulf of nicoya.

This morning we got up early and headed into the Monteverde Biological Cloud Forest Reserve for a hike and then zip line adventure. I thought we would do the hike first and then the zip line but things changed quickly and the next thing I knew I was strapped into a harness. We did a trial run first at the bottom of the mountain and then took the sky tram up.

At the bottom it was overcast and a little misty from the clouds but as we climbed the mountain on the tram, we went into the clouds. It was so cool! Waiting on the platform for the first real run up there was cold, windy and damp in the clouds. I felt pretty good after the practice run, but I was pretty scared on the first run. There was nothing around you bur the trees and the birds. About midway thru I began to panic a bit, but managed to get thru it. I'd say that by the 3rd or 4th cable I was getting into the groove and started really looking around at the scenery around me. I am so proud of myself for doing this and not chickenpox out. Everyone in our group did it, which I did not think would happen. There were 9 cables all together averaging 1300 feet, with the longest being 2460 feet long.

After the zip line we took a 1+ hour hike thru the cloud forest and over a series of 5 cable suspension bridges. We had a guide with is who pointed out different wildlife and fauna. We saw howler monkeys, different birds, a tarantula (couldn't look at it) and the most elusive bird in the world, the quetzal. Apparently it is the most famous resident ofthe cloud forest. The quetzal is the size of a robin with green iridescent wings and a ruby red breast. The bird is a rare siting b/c of habitat destruction. Daniel, our guide for the week, was so excited that he saw the quetzal. He said that he's only seen the quetzal 5-6 times in the past 10 years and he is up in Monteverde a good 6-7 times a year with different groups. To see how excited he was emphasizes how rare the siting is and how amazing it is that we saw the bird. I got some amazing pictures of it with my new lens. The quetzal we saw had three long feathers extending down from the body. Daniel says that you can tell the bird was a male b/c only male get those long feathers during mating season. I'm not a birder, but it's pretty exciting to see a bird that most people don't get a chance to see.

It was pretty hard to top the morning we had, so after lunch I just went into town and walked around for a bit. For dinner, a group of us went to the Tree House restaurant for dinner. It's a restaurant in town that was built around a large fig tree. It's as if you are eating in a treehouse. Kind of cool.

It really is hard to top today. However, I've been told that Tabacon, the resort we are staying at, and canyoning could possibly top it. I love Monteverde. The weather here is great. Not too hot and not too cold. It's dry so you are not percolating sweat just standing outside as I did in Manuel Antonio. The weather, and of course the scenery, remind me of Aspen or Vail in the summertime. How could you not love it! I wish we had another day or two here, but it's time to go to our last major stop on our trip.

On our way to Monteverde

2011-04-12T08:36:00.000-04:00

Today we left the hotel parador and Manuel Antonio national park for a 4+ hour trek to Monteverde and the cloud forest.

Before leaving this morning, I got up early (well, early for me) hoping to see some more monkeys before we left. I walked around the grounds of the hotel, and then on the monkey trail down the cliff a bit. Sadly, I didn't see anymore monkeys but I did see some other birds and took lots of great pics of plants and flowers with raindrops on them.

We left manuel antonio and took the road up the coast. We stopped in Jaco for some ice cream. There was also a Jewish kosher store in town. Very random. Jaco is know as a transition area from the wet tropical forest in quepos to a dry tropical forest with deciduous trees. It really is amazing how dry it is here compared to where we were. We then went thru Tarcoles and over the crocodile bridge. We looked, but there were no crocodiles out. We really lucked out the other day.

After tarcoles we got nack on the new highway and went thru the port town of punta arenas on the gulf of nicoya. We then turned onto the pan American highway which stretches from Alaska down to Patagonia. At this point we were about 5 hours south of the Nicaraguan border.

We stopped for lunch at caballo blanco around Miramar and had some great arroz con pollo.

After lunch, we turned off the pan american highway and proceeded up the windy and bumpy road to Monteverde. From where we had lunch near miramar to Monteverde it is only 15-20 km, but it took us a couple hours due to the road conditions. Apparently the road had been "scraped" a week ago (?) so we made better time than our guide anticipated. At times I was afraid we would go over the side of the road because the road was so narrow. As scary as it was it was a beautiful ride. We climbed from sea level to 4500 feet in 15-20 km. All along we had views of mountains down to the gulf of nicoya.

Our hotel is amazing. It is on the side of a mountain with buildings climbing up the side. We were the fifth building up and the views are fabulous. The rooms are also great. My roomate and I are in a corner room with 2 king beds and view to die for.

I took a quick walk after checking in and dropping off my bags and went a little ways into town. I stopped at a craft store and found a really cool piece of mango wood that was shows in a unique way and painted. The artist is from Monteverde and only sells her work out of this shop. I'll have to post a picture when I get home.

Early day tomorrow. We'll be going over a bunch of suspension bridges and then going on a zip line tour thru the canopy! So cool, yet so scary.

Sunny days!

2011-04-10T15:22:00.006-04:00

That's right. I hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying that today is the first afternoon it hasn't rained, I mean poured. As I type this I am sitting by the pool under an umbrella enjoying the afternoon. Some folks went on an ATV excursion and some went sea kayaking. I would have done that but after my hydration issues yesterday i thought it was good idea to chill out today by the pool.

This morning we were out by 7am for a boat ride thru the Damas Island Estuary. However, b/c we were up so early we were treated to some squirrel monkeys out early in the trees around our hotel.

Once on the boat we saw A lot of wildlife on the ride:

Great blue herons
White ibis
Rosette spoonbills
Snowy egrets
Grey egrets
Tiger face crabs
Silky anteater
Lesser white-lined bat
Green-backed heron
Yellow and orange breasted tiger herons

The Damas Island is made up of different variations of mangrove trees (red, black, pineapple, etc). The roots of the trees and how they grow were fascinating. It was so relaxing just cruising thru the canals.

-----------

So, I said earlier that it was a beautiful afternoon but that changed a few hours after I lasted started writing. The plan had been to go to the Anaconda Bar for monkey happy hour around 4pm. At that time there's a ton of monkeys swinging by on their way home for the day. Well, I did jinx us. It started to rain about an hour before we left. We figured it would stop after an hour or so.

It didn't.

In fact, it was the most insane downpour I've seen in a long time. At first it looked like it was going to let up but then the skies just opened up for the next four hours like it hadn't rained in a year. It was almost like a hurricane rain w/o the wind. As much as I wanted to see all the monkeys, seeing a true rainforest deluge was pretty damn cool!

I got some great shots and movies from the rain. When I get home I'll upload a video of the storm.

Treking Thru the Rainforest

2011-04-09T15:39:00.007-04:00

Today we went into Manuel Antonio National Park, which is a tropicL rainforest. We lucked out this morning w/ blue skies and sun. By 1pm the rain rolled in just as some of us got back. Before we got to the park and had barely left the hotel, we were off the bus looking at a 3-toed sloth in the trees.

At the park we went on a short, but long, walk w/ our guide and naturalist pointing out wildlife in the trees we would have easily missed. The was a bat that could only be seen through a scope. The naturalist kept looking for tree frogs but we never did find one. There were just so many different trees and plants, it was beautiful. We were a large group which was tough when everyone was trying to see thru the scope. At the end of the walk we were at Playa Manuel Antonio which had beautiful ocean views. A few stayed on the beach but most of split into 2 smaller groups to hike into Punta Catedral. I figured this should be a nice walk around the peninsula like the first walk but I was wrong. It ended up being a very strenuous hike up and down and up and down steep slopes. Some of the steps were so high that my legs almost couldn't reach that far.

As strenuous as the hike was, I'm so glad I did it. We saw a two-toed sloth, a helmet head iguana, and lots of monkeys. The monkeys were so interested in whether we had food or not that they were coming right up to us. One monkey held onto my shoe for a bit while it surveyed the scene. The only problem with the hike was that the humidity was so high that iwas was sweating buckets of water w/o even moving, so that I was poison tons of water and obviously not drinkng enough. I started to feel queasy and chilled which meant that I was getting dehydrated. Luckily there were guys selling coconuts at the end b/c Vickie water is great for electrolyte replenishment.

I had the option to stay at the beach after lunch but figured it made more sense to head back to the room and replenish. We had some afternoon storms before I wentto the pool to hamg out w/ folks and throw a football around.

For dinner we all went to El Avion, a restaurant on the cliffs that has a former Nicaraguan airplane bomber in the restUrant. We are talking a full size real bomber that now has a bar inside it while folks eat upstairs. It was a neat place and the food was good.

White-throated capuchin aka Whiteface monkey
Helmet head iguana

Monkeys, macaws and crocs, Oh My!

2011-04-08T21:01:00.002-04:00

My latest trip takes me to Costa Rica where I'll get to see the rainforest and the cloud forest as well as an active volcano. Today was our first full day and it was a long one. We took a short tour around San Jose and then hopped on the bus for a looooong bus ride down to Manuel Antonio National Park.

We drove down the "new highway" to the coast and stopped at a few spots along the way. The first stop was in Oratino which is the heart of where much of the fruit is produced. The sign in town says "ciudad de las frutas" which means city of fruit. We stopped and learned about some of the native fruits to CR an tried some of them: guavana, chayote and a cashew fruit. Some were very tasty while others left your mouth feeling like all the moisture had been sucked out.

Along the road to Jaco our guide pointed out wildlife and told us more about CR. In Tarcoles we stopped on the outskirts of the Carara National Park to see the crocodiles bathing in the sun in the Tarcoles River. We saw at least 20 of them just chilling out on the sand beds. We then drove through Jaco and Playa Hermosa on the lookout for scarlet macaws which are commonly found in the area. We tried one spot where you normally see them, but no such luck. It wasn't until we were near Parrita that the bus suddenly pulled over and we hit the jackpot. There had to be close to 10 scarlet macaws in the tree. Absolutely beautiful. I broke out my new 70-300mm lens and got some great pictures!

We then stopped for a quick lunch (at 3pm) in Quepos and then made our way up the switchback road to the Parador Hotel in Manuel Antonio National Park. On our way into the park we saw several squirrel monkeys jumping thru the trees.

The hotel is beautiful. It's on a bluff overlooking the pacific with overwhelming vegetation. We were not fortunate enough to have a sunset tonight b/c it is raining off and on. Guess that is what happens when you go to the rainforest.

I'm off to dinner. Will try to update again tomorrow.

Monkeys, macaws and crocs, Oh My!

2011-04-08T21:01:00.001-04:00

My latest trip takes me to Costa Rica where I'll get to see the rainforest and the cloud forest as well as an active volcano. Today was our first full day and it was a long one. We took a short tour around San Jose and then hopped on the bus for a looooong bus ride down to Manuel Antonio National Park.

We drove down the "new highway" to the coast and stopped at a few spots along the way. The first stop was in Oratino which is the heart of where much if the fruit is produced. The sign in town says "ciudad de las frutas" which means city of fruit. We stopped and learned about some of the native fruits to CR an tried some of them: guavana, chayote and a cashew fruit. Some were very tasty while others left your mouth feeling like all the moisture had been sucked out.

Along the road to Jaco our guide pointed out wildlife and fold us more about CR. In Tarcoles we stopped on the outskirts of the Carara National Park to see the crocodiles bathing in the sun In the Tarcoles River. We saw at least 20 o them just chilling out on the sand beds. We drove through Jaco and Playa Hermosa on the lookout for scarlet macaws which are commonly found in the area. We tried one spot where you normally see them, but no such luck. It wasn't until we were near Parrita that the bus suddenly pulled over and we hit the jackpot. There had to be close to 10 scarlet macaws in the tree. Absolutely beautiful. I broke out my new 70-300mm lens and got some great pictures!

We then stopped for a quick lunch (at 3pm) in Quepos and then made our way up the switchback road to the Parador Hotel in Manuel Antonio Park. On our way into the park we saw several squirrel monkeys jumping thru the trees.

The hotel is beautiful. It's on a bluff overlooking the pacific with overwhelming vegetation. We were not fortunate enough to have a sunset tonight b/c it is raining off and on. Guess that is what happens when you go to the rainforest.

I'm off to dinner. Will try to update again tomorrow.

Hello Again

2011-03-28T22:43:00.003-04:00

I've been busy the past couple months with a number of projects. In January I went to the Vogue Knitting event in NYC and picked up this neat fishnet yarn. It's Flamenco from Trendsetter Yarns. I just "cast on" 10 stitches and knit it up in garter stitch. Fluff it out and you've got this neat ruffled, lacey scarf.

As much as I've been enjoying knitting tops, I've decided to take a hiatus and knit some other things. These socks below were my first attempt at knitting 2 socks at a time. It seemed to take longer to see a finished sock, but when I was done, I was DONE. No second sock syndrome here! These socks are a basic 3x1 rib in Jojoland's Melody.

I also finished a Dipped Infinity Scarf in Black Bunny Fibers' Merino/Bamboo blend. I haven't taken pictures yet, but will post them in my next post.

Finally, the HUGE project I've been working on this winter (and last winter) is my Noro Log Cabin Blanket. This has been a labor of addiction and love. I knit THIRTY-SIX log cabin squares in 36 different colorways of Noro's Kureyon. I then started knitting the squares together with Cascade 220. In the picture below, I think I had 4 of the 6 strips put together.

This is almost done now. I'm working on the border as we speak. The next pictures I'll post will be the finished product. I can't wait. The sad thing is the log cabin squares are so addictive (and portable) that I'm going through some sort of withdrawal and want to knit another one! I need an intervention!!!!!

Blogging Hiatus

2011-01-30T12:43:00.004-05:00

Wow, I can't believe the last time I posted was back in June. Seems so long ago, especially w/ the weather we've been having. The problem with Facebook and Ravelry are that I can post what's going on there, so I forget to also post here. Well, although I haven't been posting on the blog, I have been productive.

In the early summer, I finished these socks, made out of Sundara's sock yarn. LOVE the yarn. The pattern is Nutkin.

Early in the fall, I took a trip to Santa Fe for bankruptcy conference. While there, I needed a mindless knitting project to get me through the sessions. I had a bunch of DIC Smooshy in Good Luck Jade and decided I had to make a Clapotis out of it. Below is the finished project. It really came out great and I get lots of compliments on it.

This year, I was determined to make a matching hat and scarf set for myself. Every year I plan to do it, but end up with a random scarf and a random hat. I bought this Pear Tree 12ply in Grass on clearance at Rosie's. I just loved the color. Wanted to make a bulky scarf and settled on Norah Gaughan's Here and There Scarf pattern. Too bad there wasn't a matching hat pattern for it. I finally found it in Interweave's Weekend Knits collection. The hat is called Bryony and kind of has that same here and there feel to the cables. Let me tell you, with the crazy cold winter we've been having, this scarf has been heaven!

I was also determined to make some sweaters this year. The first I made was the Mondo Cable Pulli out of Manos del Uruguay's Rittenhouse Merino. Gorgeous color and it is so soft to wear next to your skin. Unfortunately, my office is an office so I can't really wear it to work. :(

The next sweater I made was the Effortless Cardigan, by Hannah Fettig. I made her Whisper Cardigan this summer, but don't have a good picture to post yet. This cardigan is made out of Manos' Silk Blend.

Finally, I made a couple hats out of some leftover Pear Tree 12ply for my sister and my oldest niece, who was in need of a new hat from me. For my sister, I made her the Bryony hat to go w/ a Pebble Neck Scarf I made her last year. For my niece, I made the Bridget hat in the same yarn. She looks so cute in the pompoms.

I worked on some other projects this year that I don't have pictures for. Currently, I'm trying to finish up my Noro Log Cabin Blanket. I had planned to make only 20 squares (4x5), but then expanded it to 25 (5x5). I still had colorways I wanted to use, so I upped it to 30 squares (5x6). I thought I was going to finish this weekend and begin the long, arduous process of putting it all together, but I still had a couple more balls and decided to up it to 36 squares (6x6)!!!! I am insane. It looks like I will be putting it on my guest room bed, which means I really do need to get a new comforter - a neutral one that won't take away from the blanket. I may also need to paint the room too. Sigh. More projects, right?

Purple obsession?

2010-06-13T13:05:00.004-04:00

That's kind of what my friend asked me when she saw pictures of some of my recent projects. For some reason, they've all been purple lately. My sage remedy top (although meant to be in a mint green) was purple. The basil baby blanket for my friend was also made in purple. Then my 2 most recent finished projects (see below) are also in purple. What's up w/ that? Usually, I tend toward blue or a mint green, but I guess I was trying to branch out of my preferred colorway and that's what I ended up with.

Ishbel, by Ysolda Teague, was my first attempt at the triangular shawl. I'm not much of a shawl person (we all know how hot I get), but figured I should give it a try. It's nice to have a wrap of some sorts at the office for when it gets cold in my office. I made Ishbel in Dream in Color Smooshy in Purple Rain. I think it came out really well; however, I think I would have liked it a little bigger. I made the large and finished w/ about 5 yards to spare! I lucked out on that one!

The next project I finished was another Pucker, by Norah Gaughan. I love this top and get so many compliments on it that I had to make another. This time, I made it in Berroco's Seduce in Muscari, which is actually the color I initially wanted to make it in. I like it, but I must say that I think the green one looks much better on me. I made this about an inch longer and b/c of that, I ran out of yarn before I could finish the edging on my last sleeve. Luckily, a woman on ravelry saw my plea and sent me 5 yards so I could finish. Thank you!!!!

I'm now working on the Whisper Cardigan from Interweave Knits Spring 2009, and this time it's back to blue. I'm also working on another Flow in Seduce in what I thought was a pinkish color, but it now looking more lavender. Oh well, I did try to get away from the purple, really I did.

Oh wait! As I was going through and linking some sites, I realized that I never actually posted finished pictures of my sage remedy top! As I posted back in February, I ran out of yarn w/ about 30 rows left to go. The yarn was hand dyed by Carol at Black Bunny Fibers and she didn't have anymore of the yarn, even if should could replicate the color. So, I took it off the needles and immediately cast on again w/ a skein of Brooks Farms' Mas Acero that I purchased at my first MD Sheep and Wool Festival. I love the top! I've gotten lots of compliments on it and shock that I made it. :-)

Housewarming Party

2010-06-06T15:40:00.005-04:00

I moved into my new place in October, yet I didn't finally have a housewarming party until a couple of weekends ago. I wanted to take the time to get settled, but I also didn't want to do it in the winter. I wanted to be able to utilize the back deck and grill out. So, I ended up having the party a few weeks after I got back from my trip.

It was great to have my different friends mingling and having fun. Folks brought some yummy treats and Flint took over as grill master. Carolyn made cookies shaped in little houses, including little pink houses. :-)

As expected, my orange mushroom was a huge hit! As was my new Buddha from Cambodia.

I was surprised at how well my place was able to handle the crowd. Out back it seemed a bit tight, but inside, we had folks spread out including a good 7 folks talking it up in the kitchen! Yup, my kitchen is big enough for 7 folks to easily hang out in it.

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All in all, it was a lot of fun and I look forward to having folks over more often, including for Fairmount's celebration of Bastille Day next month!

Beautiful Basil for Baby Schlomina

2010-06-06T15:24:00.004-04:00

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted since I got back from my trip. I've been so busy w/ work and traveling and who knows what that I haven't even sat down and gone thru my pictures yet. Once I do, I'll be sure to come back here and post some of them.

One of my former walking buddies moved with her hubby to Toronto about 2 years ago (wow, I can't believe it's already been that long!). We found out they were preggers last fall and immediately I knew that I wanted to make her Courtney's Basil. I wanted to make this for my niece, but my sister said that she already had too many blankets. Her loss.

Even before she got pregnant, my friend referred to any child she'd have w/ her husband as schlomo -- a nice, generic name. Once they learned it was a girl, it was only appropriate to refer to her as schlomina.

I made the blanket out of Koigu which is 100% merino wool. Very soft and warm, even w/ the holes in it. For those who knit, I used 4 skeins of the main color and 1.5 skeins of the contrasting color.

I think my favorite part was the edging. It was a folded hem that added weight and stability to the blanket. Although it looks complicated, it was actually very simple to do.

My friend is due today (no word yet) and she received the blanket earlier this week. I hope it will keep baby schlomina warm and comforted as she grows up!

The end is near :(

2010-05-04T04:31:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was another early one for us. Our first stop was the Banyon Temple in Angkor Thom. Like yesterday, our bus couldn't go in through the gates and it would have been another 1500m walk in the awful heat. So, to address that and add a little spice to the trip, we rode elephants to the temple.

These elephants were different than the one I rode at Lion Country Safari oh so many years ago. They were more narrow and black, not grey. My friend says they were similar to Indian elephants, as opposed to the grey African elephants. Because they are more narrow, we sat on a bench on top. I rode w/ 2 other women and boy was I happy I got on last. I think I would have lost my shit if I got on first and the bench just slid like a see saw toward the ground. My friend who got on first freaked out like I probably would have. Nice thing is w/ the 3 of us, we evened out well.

Bayon temple is beautiful, then again, all of the Angkor architecture is beautiful. Angkor Thom is distinguishable in that all the towers have faces on them facing east, south, north and west. There were endless opportunities for cool pictures, including one where if you get the right angle, it looks like your nose is touching one of the faces. We had to climb up and down some ladders, but I did ok considering my fear of heights. I will say, however, that it was unbearably hot! I had to wring out my bandanna and sweat band several times. I am still amazed that I didn't dehydrate.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel for our siesta and I chilled out by the pool (in the shade, of course). The hotel has a salt water pool, which I had never been in before. Kind of neat.

Our next stop was Angkor Wat, which is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, my pictures aren't as great as I had hoped b/c they were doing some work and there was scaffolding up front. What a bummer, but I tried to make it work. It was very hot and we all moved very slowly. We had the chance to climb these really steep stairs to get to the third level of the temple. There were beautiful views, but I hadn't thought about getting down when I went up. I walked out toward the insanely steep steps and got a little woozy. I death gripped the railing, stared at the steps and only the steps, and repeated to myself the whole way down, "look at the steps and only the steps."

Really, Angkor Wat is beautiful and there's no way to grasp the grandeur of it and the other temples without seeing it in person. Siem Reap is a lovely town. People are very friendly. I'm kind of bummed we had so many covered meals b/c I would have liked more time to wander around the pub street area and check out places to eat. Oh well, there's always more you can do at each place.

Another thing that folks should do when here is to climb this mountain (15-20 min) and watch the sunset from the temple on top. We were supposed to do it our first full day, but b/c of the plowing festival there would have been too many people there if we could even get there in the first place w/ all the traffic. So, we switched the days and did the sunset last night. It's too bad b/c the sky was clear the night before and clouded up later in the day yesterday from all the humidity. If anything, it was a nice hike up the mountain. Once up there, you could climb up the steps from the Temple and watch the sunset over Angkor Wat and the rest of the valley. Only problem is that the steps were old stone steps, insanely steep and very narrow. After my issues w/ the steps at Angkor Wat (and those were normal, but steep steps) there was no way I was trying it and I wasn't alone!

Once we got back to the hotel and showered, we had our farewell party. Barry put together a great slide show of pictures he took during our trip, including a few videos of the traffic mayhem in Vietnam. Hard to believe we did so much in such a short period of time. It seems like we were in Hanoi months ago when it was really only 2 weeks ago.

This morning, four of us got up at 4:30am to take tuk tuks back to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. Like the sunset on top of the mountain, the sunrise at Angkor Wat is a must when you come to visit. For $1 you get a plastic chair and a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. Of course, it's hot and humid, but it helps wake you up. Like last night, there were still clouds hovering around the horizon, so the sunrise was as much of a bust as the sunset last night. Still, I would not have forgiven myself if I hadn't at least tried to see it! We were back at the hotel by 6:45 and I was back in bed by 7:30 for another 2 hours.

As I type this, I am somewhere over Thailand on my way to the Bangkok airport. It's the first leg of 4 in a 24 hour period on my way back to Philly. We have a 4 hour layover in Bangkok. Not sure what I'll do since it is not only too short a period of time to go into town, but its also not the safest thing to do right now. :-)

I'm sad my trip is over, but I have to come back to reality so I can save up for my next trip. Hawaii over christmas? Costa Rica in the spring? Milan in the fall?

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Goodbye Vietnam. Hello Cambodia!

2010-05-01T12:05:00.001-04:00

This morning we packed up and left Saigon and flew an hour to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Siem Reap is the gateway to Angkor Wat. It may be only 2 degrees cooler here (34 versus 36) but it feels much more humid. It's too hot for the bugs to be out right now, but we have been warned that we need to cover ourselves and use bug spray come evening. I'm not looking forward to the whole "cover" issue since I get so hot!

We don't start touring until tomorrow and I have no desire to walk around town and shop right now. We are staying at a beautiful spa resort, so I plan to eat some lunch and chill out by the pool. I'm sure the stores will not run out of stuff while I relax.

They do have a night market, so after our group dinner, I plan to head in to town to check out the market when it's a little cooler out.

***

So I did sit by the pool for a couple hours before the clouds started to roll in. I sensed it was going to rain, so I went to the spa and got a 90 minute massage. :) That was nice!

After dinner a few of us took a tuk tuk to the night market to check it out. There were tons of "fish" massage places where you dip your feet in the water and these little fish nibble off your dead skin. Seems gross to me.

Jaffa and I ended up buying wooden buddha statues from a family w/ 2 stands. She bought first and then I saw one I liked, but they didn't have it. We got maybe 4 booths away when the husband found me to tell me they had one. It was across the aisle at the father's stall. Apparently, his son is the one that carves them.

We were told to wear long sleeves and pants to deal w/ the mosquitoes but I'm dying in this heat when I do that. I had to shed clothes at the market and buy a headband. Tomorrow should be interesting. I'm tempted to risk it w/ just the bug spray, otherwise I might melt. In the evening it was the humidity that was killing me.

We are up at the crack of dawn tomorrow (so I need to go to sleep) b/c it is a special holiday in town and the king will be in town for the festivities. Malori changed the itinerary so we wouldn't miss this unique opportunity. We are already staying next to the palace and it seems the king is rarely in Siem Reap anyway.

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It was 35 years ago today . . .

2010-04-30T11:20:00.001-04:00

Today was Liberation Day, which is a HUGE holiday in Vietnam. As I mentioned earlier, on April 30, 1975, the North Vietnamese crashed thru the gates of the Imperial Palace, "liberating" Saigon. I guess you could say it's like our 4th of July. To commemorate, there was a parade and celebration this morning right outside our hotel. Their parades aren't like the ones we know. Although they did have floats and marching bands, they didn't have a large group of spectators. Our group leader asked someone about it and was told the parade is not necessarily for the people to attend, but for them to watch on TV! Interesting.

We didn't stay in town to watch the parade, but instead headed south to explore the Mekong Delta. More specifically, we went to visit the sites around My Tho.

We first stopped at Vinh Trang Pagoda. It was a beautiful complex with a large statue of the lady buddha and a HUGE laughing buddha.

We then headed to the river for a boat ride on the Tien River. We took the boat to Turtle Island and boarded smaller boats (6 ppl) to ride through a smaller canal to a place where they make coconut candy. We learned how they make the candy, sampled it and then bought it up. It reminded me of taffy in that it sticks to your teeth! We then tried what they call a Mekong Cocktail, which is made up of green tea, honey and juice from a kumquat. There was a little baby there in a bamboo crib that was very cute. Folks in the group went a little crazy taking pictures of him. I know I'd be a little wierded out if a bunch of strangers were taking pictures of my kids. Because of that, I usually hang back and it I want to take photos, I do it from a distance. Finally, a number of us had pictures taken w/ the resident python. My dad will freak when or if he sees it. Snakes are not his thing.

We then hopped back in the small boats and then the larger boat to Unicorn Island. Here, we were serenaded by some locals as we ate fruit and then boarded even smaller boats, similar to canoes, and rode thru an even smaller, more narrow canal. The vegetation was so lush and green. Here's a picture of Jaffa and me on the boat.

On a side note, Khai (our guide) told us today that they don't have nuclear power in Vietnam and that most of their electricity comes from hydroelectric power. However, b/c water levels are very low, they tend to have rolling blackouts throughout the country 2-3 days a week for several hours. That might explain the power outages in Hoi An that interfered with the seamstress' schedules on our last day there.

After dinner back in Saigon, we went up to the roof of our hotel to watch the fireworks display from the pool area. Unfortunately it was raining, but it was still a good view from under the overhang.

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Saigon

2010-04-30T00:08:00.001-04:00

Today we went out on our full day city tour of Saigon. However, early this morning we were woken up at 5am to loud music. Turns out they were practicing outside for tomorrow's parade celebrating 35 years since the liberation of Saigon.

Our first stop was Reunification Hall, the former presidential palace. This is the palace where south vietnam fell to the communists when a north vietnamese tank crashed thru the front gates on April 30, 1975. This is exactly what they are celebrating tomorrow. There were a lot of veterans (that is, vietnamese veterans) visiting Reunification Hall and who will be a part of the ceremonies tomorrow. It wasn't until around 1991 that Vietnam started opening its doors to tourism. Kind of like Cuba. Both coincide w/ the collapse of the USSR. It was a nice place, but w/ only fans and no a/c, it was hard to think about anything but finding a fan and leaving.

Our tour guide is my age. He told us that b/w approximately 1979 and 1985 a lot of folks tried to flee the country. Some of his family settled in San Diego. At age 12 his mom paid money for a spot for him in a fishing boat heading to Thailand. He was cramped in w/ 24 other people. When he woke up, he was in prison. Apparently the fisherman didn't really know how to get to thailand and ended up back in Vietnam. He never made it to the US. Luckily, our guide was only in prison 3 weeks. His mom paid a fine and agreed to re-educate him in the communist way.

I later had a chance to speak w/ our guide as I was waiting for the group to finish up at one of our stops. He's married and his parents live with him, which is traditional in Vietnam for the parents to live with the son. However, his wife is living w/ her mom b/c she is not doing well. They see each other only 1-2 times a month for 3-4 days at a time.

We then stopped off at Notre Dame Cathedral and the General Post Office. The post office is one of the most beautiful buildings in the City. We also made a point to go by City Hall and the Opera House, but did not go in.

We also went to the War Remnants Museum, which documented many of the atrocities from the war. The pictures of families and children were hard to see. No matter which side you are on, war is devastating. What I found most interesting was a section on agent orange. There were pictures and documentation re: the effects of agent orange on both the veterans (US and Vietnam) and the communities. Apparently there was an international tribunal on agent orange and the us and in 2009 they charged the US and the companies responsible for the production of dioxin and agent orange for crimes using toxic chemicals. The companies and the US were ordered to pay billions of dollars in reparation and for remediation. Very interesting. I wonder if the US will pay it any mind since they don't always pay any mind to international tribunal.

For lunch, we went to a noodle shop called Pho 2000. There's a bunch of them around Saigon, but the one we went to is the same one that Bill and Chelsea Clinton ate at when they visited Vietnam in 2000. They had a table cloth on the table Clinton sat at along with what he and Chelsea ate. Food was good and cheap as you can see from the pictures. I had a "small" soup w/ chicken, spring rolls and soda for only $5.

After lunch we went to the Ben Than Market and then the Binh Tay Market. Both were overwhelming b/c there was so much stuff and the aisles b/w stalls were barely wide enough for one person to walk through. The first market had more variety, whereas the second market, which was in Chinatown, was more of a wholesale market. A few of us went back to the Ben Than Market after the city tour and picked up a bunch of North Face bags for $5-10! That's also where we saw a North Face knock-off gone bad as you can see from the picture. We saw that and panicked that our bags were like that, but the lettering is all the same.

Before meeting the group at the Rex Hotel, we stopped at a department store across the street from the hotel. Aside from your typical dept store goods and prices, there was a bin of knock-off Prada bags at the front and a DVD stall where you could get DVDs for about $0.75 each. Not sure if they will all work, but for that price, who cares.

Finally, we met at the Rex Hotel for drinks at the Rooftop Garden. The Rex is where all the foreign journalists hung out in Saigon during the Vietnam War. It was the focus of social and military activities of the American soldiers as well.

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Next stop, Saigon

2010-04-29T01:00:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, we flew to Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon depending on who you talk to) very early in the morning. Our first stop was the Cu Chi Tunnels.

The tunnels were very interesting and used by peasants to aid the Vietcong in the war. We first watched a totally slanted video re: the war. They talked about some of the guerrilla women being american killer heroes and at one point referred to the american soldiers as "dirty little devils." Not slanted at all. I know we invaded their country, but it was still hard to hear it put that way.

These guerrilla fighters dug tunnels and lived in these tunnels. They were easily disguised and they placed land mines and traps throughout the countryside. We could go in thru one of the tunnels but they were very tight quarters. The closest I got was posing for a picture at one of the entry/exit point. They also had on display all of the types of traps used to kill/injure the soldiers along with a disturbing mural depicting soldiers caught in these traps. Aside from all of the displays, there was even an opportunity for target practice. You had to buy the ammo first and then you got to shoot an AK47. I didn't partake since I hated being forced to go to riflery at camp.
I mentioned this earlier, but it's amazing what people carry/transport on their mopeds. I've seen cases of beer, mirrors, piping and other construction materials, pigs, chickens, etc. On the side of the road was a woman selling goldfish, lots of goldfish, in individual bags.

After checking into our hotel, we took a dip in the pool on the roof of our hotel. For dinner, we went to the Temple Club. It's the 2nd floor of a former temple. The food was great and our waiter was such a cutie. About 10 of us went.

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Full Moon

2010-04-27T23:14:00.001-04:00

I am all shopped out! Yesterday was our 2nd full day in Hoi An and it was on our own. I had lots of fittings scheduled throughout the day at 2 different shops. It was exhausting going back and forth to town, especially when you had to wait around for stuff. Things were also complicated by power outages in the town, which slowed production down. Now, it seems like I got a lot, but it was pennies compared to what some of my friends got. The best is this morning as I got ready and put on an extremely light weight top I refuse to part with, I thought to myself, "I should have made some of these tops." It's a good thing we are leaving today or more damage might have been done! Maybe we can blame it on the full moon. :)

Amazingly, I managed to fit it all in my suitcase and it was still at weight (20.8 kg)!

So, Hoi An is basically 1 huge tailor shop. There are tons of shops, 1 right after the other. It's almost sensory overload with all the choices. We first went to Yaly which was recommended by the guide books and my cousin. We then walked around to another shop, where a specific dress caught a friend's eye. This place was on the same road as Yaly, but in my opinion way better! That shop was Nguyet Thut @ 140 Tran Phu St. Her fit was much better and she had lots of great displays to help with ideas for clothes. I highly recommend her.

We ended up staying in Hoi An longer than most folks do b/c the city has a lantern festival every month on the date of the full moon. For 2 hours, they shut the old town off to moped and bike traffic (cars were already not allowed in that area), the street lights are turned of, all the shops turn out their lights except for lanterns and candles, and place their shrines and incense outside. At 7pm, folks light lanterns and place them in the river and as they do so, they make a wish. It was so nice and peaceful. I didn't make a wish b/c I was focused on getting some good pictures of the lanterns in the river.

Last night we ate along the river at Mango Room. It was comparable to a meal you get in a US city. The night before we ate at the Cargo Club next door. It was good, but not as good as the Mango Room.

In between fittings, I had a massage at the hotel. It was a combination of swedish, thai, vietnamese and something else. They had me lie down on a cushioned mat and the woman proceeded to move my body around, sit on my legs, push down on certain parts, and a little swedish rubbing. It was painful at times, but I did feel relaxed afterwards.

The best was while I was sitting at the pool for a bit. The pool is warm, there's no getting around that. At one point a hotel employee wheeled 4 large blocks of ice over by the pool. He then proceeded to throw the blocks of ice into the pool. Interesting way to cool the pool down.

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Pictures for Katie

2010-04-27T19:23:00.000-04:00

I've been running around so much that I haven't had a chance to blog. Since my sister asked for more pictures, here's a few from Central Vietnam.

The first picture is from China Beach, 2nd is a fishing net on the river in Hoi An, and the last 2 are from the hotel.

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Supporting the local economy . . .

2010-04-26T12:47:00.001-04:00

Today was our first full day in Hoi An. I think I mentioned this yesterday, but if I didn't, Hoi An is the place to get clothes made. The quaint, old part of town is small and over 3/4 of the shops are ones that will make the clothes for you. When I was in Hong Kong a number of folks had stuff made but I didn't. However, here I jumped on the bandwagon.

We were on the 8am shuttle bus to town and went to a shop called Yaly which had been recommended by my cousin, the travel books, etc. I had an idea of what I wanted - a blazer and some button down shirts - but looked thru a ton of books for ideas. Ended up w/ a black blazer made of a cashmere wool blend. I also had 2 tops made out of cotton. My friends were all getting suits and dresses and pants, so I decided to look at formal/cocktail dresses. Ended up w/ an a-line out of black chiffon and black satin trim.

From there we left to check out another store our fearless leader saw a dress she liked. Upon further examination (and learning it came with a reversible jacket) 3 of us ended up getting it in different colors. I then found a light dress I also liked. We kept finding things we liked, but had to move on to meet our group for a cooking tour.

I know, I suck at cooking, but had to go along w/ the group. We explored the market and then took a boat ride up the river to the cooking school. There, we learned how to make rice paper, spring rolls, pancakes, and eggplanr in a clay pot. Making the rice paper was really cool. We left with recipes and directions for making the dishes. We'll see whether I ever make this stuff, but you never know.

After the cooking class I went back to the hotel, relaxed in the pool, etc. before heading back to town for my fittings. Just so you know, it was over 100 degrees today and very humid. I must have lost a gallon of water just standing still. Anyway, by the time I got to the first shop for my fitting I was already sweating. I liked my button-down tops, and even got 2 more. For $35 each, you can't beat it! The blazer is what sent me over the edge - a cashmere/wool blend and lined. How do you try these on in this heat? I was sweating like crazy! There were a few alterations needed, but otherwise it looked good. Finally, the cocktail dress looked like a big tent. It needed to be taken in and shortened significantly. Still not sure how I like it.

From there I met up with friends at the other store. The dresses all needed to be let out a bit, but were not bad. While there, my eye wandered and I found some lightweight a-line skirts and another cocktail dress. I figure I can always use these things. I had to leave before I did anymore damage.

I'm sure you are thinking I went crazy, b/c I am. However, my friends were the crazy ones. They were buying 4 suits, dresses, pants, etc. I thought about pants but just didn't want to deal. I go back tomorrow morning for another fitting.

I am falling asleep as I type this. Goodnight!
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On the road . . . again

2010-04-25T12:17:00.001-04:00

Today we left Hue and drove down to Hoi An where we'll be staying for 3 nights. The hotel we are staying at is supposed to be wonderful.

Hue is only a 3 hour drive from Hoi An, so we took the bus down. Along the way we stopped along the road for our tour guide to show us what a rice plant really looks like. We had seen rice spread out on the side of the road drying in the sun.

We then began ascending this narrow and winding mountain pass. It was a bit unnerving since there was no guardrail, other trucks and buses were come down the pass, and mopeds ands cars were passing throughout. We then reached the summit of the Hai Van Pass and had a beautiful view of Lang Co Peninsula. We then stopped at a place called Loc Vinh, which was a random tourist stand w/ western toilets. There, we were accosted by folks trying to sell us stuff. They all had really good English. One boy asked my friend and I where we were from. When my friend said Colorado, the boy said to wait b/c he knew where it was geographically. He then proceeded to draw an air map, pointing out where different states were and then pointed to where he thought Colorado would be. We were very impressed. He then asked if we had quarters from Colorado. Another boy told someone on our trip that he wasn't trying to sell him anything, but that he needed money to buy a dictionary! Too funny!

Once we left Loc Hinh, we went thru the longest tunnel I've been in, before reaching Danang. In Danang (the 5th largest city) we stopped at a bakery to pick up lunch stuff for a picnic on the beach. We got so much food for just pennies. We then walked thru the market for some fruit.

We had our picnic lunch on China Beach, the former rest and recreation center for US troops during the war. We know it as China Beach b/c of the 90s show with that name. The real names are My Khe and My An beaches. The beach was empty except foer a few folks eating in the shade. Most Vietnamese don't head to the beach until after 4. We were told that the Vietnamese all want white skin, so the cover up and stay out of the sun.

One thing I will note is that there is a ton of new development going up along the beach that could essentially cut off the beaches from the regular folks. We aren't sure who is or would be staying at these places since it doesn't seem many folks are staying at the hotels we are.

Once we arrived in Hoi An, we did a walking tour of the center of town - swear, I have never seen so many tailor shops. I hadn't planned on having clothes made, but as they say, "when in Rome . . ." We are going into town early tomorrow to check things out.

Our hotel is very nice and right on the beach. There are an array of massage treatments available. I need to schedule one for before we leave. However, I will say that it is getting much hotter out. The heat index today was in the high 90s and will only be getting hotter as we go farther south. Lucky me.

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On the road again . . .

2010-04-25T12:12:00.000-04:00

Today we left Hue and drove down to Hoi An where we'll be staying for 3 nights. The hotel we are staying at is supposed to be wonderful.

Hue - the longest day of the trip so far

2010-04-24T05:41:00.001-04:00

As I'm beginning to write this I feel like I am still half asleep and it's only 1pm. The reason why is we were up this morning at 3:45am (after having gone to bed at midnight since it took us so long to get back from Halong Bay and dinner last night) so we could get to the airport for a 6:30am flight to Hue.

Hue is much more relaxed than and less crowded than Hanoi. Although Hanoi is the current capitol of Vietnam, Hue is the original capitol. Here remains the old royal palace and emperors' tombs.

Unfortunately, when we landed we were off and running w/ the tour. Our first stop was to rent bikes and ride them along the Perfume River to the Imperial Palace to see a miniature version of what looked the Forbidden City we saw in China. I was excited to ride a bike; however, I assumed we'd be riding along the river, like on a path. Yeah, no. Instead, we road along the busy streets of Hue, dodging bikes, cars, buses and lots of motor bikes. It was pandemonium out there. I thought riding thru boathouse row on a weekend was bad enough, but at least there people somewhat respond to directional cues. One person in our group lost her balance and fell on the bridge. I think the problem was people were so cautious that they went too slow and made it hard to ride. I was happy to break away and ride a little faster.

The Imperial Palace was nice, but not nearly as beautiful (or restored) as Beijing. I think had I not been to China I would have been more impressed with the buildings. However the grounds were still beautiful and more green b/c of the cloudy skies. We then rode our bikes back to the hotel. My lungs are feeling raw(like they were in Xian) from all the diesel fumes and other stuff they are burning.

*** I interrupt this blog post to rant for a moment *** When I went to China I got a lot of looks b/c of my blondish hair and was a bit of a rock star on the Great Wall w/ Asian men wanting photographs w/ me. Now, fast forward to this trip and people keep wanting to poke me. Ok, not just poke me, but poke my belly. I know I'm overweight and am self conscious about it. The first time it happened I was mortified. How could they be blatantly laughing at me. Then there were people giggling at me or pointing at me while riding by on the mopeds. Today, as we were getting the bikes, the guy smiled at me rubbed his belly and then pointed. I think they think of it as a Buddha belly from the laughing Buddha. Yeah, I'm not laughing. No one wants to be poked. NOT COOL! *** Rant is over ***

After lunch we boarded a boat for a scenic cruise along the Perfume River and to stop off and see the Ming Tomb and the Heavenly Lady Pagoda. The ride was interesting b/c the boat is actually home to 2 families. The woman on the boat continually tried to sell us one thing after another, giving us a fashion show of sorts to show off the clothes. The Heavenly Lady Pagoda was very peaceful and had some beautiful views.

Along our route there were tons of boats carrying gravel. Then there were boats that looked like they were dredging the river, maybe to extract the gravel? It was a long ride and at some point we began to smell pot. Not sure who it was, but someone on the boat had lit up. You can never mistake that smell. :)

The Ming Tomb was very tranquil. Ming was the king that had the most wives and most children. One of the kings had 103 wives, but no children. He ended up adopting his uncle's children so he could have heirs. We passed a few smaller tombs along the river, but did not stop to see them. You could see them from the river hidden in the trees. From the guide books, it looked like a short trip up the river, but it was a good hour before we got to the Heavenly Pagoda and then another hour to the tomb.

Can you say long day? It's hard to believe it's only 4:30pm as I write this. I'm looking forward to heading back to the hotel and shower and then crash!

Halong Bay - need I say anything else?

2010-04-23T08:37:00.000-04:00

This morning we all piled in the bus and headed out to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is usually what you see when Vietnam is pictured, especially in travel ads.

Halong Bay is made up of an archipelago of limestone cliffs sticking up in the water. There are over 3,000 islands and it covers an area of 580 square miles. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and it is in the running for the "new" 7 wonders of the world.

The ride is a good 2 hour trek, so to entertain ourselves, we played SE Asia Bingo. We had to find typical SE Asian activities along our ride. Some of the "squares" included: 30 or more motorbikes parked side-by-side; pedestrian playing "frogger" w/ traffic; family of 3, 4, and 5 on a motorbike; rider w/ a pig; people squatting in an outdoor cafe; and motorbike w/ something piled 10 feet high on the back.

Pedestrians playing Frogger is the best way to explain how to cross the street in Vietnam. There are crosswalks, but no one uses them or pays attention to them. Instead, you slowly walk out into traffic and the cars, trucks, bikes and motorbikes move around you. It is scary as hell, but it works. One guy was just standing in the middle of traffic taking pictures and traffic just moved around him w/ no problem.

On our way to Halong Bay we stopped off at a handicraft location staffed by charity folks. They made many different things including marble sculptures, lacquered paintings, and silk embroidered paintings. The silk embroidery was beautiful and most folks bought something. I bought 2 little pieces for gifts and 2 larger ones for myself. One of the larger ones is a fisherman on the river at sunset in shades of green. The second larger one I got is similar to a monet w/ bright colored flowers and a stone arched bridge over a creek. Not sure where I'll put it yet, but we'll see.

I don't know how else to explain Halong Bay, but that it is absolutely breathtaking. We took a private cruise on a boat and spent a few hours cruising thru just a tip of the islands. The islands are as high as 100-150 meters, and reminded me of the cliffs on the Palisades (NJ). They were about the same height. I took so many pictures since each turn we made revealed even more beautiful scenes.

While cruising the bay, we made a stop at a huge cave with amazing stalagmites and stalactites. The cave was called Hang Thien Cung and is what they call a hanging cave. It was about 50m above sea level and contained lots of dripping stalactites (think sand castles), solid rock pillars and stumpy stalagtites.

When the cruise was over, we got back on the bus and settled in for our LONG ride home. Not even 45 minutes into our trek home, the bus stopped. Apparently a large truck was sticking out into the road blocking traffic. Forget the fact that the construction guys hauling the HUGE concrete blocks off the truck were wearing flip flops and no hard hats. What happened next was organized chaos gone awry. I mentioned earlier that there are no traffic rules and yet everything seems to go smoothly w/o incident. Yeah right. There was no one here to manage traffic, so oncoming traffic (trucks, cars,buses, mopeds all at once) just kept going moving toward us blocking the way. Then trucks and mopeds stared creeping up on us creating an insane traffic jam. It was so crazy you just had to laugh! It took us almost an hour to get thru the madness.

We are now finally on our way home. Not sure if we'll still be doing dinner since we are so late, but I'll be crashing early b/c we are up before dawn to catch a 6:30 flight to Hue in the central part of the country. I can't believe we are already leaving Hanoi. The time went much quicker than I had expected.
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Watch out for cars (and mopeds and bikes)

2010-04-22T12:02:00.003-04:00

Today was our 2nd day in Vietnam. We started off the day today at Ho Chi Minh's tomb where he has been embalmed and is in a glass enclosed tomb for all to see. We weren't allowed to bring cameras or water inside, and we were to cover our shoulders and knees out of respect. We weren't the only ones who were there to see the Ho Chi Minh. There were tons of pre-school and elementary school kids there too. They were so cute. I wish we could have gotten pictures of some of these kids, but again, we weren't allowed to have our cameras. While we waited, there was a performance or ceremony with some elementary kids in school uniforms, the military, some veterans' families, and a school marching band. Apparently it wasn't a holiday, so no one is really sure why this took place.

After visting Ho Chi Minh in a more intimate way than I had ever imagined, we walked around the complex that contained his home. He was a very simple man and did not want to live extravagantly. He also did not marry, so he had no heirs. Many of the kids we had seen earlier were walking through the grounds as well and our group went a little crazy taking picturs of the kids. They were just so cute. After a while, some of the kids would say hi to us or try to practice some english.

So far, this was the first hour and a half of our day and I was already sopping wet. The heat and humidity are brutal, and this is the coolest part of our trip!

Next, we headed to the Temple of Literature, where I must admit, I cannot remember a thing about right now. I remember something about 5 levels of edcuation and that the Temple had 5 courtyards. That's what the heat does to me, it fries my brains!

From the Temple of Literature we had a buffet lunch and then made our way to the Old Quarter for a ride in the pedicabs. throuhg the narrow streets. Let me just tell you that this was the most insane thing. Here we were, riding in our own individucal cabs, next to cars, bikes, and mopeds w/ absolutely no traffic rules whatsoever. It really is amazing that no one got itno an accident. The Old Quarter is made up of narrow streets, each one is named after the type of item being sold: silk street, fish street, and as we dubbed some, shoe street and sunglass street. It really was a lot of fun.

We then walked around for a bit and then headed inot the a/c (thank god!) for a water puppet show. The water puppets are a very old art form. It was interesting, but since it was all in Vietnamese, I had no clue what was going on.

Later, we had some free time to walk around the Old Quarter to shop, eat, and do whatever. I even braved crossing the busy street a few times in the name of photography and shopping. I'll post pics or a video of traffic another time. I did a little shopping, had drinks w/ the group, and then went and got my first of many foot massages this trip. I could go on about it (and might come back and edit later), but it's after 11, I'm tired and have to be out the door by 8am to head to Halong Bay. I am very excited about that.

Oh, before I go, I should mention the interesting cab ride home tonight. About 7 of us piled into a van to go back to the hotel. The driver tried tralking to me, but I really couldn't understand muc of what he was saying. I noticed the meter was jumping up very quickly and he was driving very slow. Now, the cabs we've taken so far to and from the Old and French Quarters have been about 25,000 VND (or $1.50). By the time we got to our hotel, the meter read 387,000 VND! It was crazy -- more than 10 times the amount it should be. Then, the guy doesn't want to pull into the hotel. Finally, he stops at the driveway entrance and after telling him to go forward to the lobby, he gets out to let us out. At that point, I ran up to the hotel to get someone to explain what the price should have been and that he was ripping us off. After consulting w/ other cab drivers, he lowered the price to 100,000. We said no way. Then, we gave him 50,000 and he refused to take it. Finally, after a few minutes, he took the money and we all went our merry ways. We had been warned about this, so we knew to go to the hotel to sort it out. This guy knew he was scamming us b/c he refused to drive up into the hotel area. What a schmuck!

Until tomorrow . . .

Goooooood Morning Vietnaaaaaaam

2010-04-22T11:13:00.003-04:00

Well, we arrived this morning around 9:30 after 17 hours of traveling. We got to the hotel around 10 and luckily were able to get into our rooms.

After a quick, refreshing shower, a group of us headed out to the Old Quarter to have lunch at the Cha Ca La Vong restaurant. This restaurant is so well known that they named the street after it. The restaurant was also written up in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, and I can see why.

We sat down and were told (by a laminated piece of paper) that there was only one dish - fried fish. They brought out a charcoal grill w/ a pan on top containing curried garoupa fish and other seasonings. We then added a pile of dill and scallions to the mixture to cook. Once cooked, you added the mixture, along w/ a fish sauce, to a bowl of rice vermicelli noodles and peanuts. It was soooo good and definitely worth it.

Afterwards, we took a quick cab to Hoa Long, which we know in the US as the Hanoi Hilton. It was a bit emotional for a few reasons. First, it was a prison and some of its uses and conditions prior to the Vietnam war were just awful. Second, there were 2 rooms set aside for what they call the American war. It was emotional reading about the pilots and watching the propaganda video about how the US bombed the people of Hanoi.

Finally, the most emotional part was seeing my cousin Neil in the pictures of the POWs kept at the prison. I had been warned his picture was there by another cousin who had been to Hanoi last fall. As I looked thru the pictures, I thought maybe she was wrong, b/c none of the men really looked like Neil. However, as I looked at one of the last pictures in the room, there was no mistaking Neil in the picture. He looked just like his older brother. The picture was of POWs playing ball in the courtyard. At one point the Vietnamese put together a propaganda campaign on how well the POWs were treated: playing ball, eating, etc. My grandmother told me that when they saw these pictures on the news, that's how they knew that Neil was alive. It really is surreal to be on the other side of the world and see your cousin. I want to believe that they were not treated and housed like the Vietnamese prisoners prior to the war, but I know it wasn't all peaches and cream.

Once we finished, we took a cab to the Sofitel Metropole in the French Quarter. This is one of the nicest hotels in Hanoi and has a lot of history. We met up w/ some other folks in our group for high tea (like we did @ the peninsula in Hong Kong) and a chocolate buffet. It was a beautiful room and beautiful hotel.

We are staying @ the other Sofitel, which is on the Hoan Kiem lake. We have a nice view of part of the lake and the city.

We stayed at the hotel for dinner for our "welcome" to Vietnam. Afterwards, I could barely keep my eyes open and finally crashed around 9pm. Good thing is I am now adjusted to the time change and ready to roll!

First stop - LA

2010-04-18T17:26:00.003-04:00

I arrived in LA Friday night. Since we were flying out of LA, it made the most sense to come a few days early and relax before my 14-hour flight to Hong Kong and then onto Hanoi.

I'm staying in Santa Monica and on Saturday I decided to head over to the 3rd Street Promenade for some breakfast and people watching. They had a bunch of tents out for their earth day festival and lots of folks were out and about. I then went and walked thru Palisades Park which is right on Ocean Ave. overlooking the beach.

While on 3rd street, I came across this person dressed up as a tree person. The picture doesn't really do it justice since he really was disturbing.

Saturday night, we drove out to Pasedena to go to The Dining Room, Michael Voltaggio's restaurant. For those that don't know, Michael Voltaggio was last season's winner of Top Chef. Let's just say that the dinner was fantastic. The presentation was spectacular, and the food was really, really good. After dinner, we went back into the kitchen and had a chance to meet Michael and thank him for a great meal. Really great guy. Very laid back. The couple we were with was from Manhatten Beach and he suggested we go to a new sushi place called Sashi and to tell the chef (Morimoto's suez chef) that he sent us. So, Debby and I are going tomorrow night before we head to the ariport.

Today, we met a friend of ours from the China trip for breakfast and then I walked down to the beach, rented a bike, a rode down the beach toward Venice. I took a few snapshots from my blackberry, but I think I had the settings wrong b/c the pictures seem kind of dark.

This was my favorite. I don't know if you can see it, but you've go the "Shul on the Beach" next to a store called Unruly. Love it. If only there were a medical marijuana place on the other side. There were tons of them along the beach in Venice.

More shots along the beach trail.

I don't know if you can see it in the picture above, but there's a guy on the left in white shorts that is hanging upside down. He actually climbed up that rope upside down. Crazy. Below is a view of the bike path from Palisades Park in Santa Monica.

The best is after my 10-mile ride, 5 miles of which were against the wind, I then had to walk up this to get back to my hotel. My legs were jelly just trying to get up there.

Tonight, I'm getting together for dinner w/ my cousin and then planning to chill out by the pool tomorrow. Maybe I'll even ride a bike again if I have time. Our flight doesn't leave until 11:50pm Monday night so we have another full day here. (I should have come in yesterday, but originally thought our flight was leaving today when I booked my flight)

On the road again . . .

2010-04-16T09:35:00.003-04:00

I'm getting ready to leave this afternoon on my latest adventure - Vietnam and Cambodia. I leave this evening for LA for the weekend and then actually leave for SE Asia on Monday night. I'm headed over there again w/ Amazing Journeys and several of my friends from other trips. I really don't think the trip has fully set in yet, which would explain my avoidance of packing! I think I'm mostly done, but still have a few things to do.

The trip will take us to the main cities in Vietnam - Hanoi, Hoi An, Hue, Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) - as well as day trips to Halong Bay and the Mekong Delta. We'll then leave Vietnam and head to Siem Reap, Cambodia to spend a few days at Angkor Wat.

I've met many people in the past few months that have been to Vietnam and all have raved about it. For some of my world traveling friends, it's their favorite country!

I'm also looking forward to really breaking in my new camera. As you've seen in past posts, I've been having fun playing around w/ it and basically trying re-learn all the functions. I can't wait to see how the pictures turn out!

I should finish packing and shower now, since I leave for the airport in an hour and a half!

Figuring out how to post from Blackberry

2010-04-13T14:29:00.000-04:00

This way I can add pictures and comments as I go on my trip.

Let's see if I can add pics to certain places in the post too.

Hmmm, doesn't look like it.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Patio

2010-04-13T14:23:00.001-04:00

Ok, this is cool. I was able to send this picture via my blackberry, which means I'll be able to upload pictures while I'm in Vietnam and Cambodia. Cool.

Even though this was a test, here's a picture of my patio after I set up my grill this weekend. I can't wait to move my plants outside and get some more flowering plants, but I'll wait until I get back to do it.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

2010-03-18T13:40:00.001-04:00

Testing text msg

Snowpocalypse - 2nd round

2010-02-19T12:55:00.005-05:00

The 2nd round of the storm came through last Wednesday and I spent the day cooped up inside knitting and catching up on past seasons of LOST. By the time Thursday came around and we had another snow day at work, I was going batty. I needed to get out of the house.

After shoveling and then shoveling some more, I threw on the layers and grabbed my camera to see what was going on in the neighborhood. After getting 28 inches over the weekend, and then another 17 inches only 4 days later, I had to get out and witness the city as it had never been seen before.

A motorcycle parked in front of a neighbor's house.

Tree by the Fairmount Waterworks along the Schuylkill River.

Fairmount Waterworks on the Schuylkill River.

Buried bench by Lloyd Hall in Fairmount Park.

Philadelphia's Boathouse Row.

Reflection of the Philadelphian on Kelly Drive.

Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Eakin's Oval and City Hall

Tubing down the Art Museum steps.

More fun on the Art Museum steps.

Do you see the snowboarders waiting for their turn? As I was walking home, I saw a few boarders locking up their snowboard to a bike rack outside Bishop's Collar. That's a first.

Buried park fence - Fairmount.

Buried cars.

Outside my window.

Outside my window.

One last shot from outside my window.

Road Block

2010-02-11T12:20:00.004-05:00

Back in December, Black Bunny Fibers (Carol) had an open house at her home. She had lots of beautiful yarns on sale and of course, I indulged. One of my purchases was this beautiful Wenselydale wool in a colorway Carol called Spearmint Ice. I loved it and wouldn't put it down.

The pictures don't really do the color justice.

Earlier this month, I finally cast on this yarn to make Sarah Shepherd's Sage Remedy Top (ravelry link). The pattern has you start on the front first and I finished that in a little over a week. It came out great.

No problem, right? I start knitting the back side, which has the same feather and fan pattern on the back. Real pretty. Last night, I finished the feather and fan pattern and started increasing for the sleeves. I looked at my ball of yarn and panicked. I have a good 30+ rows to go, not including the edging, and I'm out of yarn

I even sent a message to Carol to see if by any chance she had anymore of the base yarn and could dye me up a little more. I knew there was a fat chance that was the case, but I knew I had to at least ask. Nope. She doesn't have anymore of the base.

Some suggestions on Ravelry have been to rip out the edging at the bottom and do another color there instead as well as for the edging. Another suggestion was to rip out the pattern on the front and do it in another color as well. I was hoping that I could just reknit it in a larger gauge and that could solve the problem.

Either way, I'm screwed and have to rip out. I'm bummed b/c I really liked the top and was excited to wear it. Now I have to decide if I want to knit it again, but in a different yarn, or if I want to try some of the modification ideas first. If I feel like trekking to Rosie's today in the snow, I may try it. Otherwise, I'll figure it out over the weekend.

So bummed. :(

WOW

2010-02-07T15:44:00.006-05:00

I don't know what else to say. I have lived in many snowy places -- Vermont, Colorado, Massachusetts -- but never have I seen a snowstorm like this. In less than 24 hours we were pounded with 28.5, that's right TWENTY-EIGHT POINT FIVE, inches of snow. Better yet, to have a season that has TWO storms like this is crazy. And to top that off, the weather folks are calling for another storm in a couple of days!

Of course, I had to go and buy a house this past summer which has on-street parking. Gone are the comfy days of covered parking in a garage. When I moved to Philly, I gave away my awesome, extendable snow scraper since I didn't need to remove snow from my car. Those days are over. This was my car a few hours before the snow stopped falling.

Yes, those are my windshield wipers sticking up thru the snow. Would you like to see a close up?

This is what it looked like when I opened the door and thought about digging myself out. I think I waited a couple more hours to make sure the snow had stopped.

Instead, I thought I'd stand in the comfort of my warm home and get creative. Here are some picture of my mailbox (and street) and front door.

The snow was piling up on (and out of) the fence out back.

In between rounds of digging myself and my car out, I wandered around the neighborhood. Many streets had been "plowed" but there were still others that hadn't been touched. It was so calm and quiet out. I would have broken out my cross-country skis, but I had waited too long and the plows had already been thru.

Just like every storm, we woke up this morning to a beautiful clear blue sky. It was cold, but not too cold. I threw on my layers and headed outside to explore and walk on Kelly Drive. Kids were out in force sledding down the hill across from the Azalea Garden. I was surprised at how many runners were out. I remember my training days I having a bitch of a time not sliding in my running shoes. Very daring.

While I was out, I couldn't help but take a few more pictures. Snow and water are just too pretty together to not capture it. These pictures weren't taken w/ my new camera, but trusty point and shoot.

Oliviaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

2010-02-05T18:03:00.003-05:00

I finally finished my Olivia (rav link) cardigan that I started a year ago. I had started it, got distracted (as I always do) and finally remember this past December to pick it back up. I pretty much kept w/ the directions until the sleeves. They were supposed to be more of a blousson style and I really didn't need the extra fabric.

So, I did my first major pattern modification and changed the sleeves. Every time the pattern called for a decrease on each end, I increased on each end. I took the end number of stitches for the base of the armhole and subtracted the number of increased stitches to get my cast on at the cuff. I cast on for the cuff at the beginning (which was to be added at the end) and did a matching seed stitch pattern w/ the border. I knit the cuff the same length as the cuff in the pattern and then switched to stockinette. It ended up being a very nice, tailored sleeve! I really didn't know if it was going to work since I didn't measure a thing and I am terrible at math modification and reading patterns. I don't have a great picture of the sleeve, but you can see how the cuff and bottom of the sleeve look in the picture below.

And did you notice the pocket???? That's right, the sweater has POCKETS. I've never done them before and was a little perplexed at the beginning, but once Jenna demonstrated it for me at Rosie's, I was set. They are so cute.

The pattern is from Kim Hargraeves' book, Thrown Together. It was a total impulse buy and I had to start the cardigan immediately. Of course, we now know what happened to that motivation. The sweater is knit in Rowan Felted Tweed in the treacle colorway.

I had a hard time picking out the buttons and went w/ the toggles. They do look great on the sweater, but after a day of wear, I don't think they were the right choice. I don't know how to describe it. In still life, however, they look great!

Thanks so much to Andrea for taking these pictures of me Wednesday night. My batteries died and there she was w/ her most awesome camera. We had fun trying to strike the right pose.

Photo Phun on the Eastern Shore

2010-01-23T09:39:00.004-05:00

This week I had to drive down to Norfolk, VA for a hearing. My colleague was kind enough to do most of the driving so I could nurse a migraine I had that morning, relax, and catch up on some knitting. At the last minute, I decided to bring my camera down but wasn't sure if we'd have time to stop and take some pictures. Aside from that, we also left later than I had expected so we weren't going to reach the Bay Bridge/Tunnel until dark.

It wasn't until sunset that I had the urge to start taking pictures. We were in Virginia at this point, maybe 45 minutes north of the Bay Bridge/Tunnel. There were some really cool cloud formations on Tuesday that made the sunset very unique. I didn't want to make my colleague stop every 100 feet or so, so I just started taking photos from inside the car.

Of course, b/c we were driving, I couldn't really control what made it into the picture or not, but this house and tree ended up working out really well for some depth of field.

It's like it's spiraling out from the center. A pinwheel maybe? Plus, I love the layers of color from the layers of clouds.

I then put my camera away and we continued to drive. Just before the Bay Bridge/Tunnel, the colors in the sky changed. We were getting to the most narrow part of the Delmarva Peninsula and you could start to see the still waters of the Chesapeake Bay reflecting the sky.

I wish I had taken my camera out about 5 minutes earlier. We passed a white house set back from the road that was right on the water. The water was still and reflected back the most wonderful colors. It would have been a great picture, but I didn't want to be a pain and ask my colleague to stop the car so I could get out. It's one thing for me to do it either alone or at least if I'm driving, but w/ someone else driving, it was tough. So, after that shot, I had to take my camera back out.

Like I said, I didn't want to ask my colleague to stop the car, so the next shots were taken in obviously low light as we were moving and just about on the bridge. The blur of the pictures and the color of the sky almost make the shots look like they are painted watercolors and not photographs.

Not even a mile or two after the above pictures were taken, the light from the sun was gone. These are some pictures at the beginning of the Bay Bridge/Tunnel. They are dark and I don't think they do much, but I was trying out some composition stuff so you are now stuck looking at it too.

Photo Composition

2010-01-17T11:16:00.008-05:00

I took a class yesterday on composition and intermediate photography thru the Digital Photo Academy. Since getting my new DSLR, I really wanted to take time to learn its functions instead of constantly using the pre-set buttons. What's the purpose of a DSLR if I use all the auto features?

This had to be my favorite picture of the day. Bright, vivid color with the monochromatic color of the lock and bolt.

My second favorite picture of the day. The above picture is a reflection in a moped's rear compartment. Kind of wish I wasn't in the reflection as well, but it's something to work on.

Ok, so the first part of the day was composition. I feel I already have a pretty good eye, especially with landscapes and nature, but it was really nice to go through some of the key elements to try and better my pictures. We learned about the rule of thirds, leading lines, use of color, etc. We then went out into Northern Liberties to try our hand at some of the stuff. The assignment was hard considering it is winter and there's not much color out there for me to play with nor is there the usual things I like to take pictures of. Still, I tried my hand at a few things.

The picture on the left was taken midday. Loved the colors. The picture on the right was a fluke. I was goofing off, trying to take a picture of myself, but the camera was lopsided and missed me altogether. This is what I got instead. Not bad. The lines of the wires are great.

The above picture is some barbed wire at a vacant lot.

I had taken a different version of this picture (street view w/ street lines), but Rick the instructor suggested I go back and find another way to highlight the lamppost. I came back w/ this. What I like about it is the fact that the utility post in the background seems to echo the lamppost in the foreground. Rick really liked it.

I had a lot of fun w/ the reflections in the mopeds parked on the street.

Gated window-front w/ the reflections of the street through the window.

I tried working on depth of field and the rule of thirds w/ the fence post on the left. On the right, I really liked this lamp as I was walking to lunch. I love how the line of the wall detail lines up w/ the center line of the lamp and how the diagonal line leads your eye to the subject.

Not sure how this is w/ the leading lines, but the rule of thirds works nice and the diagonal line captures your eye. Just a fence around a vacant lot.

More play on color, this time focusing on the contrasting colors of blue and orange. Also, I loved the color of the fire hydrant with its contrasting red (red orange) and green (lime green).

The 2nd part of the day was intermediate photography. It is designed to introduce you to the DSLR. We focused a lot on shutter speed and aperture and how/when to use it with your camera. We also covered white balance and fill flash. We then went outside for a bit to try stopping a moving car, panning, and blurring the car while keeping the background still. I didn't bother uploading many pictures from this part since it was more technical instruction so the pictures were kind of boring.

My attempt at panning. The biker is supposed to be clear while everything else is blurred. I still need to work on this technique.

Capturing and stopping motion w/ an increased shutter speed. Most of this was done w/ cars (boring), but I had fun playing w/ the flag blowing in the wind.

Overall, it was a good class. I would have liked to work on some other concepts on the camera, like size (raw v. jpeg) or some of the digital functions on the camera itself and what they mean, but this was a good start. I guess it's kind of hard to cover that stuff in a 4-hour workshop. Because speed and aperture are both numbers I kept getting confused. I am sure that I will need a refresher as well as a more advanced class to help me thru a lot of it.

However, I now realize my lens does not have as much zoom as I thought, so I'll be on the lookout for a good zoom lens before my trip in April. We all know how much I love to zoom.

Holiday gifts

2010-01-01T12:54:00.006-05:00

Never before did I ever think that I would knit toys. However, when I started seeing pictures of the giraffe (rav link) from Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Toys book on Ravelry, I knew I had to get it and start knitting!

After consulting w/ my sister, I ended up knitting the following two projects.

Baby Doll Set

Is Leah not just the cutest thing w/ that doll? The pattern is called Baby Doll Set with Hat (ravelry link) and I knit it out of Rowan's Purelife Organic Cotton DK. I did not add the poly pellets that the pattern called for and only stuffed it with polyfill. It took me a while to finish, partly b/c I had to bring it w/ me on vacation and partly b/c there were so many little parts. I used a ball and a half of the Quebarcho Bark, almost a full ball of the Brazilwood, and maybe a quarter to a half skein of the Oak Bark and the Yellowwood.

I ended up making a few modifications. I had to knit the baby's hat a little longer before making the decreases so it would fit right on her head. I also didn't add the belly button or the thumbs (more of a timing issue and I just wanted to finish the damn thing). I think the braids are thinner than the pattern called for.

Although the diaper is cute, I'm not so thrilled w/ it. I didn't add the edging and had issues w/ the darts. The pattern also has a toddler size hat that I did not make. However, Leah kept trying on the girl's hat, so maybe I should knit that for her too!

As I said, Leah really liked her. We had fun pointing out where the doll's eyes, nose, knees, etc. were. Our last night on vacation, Leah was overtired and as we said night night to her, she turned around and said "night night baby doll." So cute! I hope she gets a lot of use out of her.

Giraffe

This is the Giraffe (ravelry link) pattern from Itty Bitty Toys. I knit this little bugger out of Berroco Comfort (Buttercup and Kidz Orange). I used barely 1 ball of of the Kidz Orange and just over 1 ball of the Buttercup. It's got poly pellets in the feet and a little in the body. Rest is stuffed with polyfill.

The giraffe is pretty big, as you can see in the picture above. It's a good 20" tall from the base. I might have to make one for myself. He is just so cute!

I knew Alex wasn't much of a doll person, but knew that the animal would get a little love. I'm sure it will mostly be sitting on a bed or shelf or pile of other animals.

Other Gifts

I also made something for my sister and my brother-in-law, but don't actually have pictures to show off. That's the problem w/ gifts. You get so excited to give them that you forget to take photos for your own records. Duh.

I made my brother-in-law Brooklyn Tweed's Turn-a-Square hat, but instead of striping it w/ a solid color, I just let the Noro change colors on it's own. I used Noro Kureyon in 233, and it came out really well. It was mostly a dark navy, black and green, w/ a small (maybe about 2 rows tops) of pink that rests right above the ribbing. I really like how the color change occurred and wish I did have a picture.

For my sister, I made her the Pebble Neck Warmer from Loop's blog. I made it w/ a smaller gauge yarn, Pear Tree 12 ply in blush, so I had to make a few adjustments (size 15 needles, extra stitches). I got a great button at Rosie's and when finished, my sister loved it. Now I want to whip up a quick hat to match.

Holiday wrap up

2010-01-01T09:29:00.004-05:00

As with any other Christmas holiday, I went down to Florida to spend it with my family. It was a wonderful week, but not without its bumps. Everyone came down, which was great. I was headed down first. Everything seemed fine and was right on schedule. I think I jinxed myself by updating my facebook page w/ my flight status, b/c soon after we were told there was a maintenance problem w/ the plane and that we would have to leave the plane. We waited for a bit and then were told that there was another plane coming in that we could use and that we were to go to another gate and stand in line to wait so we could be checked in again. That was a mad dash! Anyway, all was good. We got a new plane. I was upgraded to first class (more 1st class seats on this plane). We finally took off about 2 hours late, getting me in around 1:30.

The next day, my dad thought he was flying to West Palm, but the lady who booked the reservation messed up and he flew to Ft. Lauderdale instead. I drove down to pick him up. Eric got in on time, but we still had to go pick him up. The next day (Christmas) we get a call from my sister. She and Andrew were not on the same plane and he had already taken off to Tampa and then to West Palm. Turns out she was bumped and no one volunteered to give up their seat. So, here was my sister, stuck at the airport w/ two kids under 5, and Andrew had the car keys! They eventually booked her on a flight thru Orlando and then to Ft. Lauderdale. So, I went to West Palm to get her bag when her original flight was scheduled to arrive. I then drove to Ft. Lauderdale to pick her up. Luckily, the girls were angels and in good spirits. When told of the new travel plans, Alex exclaimed, "Today must be my lucky day." My sister asked how come and Alex replied, "because I get to fly on TWO planes today!" Too funny! At one point the girls were at the window waving goodbye to their plane.

So, we all made it and had a good time. I just uploaded my photos and didn't get as many as I would have liked of the family since I was using my new camera and didn't take it out w/ me. Leah was the easiest to get pictures of. She just turned to the camera and said CHEESE. Alex, on the other hand, just ran away or hid. She's like my grandmother that way.

Leah had a blast at the beach and at the pool. She would scream when we took her away. She went back and forth b/w the baby pool and the big pool. It was so cute.

I made the girls their Hanukkah presents this year. I'll post more info about the items themselves in another post, but for now, here are the girls w/ their presents.

Of course, the week wouldn't be complete w/o issues on my return flight as well. There were weather issues in Philly, so my plane was delayed 2 hours. Luckily I checked the flight status so I could hang out at the apartment until just before my flight departure. I also ran into Katie and the girls at the airport, so that was a nice treat.

Because of the delays out of Philly, we were quickly ushered onto our flight. So quickly that there were a few still coming off the plane as we lined up on the jet way to get on the plane. As we boarded, the flight attendants urged us to find our seats and stow our bags quickly. We only had a short window -- 10 minutes -- to board and take off before we missed our window. The flight crew was great at making sure that we got on the plane quickly. We made the window and took off just before my sister's plane. Luckily, we weren't forced to circle in Philly. They weren't kidding about the weather and the low visibility. When we came out of the clouds, we landed w/in 2 minutes! It was definitely an interesting flight.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T09:23:00.003-05:00

Wow, I can't believe it is 2010 already! It seems like just yesterday that I was at the DC Mall w/ Dannielle and Steve, ringing in the New Millennium.

2009 was a good year. I bought a house. I completed my first olympic distance triathlon. I bought a house. I spent some great time w/ my family and friends. I bought a house. I made a bunch of neat knitted items for my entire family. I bought a house. I had some great settlements and other accomplishments at work. Oh yeah, and I bought a house!

I look forward to this year and what it might bring.

Wishing all of you a happy and healthy new year!

December (so far)

2009-12-20T12:23:00.004-05:00

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted anything. I've just been so busy at work and working on a bunch of projects (house and knitting) that I just haven't had time.

Here in Philly we just got dumped on. It was so nice to see snow. Not only that, I woke up this morning and someone had shoveled my steps and sidewalk! Unfortunately, I still had to go out in it since I also had to dig out my car. Kind of missing my covered parking spot at the moment.

But as I was shoveling out my car, I noticed that someone actually came down our street and PLOWED! I was shocked. This is a one block street and not even close to being on the city's radar for any sort of priority. Unfortunately, the woman across the street proceeded to throw the snow she shoveled from the sidewalk into the street. Seriously, how hard is it to pile up in front of your house? I did it.

Marissa was the only one brave enough yesterday to come over for brunch. We had some yummy creme brulee french toast and then Marissa helped w/ some picture hanging ideas. After she left, I felt brave enough to actually hang a few things, including my stained glass mirror in the entryway. Thought it would add a little more light to the place, but not much more. Still, now everyone can admire it instead of it hiding in my bedroom.

I've been really busy this month working on projects for myself, as well as some last minute gifts I decided to knit up for the holidays. Yeah, note to self: don't wait until after Thanksgiving to start on holiday gifts!

Two gifts I've been working on are knitted toys from Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Toys. This book is just so cute, that I had to buy and start projects from it. Never thought I'd knit toys, but like I said, I just had to. It's like Field of Dreams: if you build it they will come, go the distance, etc. So far, I finished the Giraffe and am working on the baby doll. I'm not posting pictures b/c even though my nieces don't read my blog, my sister does and I want her to be surprised too. Don't worry, she's seen the book and picked out the ones the girls would like, so that part isn't a surprise.

I've also been chugging away on that crazy log cabin blanket made out of Noro Kureyon. Basically, each square is a skein of Kureyon and comes out to about 9 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches. So far I've made a whopping 13 squares!!!!! This is a great, mindless commuting project, which is why I've gotten so far. I think I have enough Noro now (yeah, I went a little crazy at WEBS, Rosies, and another place), to make upwards of 25 squares (5x5), but might add another 5 to make it 5x6. We'll see. For now, here's a shot of some of the squares laid out on the bed.

But, b/c I've been working on that, my Olivia cardigan has been put on hiatus. I'll bring it with me to Florida and will hopefully finish it there. I also plan to bring a pair of socks w/ me to work on, on the beach, since they seem to be the socks I prefer to wear this winter.

Oh yeah, I also quickly whipped up a cute little hat from Itty Bitty Hats (another Susan B. Anderson pattern). Pattern is called candy cane, but since this was going to Myles Cody and he celebrates Hanukkah, I called it Hanukkah Gelt. His mom sent me a picture of him in it a few days later. He's just too cute!

Finally, something I've been working on for almost 2 years. I picked this back up this fall, but then got addicted to the Noro blanket instead. I will, someday, finish this. Only problem is I'm not crazy about the colors anymore. Again, the Noro blanket is what I really want. Still, it really is a pretty afghan made out of Manos del Urugauy Clasica.

POLL: I need your help . . .

2009-11-29T16:57:00.003-05:00

I bought 2 different shower curtains over the weekend and want your opinion. Please let me know what you think. The pictures are terrible, of course, but I hope that you get the idea.

The first one - Leaves - is a cottonish material and bright white w/ some green leaves and tan leaves. The tan matches the wall color nicely, but it is quite pale against the white.

Then 2nd one - flowers - is a more satinish material w/ blue, brown and tan ribbon flowers and then the a dark brown border at the bottom. The main color is more of an off-white color. The colors stand out a bit more on this one.

The trim in the room is bright white and the towels I bought over the weekend are also a bright white color. I didn't want anything too dark since it is such a small place. That's a given since it is so hard to just get a picture of these shower curtains for you. Ok, thanks so much for you opinion on this!

Getting settled

2009-11-25T22:03:00.002-05:00

Well, it's now been a few weeks and I'm slowly getting settled in. My folks came down for the day at the beginning of the month and really helped me clear out the first floor and put things in their rightful place. Once my mom (a/k/a drill Sergeant for the day) took over, there was no stopping her. Here is how beautiful the kitchen looked when we were done.

Since then, I've had a chance to settle in more. Here's a look at how the front of the house is looking. The rug was left behind by the sellers and actually doesn't look so bad except that it's too small. I think throw rugs are next on my list of house purchases.

As you can see, the TV has been mounted on the wall. There were some issues w/ the job. The guy who installed it actually put it up significantly higher than I wanted it (20" above the mantle). My friend managed to move the TV down on the mount so that now it is only 12" above the mantle. I complained, and the guys are coming back after the holiday to make it right. It really should be only 2-3" above the mantle b/c the room is so narrow.

Onto the 2nd floor. I haven't done anything w/ the guest room yet. For now, it is basically my bedroom from my apartment until I decide what I want to do with it. The room gets some really great light during the day, so I may want to make it a sitting area or combine some of my office. My office is kind of dark b/c the window is set back a bit.

I haven't done much w/ the bathroom or office yet, so here is my bedroom. It essentially looks the same as what I had shown before. In the coming weeks, I plan to start hanging pictures.

Lastly, the basement is coming along nicely. My friend vented the dryer for me and also put together storage shelves from IKEA. Next, I want to work on my craft area, but I can wait until after the new year for that one. I'll post basement pictures in a few weeks.

It's mine, all mine!

2009-11-24T22:13:00.003-05:00

As promised, a picture of Alex sleeping horizontally in my bed.

She started out on the pillow on the right. My sister moved her back and when I came up to bed a couple hours later, she was on my pillow, almost sleeping across the bed, again.

Flower Cardigan and Hat

2009-11-21T10:12:00.002-05:00

Do you remember how I made my niece the Flower Cardigan and Hat from Susan Anderson's Itty Bitty Nursery for her 1st birthday? Well, she finally (mostly) fits in it, 8 months later!

She wore it to the museum and we got lots of compliments on it. She looked so cute in it that I just had to share!

My first house guests!

2009-11-17T00:20:00.005-05:00

Last weekend, I had my first set of house guests for the weekend. My sister came up w/ the girls to visit college and grad school friends and brought the girls with her. My sister's first comment was that I finally was in an adult house. The best was that I had places for everyone to stay! She was in the guest room, Leah was in the office, and Alex was with me in my room. It worked out really well, except that somehow, little Alex manages to take up the entire bed. Amazing. I was hugging the edge just to get some room. Katie has a great picture of Alex lying horizontal on the bed. And I thought I moved around in my sleep a lot!

Leah was a treat and loved being thrown in the air. Here we are playing around one of the mornings.

I had a few toys, perfectly placed in drawer and Leah was great at not just taking things out, but also putting them away. I was impressed. Even I still have problems putting things away!

On Saturday, we started out at the Please Touch Museum where Alex proceeded to show her mom all the cool places in Alice's Wonderland, including tea w/ the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit.

Queen of Clubs . . .

Leah had a great time shopping in the market.

Afterwards, we left Katie and Leah, and Alex and I went to the Academy of Natural Sciences and then the Franklin Institute. At one point, Alex exclaimed, "Scientists are my most favorite people, ever!" Oh my.

I was sad to see them go on Sunday morning. It was a great visit and I look forward to the next time they come up, which will be more often since they finally have a place to stay!

Hip to be square

2009-10-28T01:04:00.002-04:00

I am terrible at checking out my friends' projects and copying them. Jen posted about her new Noro obsession that Jenna got her hooked on. I saw it and immediately thought it would be the perfect traveling/commuting project. Basically, it's the Log Cabin squares, knit with different skeins of Noro Kureyon. It's great b/c you never know what color combinations you are going to get. I started this last Friday and now have 4 squares finished.

I will say, it does help that I had a 2 hour flight on Sunday and I've been in 2 days straight of CLE on bankruptcy. It's all I can do to stay awake and follow what's going on. Especially when they are talking about chapters (i.e., chapter 13) I don't work on.

Then, I've been participating in an afghan square swap with the Friends of P folks on Ravelry. These are the last 2 squares I made for my pals.

Pals are making me squares and I'm supposed to make some for myself, so we'll see what happens and whether I actually finish (or start) that project.

House Update

2009-10-28T00:34:00.005-04:00

In the past few weeks, I've begun to settle into my house. Marissa made me this beautiful drawing of my rowhouse to use as my new address cards. I'll eventually have it framed and hang it in my house.

I moved my stuff in and am now wondering how it's all going to fit! This is just the tip of the iceberg before the boxes were unloaded from the truck. Boy is my couch big!

I then went to IKEA and got some stuff to better utilize my kitchen cabinets, including this carousel for the corner cabinet and this pull-out shelf for the deep corner cabinet.

My friend Jason moved the wardrobes around that were left behind and attached them to the walls in my bedroom and in the office, blocking the door b/w the two rooms. This is helping to maximize space.

I then went back to IKEA and got shelves and drawers to put into the wardrobes so I could finally begin to unpack. I still have to put stuff in the other closet, but for now, here's how 1 wardrobe looks in my bedroom. (it now is filled w/ clothes)

It turns out that the wardrobe in the office is perfect for storing my craft (aka, knitting) supplies. It's not nearly as deep as the bedroom wardrobes, so not as functional for clothes. But, for knitting, it's perfect. I need to go back and get some more of the sectional shelves and maybe another drawer before it's finished. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep the books in there or if I'm going to move the bookshelf in there.

I think I've managed to unpack about 20 of the 75+ boxes I packed. I have a long way to go . . .

New additions

2009-10-15T19:00:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is D-day. The movers are coming and clearing out my apartment and I'm finally moving into my new house! I've been taking a few things over this past week (mainly plants and perishisbles), but 2 main things arrived today to really make it feel like it's my place.

First, my bedroom furniture arrived this morning. The delivery men set it up and I'm really excited about it. Wish I could sleep in my new bed tonight, but I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow night -- my first night in the house.

The second new addition, are the window treatments. Until now, every time I've been at the house, folks have been able to see in and see what I'm doing. Now, I've got privacy! I had cellular blinds installed in the living room. Instead of getting the basic set up, I opted to add the feature allowing you to drop the blinds down from the top. This will provide light, while also providing privacy when I want it.

Upstairs, I had basic mini-blinds installed. I didn't want to go too crazy. If I really want something different than the white mini-blinds, I can change it in the future. For now, they are just fine.

The best is that all of my windows are deep enough to allow for the blinds to be set inside the window frames as opposed to the outside like my parents had to do at their house.

I spent the rest of the day putting together storage shelves in the basement, but have to go back to IKEA b/c I forgot a couple parts that I need for the shelves. Duh.

I'm offline for the next few days until my cable/internet are installed. I'll post photos once I'm back online.

October 13th

2009-10-12T01:24:00.004-04:00

October 13th is a big day in my family. Not only is it my birthday, but my Dad and Uncle Eddie were born that day. To top that off, my sister married my brother-in-law that day -- my 30th birthday.

My Dad and I try to celebrate together every year. This year, my sister, BIL, and nieces drove up this year to celebrate with us since it is my Dad's 65th birthday. We didn't go all out, but instead had a very nice dinner.

The birthday boy and girl

I don't know if you can see the vest my Dad is wearing, but that's the vest I made him for his birthday. Not bad.

Family picture

The sibs

It was a quick trip to North Jersey b/c I had to run back and continue to pack (that's what I'm supposed to be doing right now). I stopped off at Bed, Bath & Beyond to get new dishes (1 less thing to pack), new sheets, and other odds and ends. I then stopped at Home Depot to pick up my first set of flowers (mums) for the house. I hope they don't freeze tonight. Later, I went back to IKEA and picked up storage shelves and other stuff for the kitchen. There's still tons more to get and do, but for now, I think this will hold me off for a couple weeks!

I probably should go to bed now. I have to be up early for the handyman who is coming to hook my refrigerator up to the water line. I will have my very own ice maker for the first time. How nice.

Progress?

2009-10-09T22:22:00.005-04:00

I swear, I feel like I'm not getting anywhere w/ my packing. Drawers and cabinets have been emptied, but my place is still not packed! I am down to my last 4 boxes from Sherry and 3 boxes from Foodies. I used up all those awesome boxes Melissa and I found on the street in front of Ye Olde Cleaners. If only I could find them again! I refuse to pay money for boxes this time around. I already went thru a jumbo-sized roll of bubble wrap and need more.

As much as I'm looking forward to seeing the family tomorrow and celebrating my birthday and my dad's birthday tomorrow, I need time!!!!!!! Thank god Monday is a holiday.

Totals so far:

45+ boxes
5 plastic drawers
5 plastic bins of various sizes
7 suitcases of varying sizes (all expanded to their maximum)

It seems like there's no end in sight!

Just a spoonful of color

2009-10-06T21:48:00.004-04:00

A lot has happened since I last posted, including the closing on my new house last week! I'm very excited and now trying to pace myself w/ all of the things I want to do and need to get.

First thing I tackled was to find a painter and paint the rooms upstairs. The rooms were either a light yellow or a deeper goldenrod color. Yes, they were bright, but I am not a yellow person. So, that meant that I needed to paint the rooms. My painter has finished the rooms and is now tackling the trim in the entire house. The rooms look so good, that I was almost tempted to also paint the guest room, but decided that's the one room I won't be in so it's ok to keep it the light yellow.

Next, I spent many hours in Ikea and Lowes scoping things out and picking up stuff for the house. I also got the new fridge and need to hire someone to hook up the water line to the fridge so I can use the ice maker and water dispenser. The wonderful handyman who is painting my walls can mount my tv to the wall, but doesn't feel comfortable doing the water line, so I'm waiting to hear back from someone on that job.

Tonight I ran home and took some quick pictures of the paint job so far. They aren't the most accurate pictures since they are at night, but they'll have to do for now. I'll post more pictures over the weekend.

Here's my bathroom. I used Benjamin Moore's Pale Almond. It came out really well.

My bedroom has a little more color to it b/c I wanted it to coordinate w/ my duvet cover. I'm still a little nervous about how it will look w/ my new bedroom furniture and the cream leather headboard, but I think it should be ok. Worse comes to worse: I paint it again. Anyway, I like how it turned out so far. It's Benjamin Moore's Pebble Beach.

Finally, I also painted the office since I'll be in there a lot and it was more of a goldenrod than a pale yellow. I think I could have survived w/ pale yellow, but the goldenrod just did not do it for me. Then again, I don't seem to mind it in the kitchen . . . Anyway, I had no clue what color to use and settled on a dusty mauvish purple color called Frosted Toffee. It's hard to tell how it looks w/ the lighting at night. One picture looks more neutral and the other looks more pinkish, so who knows. Still, it's way better than goldenrod. I think this color would look good w/ dark wood-stained furniture. I'll think about it when I update my office furniture in the future.

Now, I just need to set up cable, get the window treatments installed, set up shelving for storage in the basement, and pack. Moving day is a week from Friday!!!!!

House stuff

2009-09-19T20:41:00.002-04:00

I'm up in NJ this weekend and took my mom to a bunch of furniture and blind stores today in search of bedroom furniture and window treatments for my house. By the end of the day, I found a great bedroom set (see picture below). It's a cherry wood finish and the lines are really neat. It kind of reminds me of Alice in Wonderland in a certain way.

I had been looking at a bunch of different sets and really didn't like the leather headboards on some of the more modern models. However, when I saw this one at the store, the leather didn't bother me so much. I guess it's b/c it's not the masculine black w/ the deep, deep dark furniture. The best is that I don't have to pay interest until 2013. Of course, I didn't actually apply for the financing today b/c I can't pull my credit for anything before closing. That would be bad.

The best is that the set can be delivered before I move in, but after I paint. So, next step is to pick my my paint colors . . .

I'm a triathlete!!!!!

2009-09-14T14:33:00.005-04:00

That's right! I finished the Nation's Triathlon and here's my medal to prove it!

I guess I should back up and give a little recap since the last time I posted. That post was written in one of several moments of panic before the race.

After my post on 9/4, I went out that weekend and walked and biked, but didn't get back in the wetsuit. When the pool at my gym reopened on Tuesday, I decided that would be my chance to try the suit on again and try swimming in it. This time I was prepared. I had a ton of body glide and made sure to go after 8pm when the pool was pretty quiet. I had some suggestions on facebook to get the suit wet before putting it on. So, my way of doing that was to get the bottom on, get in the pool, and then put on the top and zip up. Bad move in hindsight. I trapped a ton of water in there and it was like swimming with a lead weight all over my body. I took off the suit and it felt so free to swim.

I got home that night and emailed my coach. He suggested I still wear the wetsuit for safety since it's my first tri and the wetsuit gives you tons of buoyancy. So, if I tucker out, I can just float. Great.

I drove down to DC on Friday, checked in at the expo, and then headed up to my sister's for dinner w/ the girls. The next day, I met up w/ the team to ride down and rack our bikes in the transition area and listen to Dave Scott speak. Afterwards, we got into our wetsuits for a practice swim in the Potomac.

This is a picture of me before my "first" open water swim. I look so happy and calm, don't I?

Sadly, that didn't last. I got in the water and tried to swim, but I couldn't breathe. I stopped and floated for a bit, but every time I put my face in the water, I couldn't breathe. Two women stopped to ask if I was alright and if I was having trouble breathing. I explained my issue and the one asked if I was having a panic attack. I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's probably what it was. So, I doggie paddled it across all the swimmers to the swim exit and got out. It was really scary. I didn't know what I was going to do. My coach suggested that it's b/c I wasn't used to open water and that on race day, I'd have a minute or so to get adjusted before the start horn goes off. During that time, I should put my face in the water and get used to breathing. Didn't think that would work, but promised I would try again on race day.

The next day, we were up at 4:30 and down at transition by 5:45. It's hard to get an idea of just how big transition was, especially in the dark, but there were close to 5,000 participants yesterday! It's hard to see, but the sun is just starting to come up behind the Washington Monument in the distance.

At 6:45, everyone had to be out of transition and in the "swim pen" before the first group (elites) dropped in the water at 7:00. I wasn't thrilled about this since I wasn't scheduled to drop in until 8:00. It's not fun standing around for an hour in your wetsuit. I put it on up to my waist and then waited to put the rest on until soon before we were called up. The weather that morning was nice and cool so we weren't overheated trying to get that suit on.

In line, I mentioned my panic the day before and someone mentioned singing a song over and over in my head and that it should help calm me. Jefferson Airplane's Volunteer must have been playing b/c it was in my head during the whole swim. Anyway, I dropped in and did what my coach said. When the horn blew, I did a little crawl, but then flipped on my back. I had originally figured it would take me an hour to do the swim, but was afraid it would take longer. I was ok and pretty calm after about 10 minutes of finding my groove. I did a combination of crawl, a modified breast stroke, and elementary back stroke. Toward the end, I was most doing crawl, but kept stopping to check and make sure I wasn't going in the wrong direction! Needless to say, I completed the 0.9 mile swim in the Potomac.

I was soooooo happy I finished the swim. I walked to transition, stripped off my wetsuit, changed into my bike shoes, and was off. Soon after I hopped on my bike I saw friends of mine there to cheer me on. It gave me a nice little burst of energy to get me started on the bike and boy did I need it. I totally spaced stretching before hopping on the bike and my legs felt like jello. I had to stop 2-3 times to stretch out my adductor which cramped up on my a couple times. I had issues w/ that muscle in 2006 when I did 7 half marathons that year, but it was never anything like I felt on the bike. Once I stretched, I was fine. So, the 25-mile bike course (and the rest of the course for that matter) was touted as a flat and fast course. Yeah right. That bike course was pretty hilly! I was surprised. Still, I kept going.

I knew there were a bunch of people that were supposed to be behind me, but I couldn't understand where they were. I was passed by some folks, but not everyone. I came to find out afterwards that some folks that were in the last few swim waves were turned around on the bike course, even though there roads were supposed to be open until 12:00 (it was 10:30 when they were told to turn around). All these folks went back to transition and moved onto the run. Not fair!

Anyway, I finished the bike and my legs were mush. I strapped on my fanny pack full of water and my race number and put one foot in front of the other. It took me about 5-10 minutes to really get into a groove, but I never made it to the "brisk" walking pace that I do for the marathons. I was lucky that I was average 19-mile minutes. Like I said, I was toast. Still, I was hydrating well, taking my electrolyte pills and eating pretzels and gels.

By the time I came around and was under a mile to the finish, I broke out my camera and decided to take some touristy pictures of myself on the course. Here I am, in front of the Jefferson Memorial.

The nice thing about doing this event in DC is that my sister got to come down w/ the family and cheer me on at the end. They were right at the finish line as I came running down the finish chute. It's not the most flattering picture, but damn, I just completed a triathlon -- WHO CARES????

My sister also took a video of me finishing, but I can't figure out how to link it. I have it up on facebook for now.

Here I am (above) showing off my medal w/ the Potomac in the background. And below is a picture of me w/ my sister, brother-in-law and nieces after the race.

Thanks to everyone who supported me on this adventure. I am now hooked and plan to do more; however, next time I plan to train just a little bit more!

WTF was I thinking?

2009-09-04T19:44:00.004-04:00

My triathlon is a week from Sunday and I haven't done crap for it. I have totally slacked on my training. I am so screwed.

Top that off w/ the fact that I tried on my wetsuit for the first time tonight (only got it from the team on Sunday) and felt like Ross on Friends when he couldn't get his leather pants back on.

It took me 2 tries and a ton of body glide to get that baby on. B/c of this episode, I knew not to go anywhere near the powder!

Ok, so I'm in the suit. I then go down in the elevator and out to the pool to test out swimming in it. People were looking at me like I'm nuts. Good thing I'm moving in a month, right? I get in the pool and it feels so weird b/c it doesn't keep the water out.

I get ready to do a lap of breaststroke first and my butt has floated to the surface along w/ my legs. Kind of hard to do breaststroke (at least the way I know how to do it) w/ your legs at the surface. That must've been a sight. Good thing it was getting dark by then.

Then I do a lap of crawl and in a way it is much easier to do crawl b/c your butt and legs are gliding along the surface. Only problem is I did a crappy job of getting the suit on and my arms couldn't fully extend so it was very tiring on my arms to swim crawl.

Any way I can do this thing WITHOUT the wet suit? I would do sooooo much better w/o it. I will say that the good thing about it is I can float upright in the middle of the deep end w/o having to tread water. So, if I do keel over in the Potomac (yes, the Potomac River) I won't sink.

Sigh. This should be interesting. Wish me luck.

Pictures

2009-08-26T14:01:00.003-04:00

I had my inspection yesterday and it went really well. The inspector said that the owner didn't cut any corners on the rehab. He was very impressed. Only a few minor things that can be easily done and would probably make sense for the owner to do. We'll see.

I know I posted pictures of the house as part of the search, but since I deleted all reference to the address, you may not know which house it is. So, here are a few pictures of my new house:

living area

back patio

entryway and living area

my bedroom

upstairs hallway looking toward my bedroom

guest room (back room)

bathroom

basement (and W/D!!!!)

Wet bar, looking toward front of house

Kitchen

Dining area

street view

2009-08-20T13:59:00.005-04:00

I JUST BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!!!!

Just thought you might like to know. :-)

Quick update

2009-08-19T23:07:00.004-04:00

Things have progressed quite rapidly since last week. I called the realtor and went back to look at the 25th and **** houses last night. I really liked the 25th house, but wasn't sure on the street. As soon as I walked in on Tuesday, I was surprised that it was not what I had thought I remembered. Having seen several places after that had morphed it into something else. Needless to say, I decided it really wasn't for me and I'd need to put more work into it than I would have wanted. The **** house was a different story. As soon as I walked in, I knew that it was where I wanted to be. I put an offer on the house this evening.

I'm on pins and needles waiting to hear back. They have until 5pm tomorrow night to respond. Wish me luck! I really hadn't expected this to progress so quickly!

(edited to remove the house number and street of the place I actually bought)

It's Sunday, and what does that mean?

2009-08-16T16:07:00.014-04:00

Open houses! Yup, instead of a nice relaxing morning, followed by an afternoon at the pool, I was pouring thru the open house listings to see what I wanted to check out. I eventually selected about 7 listings I wanted to see, but bailed on 2 and 1 was never there.

But, before I get to that, I did remember to go out last night around 11:30 and drive by the houses I looked at on Friday. As I expected (and remembered), I felt very comfortable around the 25th and Judson houses. I even drove around to see if there would be parking spots, and I did find 2 or 3 within 2 blocks of each house.

The Stillman house was the one I most interested in checking out. Parish is a pretty benign street and so is Poplar. However, at the end of Stillman, (the house I'm looking at is 4 houses down from Poplar) there is a gas station. It is well lit, but definitely had a lot of traffic at 11:30 at night. I drove to see where the bus would drop me -- a block and a half from the house and the route I'd have to walk. I saw folks in their 20s and 30s walking on the street. I could also get off a block early and that wouldn't be a problem. Of course, Marissa lives in that area too and loves it (and feels just fine walking around). The street itself was quiet at that time of night and parking was a little harder to find. So, that doesn't really help me much.

With that said, let's move on to the new houses:

2024 St. Albans
I stopped here first. This is a cute little 3 br house in the Graduate Hospital area of town. It's an area that is still in a bit of transition, but I know someone who lived(s) on this block. Being my first open house, I expected an agent to be there with some information. Neither was there. It was very odd. There were folks walking in and out of this home with no one to make sure no one was stealing anything (you never know). The place had been redone and had nice hardwood floors and paint. Since it's a side street (one-lane) it's not that long. You walk into the living room and dining room upon entry (unlike the ones in Fairmout that have a little vestibule to walk thru).

The kitchen was a very nice size (eat in) and was also recently redone. There is a "patio" out back that could also be used as a parking spot; however, the alley to "patio" was a bit narrow and overgrown.

The 2nd floor was fully carpeted with 3 bedrooms. The master was an ok size, but the closets were a bit narrow. The other 2 rooms were small, but fine for an office or daybed. It looked like there was a pull-down staircase at the top of the stairs, but I coudn't reach it. It also looked like it was bulging out (not flush to the ceiling).

When I was outside, it looked like there was a deck on the roof, but since no one was there, I have no idea. The basement had been completely redone w/ 1/2 bath, carpeting, etc. It's the best basement I've seen yet.

Overall, the house was cute, but the carpet needed cleaning. Bathroom upstairs was an ok size. The kitchen was great. Upon further investigation, it does have a rooftop deck. Nice.

2123-2127 Christian
I didn't quite understand what these places were, but they were in my budget and they had an open house. Turns out they are 3 addresses that were split up into 3 condos each. The ones I looked at were all on the 3rd floor. They had a great price, but they were far too small for me. The best was one of them had the 2nd bedroom in the middle of the living room, but it was sectioned off w/ frosted sliding glass doors. Obviously the room is only meant for guests. Very weird. Again, it was too small for me and I didn't like the fact I'd need to carry my bike up 2 flights of stairs every time I wanted to ride.

**** *****
This house is on a small side street (1 block). The neighborhood was very quiet and there were folks sitting on their porches, or walking their dogs. This house had been completely redone. There was a nice small family room and a nice new kitchen. The kitchen was open to the living area, but divided by a bar w/ separate sink and wine cooler. Totally unnecessary for me, but whatever.

The basement was very clean and level. You could easily turn it into a furnished basement. Plus, it was nice and cool. The patio outside was cute, but the air compressor was out there and very loud. The other places had the compressors set back on the side, but the entry to the patio was from the side.

The 2nd floor had 3 bedrooms, and no closets, except for the one in the hallway. The bathroom was an ok size considering the place. Ok, no closets isn't a big deal. You can easily put upright wardrobes in there. All the rooms were bright and I liked the hwd floors they put in. The main thing that bothered me was how narrow the upstairs hallway was. I mean, it was about as wide as I am as you go past the stairs. That didn't thrill me. Still, it was a cute house and I could see myself fitting in it.

After that I was off to my next house b/w 19th and 20th and Poplar and Parish. Very different feel. I realized I didn't want to even look. It was a bit more transition than I'd like! I was then off to Old City to look at a condo, but there was no one there. So, I then was off to look at my last place in South Philly. Again, no one was there. That's ok, b/c that area wasn't one I was thrilled about but figured I'd check out anyway. I think I looked at South Philly, it would be around Juniper to 11th and Federal down to the restaurant area on Passayunk. Otherwise, it's just not doing it for me.

Information Overload

2009-08-14T18:30:00.013-04:00

I don't even know where to begin. I had an appt today to look a ton of place w/ my realtor's assistant. I'll talk about a bunch of the places I saw, but only really show you the pictures of the ones I really liked. We started off at CityView apartments and then worked our way west through Fairmount.

City View
We looked at 2 apartments here, one of which was listed as a 2br, but was really a 1br w/ a den (but really look like 1 long room). CityView used to be a business hotel so the rooms and kitchens are still set up like that. One apartment I went in was the 1br w/ bathroom, w/d, etc. The 2nd bedroom was accessed by a door w/ a lock on it that leads to what must have originally been a studio. The bedroom had a mini-fridge, sink, etc., the bathroom, and another set of w/d. That's right. The apt. came w/ 2 washers and dryers! Anyway, I didn't like the set ups so we immediately crossed them off our list.

2231 Green St.
When I saw this listing I got really excited. This section of Green St. has some beautiful homes, most of which have been chopped up and turned into condos. This place was similar to the one I saw yesterday on Spruce in that it had the living room on the main floor and the bedrooms at street level. The difference here is that the foot traffic is much lighter, so more privacy. Didn't matter much b/c I didn't quite care for it. The place would have required a lot changes and the kitchen was tiny. Also, you had to go thru one of the bedrooms to use the bathroom. Blech. Cross that off my list.

781 Judson St.
Ok, the funny part about this street is a friend of mine used to live on the same block, so I know it pretty well. It's a nice and quiet side street b/w Aspen and Brown. It's about 1,000 square feet w/ 2 br. You walk in and it was a nice open floor plan w/ pumpkin pine hwd floors. The kitchen, unfortunately was a small galley type kitchen, but then again, how much do I really cook? There was a little patio out back that could fit a table and 2 chairs and a grill (hallelujah!). The HVAC unit was right next to the table instead of on the side, so it was a bit loud out back.

The 2nd floor, also w/ hwd floors, had 2 brs and small bathroom (typical of the street). The main br was big enough to fit a queen and still get around ok.

The basement was partially finished. The owner had her desk and electronics down there, so there must not be an issue w/ water in the basement. The laundry room (unfinished part) was a decent size.

I definitely liked it, so I'll keep it on the list.

738 Taylor St.
We didn't realize this was a trinity until we walked in. I don't know how I missed it in the description. Probably b/c the sq footage was listed as 1,000. Well, as far as trinities go, this was beautiful! I'll post pictures b/c I just loved it. The main floor was a decent size and kitchen was beautiful. They did a good job on it. Also, the back patio was bigger than the one on Judson.

The main problem was that the stairs were far steeper and narrower than the trinity I looked at yesterday. Ugh. The 2nd floor den was done very nicely, as was the bedroom on the 3rd floor. Again, the stairs just killed me, especially the ones down to the basement. Funny how it was the same sq. footage as Judson, but the layout was sooooo different. As cute as it was, the stairs were a bitch and I had to cross it off my list.

777 25th St.
This house is on 25th which is one of the main roads thru Fairmount. This house is over 1100 sq. ft. and is also b/w Aspen and Brown. It had newer hwd floors on the first floor and pumpkin pine hwd floors on the 2nd floor. The 1st floor was a nice size and open. The kitchen was a much nicer size, but not recently redone. The cabinets were painted and the appliances were a little older.

The door to the nice-sized patio had a dog/cat pass thru. The banister on the stairs was really neat and a bit different. The 2nd floor has 2 brs, one of which has a nice window seat that could double as a bed. The bathroom was also a normal size and looks like it had recently been done. The main bed was also a good size and the windows were pretty good at keeping the sound out. I didn't notice the sounds of traffic on the street.

The basement was finished and would be a good place to put my treadmill. Also, the laundry room was nice and clean w/ a sink. The main downfall was the lack of central air. There was a window unit in the LR that quickly cooled down the 1st floor. The 2nd floor would also need window units until I put in central air. Overall, I liked it, so it's staying on my list.

2614 Folsom and 2709 Swain
These 2 places were fairly similar in size and layout. The one was redone a little better than the other, but for the size and location, it was way overpriced. Also, the selling agent had to let us in and kept trying to sell me and ask me questions. Really, it made me dislike the place more. Also, the expensive one didn't even have closets and the one "closet" in the master was barely functional. I didn't like the basements or the bathrooms. Essentially, they both came off the list.

891 Stillmun St.
Up until this point, I was pretty familiar w/ the neighborhoods I was looking at. This house was 2 blocks north of Brown right where Girard meets Poplar by the gas station (for those of you from Philly) across from Girard College. That being said, the house was a few doors down from Poplar and on a quiet, one-way street. The house was on the smaller size -- 840 sq. ft. -- but what it was lacking on size was made up for in other areas. This house had definitely been redone recently. It had an exposed brick wall on one side, going up to the 2nd floor. The LR was on the smaller side, while the kitchen was a much larger size w/ room for a table and chairs. The kitchen was brand new w/ new appliances and cabinetry. The main floor was very bright, which is always a good thing for me.

The upstairs was carpeted w/ an ok-sized bathroom, and 2 br. 2nd bedroom was small but had a nice closet. The main br was bright w/ a bit of exposed brick. The basement was unfinished, but was clean.

It wasn't until I reached the kitchen and fully looked out the back window that I found the best part of the house -- a backyard. There was vegetation, a tree, soil, and room for an outdoor table and chairs (and a grill of course) on the wooden part of the patio. Wow.

All in all, I liked it, but I need to see the area at a different time of day. I'll try to drive by tonight (if I can manage to peel myself off the couch) and see what it looks like. It's only been on the market 7 days, a few days, so it's hard to tell if it will sell quickly or not. Needless to say, it stays on the list.

934 Bambrey St.
This house was a pretty good size -- 11oo sq ft -- but b/c of its location, it was a bit less than the others I looked at today. Not only is it b/w Poplar and Girard, it was just behind the gas station I mentioned above. The walk up the street from Poplar is isolated and deserted before reaching homes. The inside was very nice with 3 bedrooms, a large bathroom, a good size patio, a very nice kitchen and a 3/4 bath on the 1st floor. Sadly, all that could not make up for the location. Not only do I not feel comfortable w/ the location, I can just picture my mom's face as she drives up to it. So, it's off the list.

838 Newkirk St.
Last but not least, this bi-level condo had a lot of stairs to climb before getting to the front door; however, aside from the CityView apartments, it did have parking. It was nice inside w/ a little exposed brick for character and a 1/2 bath on the 1st floor. The bedrooms upstairs were ok, but I did not care for the loft character of the master bedroom. Really, what killed it for me was the stairs. Off the list.

That's it! I am wiped out. Plus, it was so hot today that I was just sopping wet and my clothes were starting to stick to me. I found 3 places that I like so far, but none of which I must jump on tomorrow. If any of them sell this weekend, I'll be ok. I do want to see some of the open houses and then go back and see them again on Mon. or Tues.

After loading all of these pictures, I realized two things. First, the backyard of Stillmun overshadowed other parts of the house I forgot about (like teeny tiny cramped bathroom). Second, the next time I do this, I'm uploading the pictures to flickr or picasa and just linking to it. This uploading thing, although it looks nice on the page, is way too time consuming!

I think I'm finally starting to grow up

2009-08-13T19:58:00.005-04:00

Well, not fully a grown up, but almost there.

I've been in Philly now for 6 years! I can't believe it. It's almost as long as I lived at home in NJ before leaving for college (that was 7 years). I almost left after the first 2 years here when my fellowship ended and I couldn't find anything in town. Obviously, I found something here and have loved the city ever since.

I wanted to start looking to buy something 4 years ago, but my brother and others told me to wait, that the bubble hadn't burst yet and it was going to. Now that the bubble has burst and prices have gone down a bit (as well as the $8,000 credit for 1st-time buyers) I am ready to throw my hat into the ring!

I found a realtor, thanks to Lisa, and we went to see our 1st 2 places today. They were both in center city -- 1 in Wash Sq West and the other in Rittenhouse.

The one in Rittenhouse (21st & Spruce) had the most gorgeous living room (thought I took a picture, but I guess not) on the first floor, with high ceilings, crown molding, hardwood floors and huge windows. However, the bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen were all downstairs in what used to be the basement. I will say, the windows downstairs were large and let in some light, but b/c they were right on the street, I'd have to keep them covered up all the time for privacy. Plus, the bedrooms were tiny. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling it. So cross that one off my list.

The 2nd house we looked at was at Cater and Lombard.

View Larger Map

It was a trinity w/ a little add-on for the kitchen. For those of you not from Philly, trinities are 3-floor houses that are usually something like 12x12 or 15x15. They are basically 3 rooms stacked on top of each other. The stairs are a bit narrow and steep (like spiral stairs but not as bad in my opinion). The living room is on the first floor, the den/office/2nd bedroom is on the 2nd floor w/ the bathroom (tiny), and the master is on the top floor. The master was interesting in that they opened up the ceiling to pitched roof and made a tray/loft of sorts. It's a great way to add in more storage to such a small place. The kitchen was off the living and actually a nice size w/ full-size appliances. The sink was small, but that would just keep you from leaving dishes in there and not putting them in the dishwasher. Out back was a cute little narrow patio. The house is on a cute little cobblestone side street. It was one of those places where it was cute, but it's not one that I "must have" just yet. I'll just keep it in the back burner. Oh, and it had a nice basement w/ a full-size w/d. Definite plus!

Of course, with any Center City plus, parking will have to be on the street. I've been so spoiled parking my car in an assigned spot in a garage. When it snows, I don't have to worry about shoveling. At least my car is 10 years old so I won't mind keeping it out in the elements.

Tomorrow, I'm scheduled to look at close to 15 more places. These will all be in Fairmount and will be bigger than what I looked at today. Wish me luck!

Is it over already?

2009-08-01T17:17:00.006-04:00

I just got home from a week down the shore on Long Beach Island with my family. It was a great week filled with sun bathing, bike riding, relaxing, playing w/ my nieces and just spending quality time w/ the family.

My youngest niece finally started walking, so she spent much of the week walking as much as she could. On our last day on the beach, she finally got up the nerve to walk on the beach and the 2 of us took a walk across our beach. It was so cute as she pointed at the sea gulls and steered away from the shells.

Speaking of shells, I don't know what was up, but there were a ton of barnacles that washed ashore on shells and anything else they could attach themselves to.

I love this picture of her devouring a watermelon on the beach.

My oldest niece is a full-fledged little girl. I can't get over it. She loves learning about new things and asking you what things mean. She has a book on the human body w/ experiments to boot and loved having us read it. This book came w/ a box of things used to demonstrate certain aspects of the body. There was a stretchy band for a muscle, a filter to demonstrate how the kidneys work, etc. There was that and the geography pop up book that I brought her. With each area we talked about, she asks what storms it has. The girl is obsessed w/ natural disasters.

We lucked out and had great weather all week. When everyone in the Philly and NY metro areas was dealing w/ torrential downpours, flooding, funnel clouds, hail, etc., we had beautiful, sunny days on the beach. Only one day did we come in from the beach due to the clouds, but it didn't rain and passed right by us. It cleared up and we went back out on the beach. Also, only 1 morning did the wind come from somewhere other than the south. It was a west wind which meant that the biting flies would be out. We equipped ourselves with OFF and it seems only my mom and I were attacked. We came back after lunch and the wind had shifted and the flies were gone. I'm telling you, you could not have asked for a better week weather wise.

I had a great time w/ everyone and am sad that it is over.

A great picture of my sister w/ the girls:

Finally, these are just some fun videos of the girls from the week:

Bag lady

2009-07-23T23:36:00.002-04:00

A few months ago, I went to 4th Street and had my first introduction to Fabric Row. I don't sew, but it's a great place for buttons and other accessories too. I went with Andrea and Lisa with the intent of buying fabric to make drawstring bags. Andrea was kind enough to do the sewing for me (again, I don't sew) and made me two bags soon after our trip. Since then, Miss Andrea has designed several tops, she has become a sewing diva making a bunch of clothes, and then all the other things that come into it. Needless to say, she's been busy!

Fast forward to last night. I show up at Rosie's and there's Andrea with a bagful of bags for me. In addition to the 2 smaller bags she made me in the blue and purple batik, she sewed up 6 little bags and 3 big bags! As much as I love blue and purple bags, I LOVE the hot sauce fabric! It's just great. I think I still have some other fabric left over. Unbelievable. I figured I'd get maybe 1, or 2 bags if I was lucky, out of the piece of fabric I bought. Nope. And the best part? The fabric I bought had to be no more than $20 altogether.

So, after taking a picture of the beautiful bags Andrea made for me, I thought I should also photograph my actual bag obsession -- Piddleloop. I've keep buy these bags b/c I love the fabrics and Jen is awesome. However, they are all over the place. I finally decided to "organize" a bit and threw some nails in my closet to help me maintain some sanity and here is what I came up with.

The sad part is this does not include my wedge bag, several 4x6 pouches, a few larger pouches, a triangular bag, and a lone Piddly that I forget to put a nail in for. Yikes. That makes 6 project pouches, 7 piddlies, 1 wedge, 1 triangle, and a few other miscellaneous flat pouches. They are great for holding onto my hibernating projects, as well as for make up or toiletries when packing.

I think I'm done for now. Now to tackle the yarn exponentially growing yarn stash . . .

Guess what I did last night . . .

2009-07-18T15:07:00.008-04:00

I went to see Paul McCartney last night at the new Citifield stadium (fka Shea Stadium)!

The Beatles were the first concert to be performed at Shea so it was only fitting that Paul "christen" the new stadium. Actually, I hadn't even planned to go, let alone even knew about it, but my friend sent me an email on Thursday that her SIL couldn't make it and would I like to go. Yeah, like I hesitated. Yesterday was my compressed day anyway so it wasn't too hard to hop on a train meet her in midtown.

It was steamy hot out and everyone new the skies were going to open up at some point during the show. We lucked out b/c our seats (by choice) were under an overhang and when the skies finally did open up, we were bone dry! No ponchos or umbrellas needed, thank you!

The show was great. He played a few things I wasn't familiar with, probably newer solo stuff, but a lot of great old stuff too.

Here's a list of some of the songs he played that I can remember. I should have written the set list down like we did at dead shows, but I wasn't thinking. I did find a site this morning that did post the whole set list, so I'm just going to write down the ones I knew and loved:

Drive My Car
Jet
Got to Get You into My Life
Long and Winding Road
Band On The Run
Let it Be
Hey Jude
I've Got a Feeling
Something
Paperback Writer
A Day in the Life/Give Peace A Chance
Back in the USSR
Eleanor Rigby
Live and Let Die

He did 2 encores. I can't remember where it was in the encore (or which one), but he talked about how almost a year ago to the day, he was asked to help close out the final concert at Shea w/ Billy Joel and that he felt it was only fitting that he should extend that same offer and so . . . Billy Joel came out and performed I Saw Her Standing Therewith Paul. It was great! The rest of the encore rocked as well. I hate it when folks end on a mellow beat and was glad that Hey Jude and Let it Be (as awesome as they are) were earlier in the show.

Encores:
I Saw Her Standing There
Helter Skelter
Get Back
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band

I'm sure I'm missing some of the Beatles stuff, but I can't recall, and of course I have no idea what some of the solo songs were toward the beginning.

I'm having issues uploading a video or two of the show at the moment, so that should be added later.

Pucker up, baby!

2009-07-16T23:26:00.002-04:00

It's done!

This is Pucker from Norah Gaughan's Volume 4. I saw this pattern and just had to make it. How I managed to wait this long (got the pattern back in March/April) I do not know. I love it so much that I may make another one with different yarn (to mix things up a bit).

When I wore it yesterday I got a lot of great compliments. A co-worker kept telling everyone to come check out my new top. Funny, 2 out of 3 of my favorite tops have been Norah Gaughan's designs and both were made with Seduce.

Well, here's one more shot b/c it's just too cute!

Family time

2009-07-16T22:52:00.006-04:00

Last weekend I made the long drive along the PA Turnpike out to Johnstown to visit my grandmother. The whole family was there and believe it or not, it's always a good time. I'm definitely fortunate that my family gets along so well and we enjoy spending time together. A trip to Johnstown usually involves chilling out in the backyard by the pool and this trip was pretty typical, including friends and cousins stopping by to say hi.

Leah was all about the bubbles and had a great time trying to catch them. We got Alex in the pool, but even with water wings, she didn't want to let go. I offered to teach her how to swim but she refused.

On Saturday we drove out to Pittsburgh to celebrate my aunt's 60th birthday. It was great to see her as well as some of my great aunts and cousins that I don't get to see very often. Sure, I could post pictures from the party, but really, this is the best one of the bunch:

Precious. Oh, and little Leah is just too cute!

For her birthday, I knit my aunt up a quick little airy scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts in Rowan's Kidsilk Haze that she can wear to work. She loved it and proceeded to wear it the rest of the day even though it was 80 degrees out.

Finally, everyone has a theory who Leah looks like. I think it's the most common conversation when you are around babies. So, I think she takes after my brother Eric most of the time. My mom says she looks like me. I never saw it. But, then I saw the pictures of Leah I took w/ the bubbles and thought of a b&w picture of me from when I was 12 months and I do see some of the similarities. Do you?

Fourth of July Weekend

2009-07-05T14:27:00.008-04:00

I had a nice long weekend to spend with friends and family. On Thursday, I drove up to NJ to see the family. Katie was in town w/ the kids so that was an added bonus. I had a great time playing w/ Alex and Leah. Leah and I did laps around the downstairs w/ her holding onto my hands. I think that's why my back is bugging me! Alex was fascinated w/ bones, eyes and the digestive system, thanks to some really cute books (Young Genius) my mom picked up for her. They were really cute. I definitely recommend them.

Friday night we went to the pool for dinner. Both girls wanted in the pool. Leah was hysterical. At the time, she was standing and holding onto the edge. She wanted a ball on the other side of the baby pool, so what does she do? She sits down and starts to crawl over to get it. No big deal, right? Yeah, I think the mouthful of water freaked her out. She did it so quickly, no one had a chance to stop her from doing it.

That night, Alex stayed up late and went w/ us to see the fireworks at Tenafly High School. She did a great job, considering the noise.

Of course, I never remember to get a picture of her w/ me . . .

I came back to Philly for the 4th. It's hard to be away when you've got a huge concert in your backyard. They say that it is the nation's largest free outdoor concert. This year, it was The Roots and Sheryl Crow. I really enjoyed The Roots and Sheryl Crow was good as well. Sherry, Lisa and Sherry's husband joined me in the festivities.

It is still hard for me to view fireworks to anything else other than the War of 1812 Overture. I think it's from my days in DC and watching the fireworks on the Mall. Usually, Philly has some theme and this year it was "Great Orators." I didn't understand it when I read it online, but then in person it was even odder. Basically, the fireworks were set off to great American speeches w/ a little musical interlude b/w speeches. B/c of that, the fireworks were pretty mellow. They did, however, include a lot of my favorite fireworks which I like to call weeping willows.

Triathlon Training - Weeks 5 & 6

2009-07-05T11:02:00.006-04:00

Week 5
Well, b/c I'm writing this update a week late, I can't remember much of what occurred during week 5. Week 5 ended w/ the Philly Tri weekend, which is what I had originally planned to do, but decided I'd wait until Sept. Boy am I glad I did. It was sooooo hot! The sun was just brutal on folks at the end for the run. I saw folks around miles 4-5 of the 10K and was pleased to see that many folks were walking at this point. One concern I have always had is that I'll mostly be walking since I'm not a runner. By the looks of things on Sunday, I'll have no problem w/ that!

Also, my knees were bugging me after my ride that Saturday and I'm sure it didn't help that I followed it up w/ a run/walk the next day. I've been trying to take it easy after that.

Week 6
This was a crappy week on the training front. I was in NYC Monday night, bailed on Tuesday b/c I was exhausted from being in NYC the night before, Thursday was traveling to NJ and Saturday was traveling and the 4th. So basically, all I really have done since last Sunday was spin and strength train on Weds. and run/walk for all of 30 minutes on Friday. Very sad training week. I will finish it out w/ a bang and ride at least the 18 miles I have on my schedule.

I'm hoping that this week will be a little better. Problem is I have a dinner on Thursday night in Conshohocken and then I head to Johnstown on Friday where I'll be traveling 4 hours on Fri. and Sun. and then will be in Pittsburgh on Sat. Hmmm, when do I fit in exercising AND catching up w/ family. I think I will bring my bike so I can try to fit something in. My grandmother's pool is small, but maybe I can swim some laps while I'm there too. At least w/ that, I can swim laps at night if I want to.

As for fundraising, I have raised almost $1800 so far, which means I am just over 50% from my goal! Thanks to everyone that has made a contribution so far!

Siesta

2009-07-01T00:05:00.005-04:00

Well, I finally finished Siesta (ravelry link). I like it, but I want to try and re-block it one more time. It's just a little long. Still, here's a dark picture of me modeling it earlier this week.

On another note, I was on West River Drive on Sunday and notice this Blue Heron chilling out just below the dam.

Yum Yum

2009-06-30T01:10:00.002-04:00

I took the train up to NYC yesterday afternoon to meet my brother and sister for dinner and to see Rock of Ages (fun reliving the hair bands of the 80s). I took an earlier train and met my friend for coffee. As I was walking down 9th Ave., I couldn't help but notice the Yum Yum love in the area.

Do you notice something odd in this picture?

And this is just two doors down from the intersection:

Basically, you've got Yum Yum, Yum Yum Too and Yum Yum III all within 500 feet of each other. They must really like Thai food in that neighborhood!

Fireworks!!!!

2009-06-28T12:02:00.002-04:00

This weekend kicked off Philadelphia's week-long celebration of the 4th of July. One of the events included the Penn's Landing fireworks. I took a bunch of pictures, but they didn't really come out well. Instead, here's a video of this year's finale.

I'm looking forward to this Saturday's 4th of July concert and fireworks in my backyard. It really is hard to think of moving from this location.

Tri Training Week #4

2009-06-27T12:44:00.003-04:00

Can't believe I've been at this now for 4 weeks! Training has been going pretty good, but I'll admit I have missed workout or two. It's definitely hard to get your time in when you have stuff to do after work. And as most know, I am NOT a morning person. Even if I got to bed early and get 8+ hours of sleep, I am completely out of it if I wake up before 8. I really should try to either change my hours so I can hit the gym earlier in the evening or try to just get my ass out of bed in the morning to exercise. We'll see if either works out.

I'm still amazed at how much stamina I lost after being a slug this winter. I definitely feel like things I used to have no problem with, I'm huffing and puffing quicker. Here's how it's all going:

Swim -- I'm doing about 40-45 laps in the pool now. I'm taking it easy and trying to work on form as I go along. I usually alternate breast and crawl, but decided to add in a little backstroke on Weds. I'd do 1 lap of each and just repeat. It's amazing how much better I felt adding that in. I don't know if it's b/c I can breathe more or b/c I'm using different muscles so it gives others more of a rest. Either way, I think I'm going to continue doing medleys (sans butterfly). I think it will help for when I start to tucker out after swimming a 1/2 mile and realizing I still have 4/10 of a mile left to go!

Bike -- I love the bike. It's so calming and relaxing. I'm averaging about 13-14 miles/hour. I need to print out the course map for some of the sprint triathlons along the Schuylkill so I can work on my hills. Flats are a piece of cake, but I do need to do the hills to build up better strength and stamina. Good thing is that the bike course for Nation's Tri is from Haine's Point, up Rock Creek Parkway (maybe to Woodley?), then over to Canal Road and up to 495, before turning around to finish back at Haine's Point. I know it's been a while since I've been in DC, but if I remember correctly, that's all pretty flat!

Run -- I started C25K (couch to 5k) last week. I'm not really planning to run a 5K anytime soon, but I do want to start adding in some running to my walking for the tri. My plan is to do Week 1 (1 min. of running w/ a 90 second rest) for a few weeks before moving on to Week 2 (90 second run w/ 1 min. rest). Once I feel more comfortable w/ that, I'll add it into my walks. Speaking of which, I think I need to start walking again. I am sooooooo slow compared to 2006 when I was doing all those races.

The Philly Tri is going on this weekend. I'm headed up to the expo in a bit to check out the gear and stuff and to drop off my fundraising letters with the folks at the TNT booth. I'm volunteering tomorrow to cheer folks on at the Art Museum. Will be nice to see it all in action.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far! I really appreciate your support!!!!

Pleat, Pucker, a Siesta and the Queen

2009-06-21T10:55:00.005-04:00

What in the world am I talking about? Actually, they are the projects I'm currently working on, 3 of which I cast on for this week. I do have another project that is just about finished (Butterfly top), but I can't deal w/ the seaming/sewing. I make some progress and then put it down again for a few weeks. When it's done I'll show it. For now, it's a big blue mess and not interesting enough for a progress photo.

So, onto the stuff I'm actually excited about!

Siesta

I started working on this top a couple weeks ago and should be finished any day now. This is Siesta from Knotions' summer issue, an online knitting magazine. I started out w/ size L, but then realized my boobs wouldn't fit, so I increased to make it an XL. Smart move! I don't know what I was thinking when I picked the L. I went back and looked at my measurements from when I took Joan Michael-McGowan's fit class and there's no way I would have picked the L had I actually looked at my measurements! Duh!

I do love the cables at the neckline.

I'm still not sure how the cables on the bottom will look on a pear-shaped figure. It could be flattering, or it could be horrendous. We'll see when I'm done. I will be doing 1-2 less hip increases b/c it's already long enough.

I should be casting off today, but there are some other projects that have piqued my interest lately.

The Queen

Actually, the pattern is called Queen of Beads, but I'm not into the idea of beads on my socks. The socks that have the are beautiful, but not for me to wear. As soon as I finished my Hedgerow Socks, I immediately cast on this pair which is the January 2009 Rockin Sock Club colorway and pattern. I decided to make this my commuting project on the bus and it is going so much faster than the Hedgerows did.

The picture doesn't show it, but I'm already onto the heel flap of the first sock. If I didn't cast on for the next 2 projects, I'm sure I would have finished the first sock this weekend.

But . . . .

Pleat

. . . I had to cast on for Pleat. This is from Norah Gaughan's Volume 2 pattern book. I already knit Flow from it and had always planned on knitting Pleat. I bought a bunch of Plymouth Linen Isle on sale and figured it would be a good yarn for this.

So, I cast on for this on Thursday as a new portable project that wasn't the sock. I think this is what I did Thursday night.

But, while all that was going on, I FINALLY ordered Seduce for the Pucker top I had been lusting after for the past couple months.

Pucker

The Seduce came on Friday. I swatched at dinner Friday night and immediately cast on. Since yesterday was such a dreary day, I spent it at home, watching movies and knitting. I definitely made some progress!

Pucker is from Norah Gaughan's Vol. 4 pattern book. I had planned to knit this in a color other than the one on the model, but the purple I wanted was on back order and this was the only other color that called out to me. I just could not bear to do this in red.

So, these projects should be keeping me busy over the next couple weeks. Unfortunately, they are all lightweight tops, but summer isn't really here yet to wear them. I hope by the time I finish them, the weather will have improved and I can wear them!

Tri Training - Weeks 2 & 3

2009-06-19T10:21:00.002-04:00

I don't know what happened last week, but I forgot to post an update on my tri training. Anyway, I was going strong on Week 2. I managed to stick to all of my workouts, including leaving my friends early one night to go and swim laps b/c I missed my swim workout the night before. I was quite proud of myself since I am not one to leave a social situation unless forced too. :-)

Last weekend I ran into a few problems. I manned a water stop for TNT Saturday morning and then came back for a longer ride. I was all dressed, had my shoes and my helmet on, only to find that my rear tire was flat. ???? How did that happen? So, I pumped it up and waited to see if it was just a fluke. It wasn't. Since I still haven't learned how to fix a flat (nor did I have a spare tube), I packed up my bike and drove out to Keswick Cycles where I bought the bike and have a service plan. They fixed it, but it was off and on rain the rest of the day. No ride for me.

Sunday, I got up and headed out for a nice ride up Lincoln Drive. Turns out it was a muddy ride which would have been fine on my hybrid, but a little nerve-wracking on my road bike due to the slick tires. I survived, but then did something stupid. I took a different route home, so before I was going to cross the street (no curb cut), I came to a stop. Normal, right? Sure, except for the fact that it didn't even dawn on me to unclip from my pedals! Seriously! Where the hell was my brain? So, I come to a stop, realize what I didn't do, and say, "oh shit" and fall over on my left side. Got up, brushed myself off, crossed the street and continued on my ride, cursing my stupidity.

So, not 5 minutes later, I'm approaching the intersection at Falls Bridge and Kelly Drive. I unclip my left foot well ahead of time. I come to a stop and put my left foot down. Somehow, I shift a little right as I come to a stop and put my left foot down, and . . . . you guessed it, I went down on my right side. Seriously. It was a bad day.

Got up again, brushed myself off, and continued my way home. Unfortunately, I screwed up my derailer on the last fall. That meant that after I got home and showered, I was on my way back to Keswick Cycles. What a day!

So, the weekend is over, I have a plan to get right back into my training as if nothing ever happened. Except, something did happen. On Monday afternoon, my left shoulder/back/arm began to kill me. I was very limited in my motion and eventually bailed on my trainer for that night. I was still sore on Tuesday and a little on Weds. That meant, no training for me so I could rest my injury. Last night, I should have done a run/walk, but I left the office too late and was wiped out.

So, today is a new day and I'm back on track. Off for a ride in a bit and then swim practice tomorrow w/ the team. Still can't believe I did all that. The good thing is I am not letting it stop me!

Finally!

2009-06-14T10:32:00.002-04:00

I think I started these just before I left for China so I had a small portable project while I was there. I've picked it up every once in a while and then after I finished the first sock in March, I was determined to finish. Still, it took me another 3 months to finish sock #2 since I had a bunch of other time sensitive projects (a/k/a gifts).

So, these are my Hedgerow Socks knit in the Socks That Rock colorway called Tidepooling. It was the club color from Sept. 2008. I think this is the first sock I finally did from the sock club AND my first pair of Socks that Rock socks. I ended up wearing them last night in my apt b/c my feet were cold. My a/c is either on or off, so I'm usually bundled up at home in the summer. It's either that or a very stuffy, damp apartment.

Ok, here are pictures of the finished project!

I love the colors. I never would have picked them out on my own except for the sock club. Talk about outside your comfort zone being a good thing! They striped nicely and even pooled in the same spot at the gusset, with the same colors, and in the same way! If it's gonna pool, at least the pooling matches!

EPA Dragons II

2009-06-09T11:44:00.004-04:00

A friend just informed of a website that had pictures of the teams from Saturday's dragonboat regatta, including our EPA Dragons II boat. Here's a picture of us in the minor finals where we eventually placed 2nd.

On our way back. That's me in the "coordinating" green bandanna in the middle of the boat.

Photo "Contest" - I need your help!!!!

2009-06-07T20:11:00.011-04:00

WARNING: This post is very image intensive.

As some of you may know, I really enjoy taking pictures, especially scenery shots. I come back from vacations and here complaints from my family about how there usually aren't any people in the pictures. I have been trying to improve on that.

I've always talked about printing out my pictures (the good ones, of course) and framing them. Trouble is, there really isn't any room and I really have a hard time selecting which photos are the best.

That's where you come in.

At work, they are having a photography "contest." Each person can submit only 1 photograph to be blown up and framed in the office and replace the really old 1980s national park shots. I think they are limiting it to 30 photo "winners." If there are more than 30 folks entering a photo, then they will judge which is best. They are searching for nature shots, mainly from the US, I think, but it's not a deal breaker from what I understand.

I need your help. Please look at the gazillion photos below (I made them small, so click on them to see the larger version) and leave a comment with your top 3 picks. I am numbering them to make it easier.

Thank you so much for your help!

1. barnacles in palm beach, fl (4/09)

2. barnacles in palm beach, fl (4/09)

3. barnacles in palm beach, fl (4/09)

4. cherry blossoms, philly (4/09)

5. cherry blossoms, philly (4/09)

6. philly (4/09)

7. long beach island, nj (8/08)

8. iguazu falls, brazil (1/08)

9. Peninsula Valdes, Argentina (1/08)

10. ushuaia, argentina (12/07)

11. isla magdalena, chile (12/07)

12. osorno volcano, chile (12/07)

13. santiago, chile (12/07)

14. telluride, colorado (6/07)

15. telluride, co (6/07)

16. telluride, co (6/07)

17. mesa verde, co (6/07)

18. mesa verde, co (6/07)

19. sw colorado (6/07)

20. million dollar highway, colorado (6/07)

21. buchart gardens in victoria, b.c. (5/06)

22. buchart gardens in victoria, b.c. (5/06)

23. san diego, ca (6/05)

24. soroa botanical gardens, cuba (3/04)

25. college fjord, ak (7/04)

26. glacier bay national park, ak (7/04)

27. gulf of alaska (7/04)

28. sausalito, ca (7/03)

29. sausalito, ca (7/03)

30. philly (5/03)

Again, these are just a few photos that I've picked out, but I do have a ton more. I know there are a lot of pictures to view, but I really do appreciate your help on this! Please leave a comment with your top 3 pics! Thanks!

Check out what's in my backyard . . .

2009-06-07T19:45:00.007-04:00

Every year, pro cyclists descend upon Philly for the annual Philadelphia International Cycling Championship. The men ride from the Parkway (start/finish is right outside my door), up Kelly Drive to Manayunk where they then climb "the Manayunk Wall" -- a 17% grade -- and then before they come back to the art museum, they then climb Lemon Hill. (check out the course map and cool locator map here) The men finish back where they started and do the whole 14.4 mile circuit again -- 10 times! That's right, it's a 156 mile race! It is one of the longest single-day races in the U.S. The women only do 4 laps, for a total of 57.6 miles.

The man who won the race did it in 6:24:04! Insane! It took me 8 hours to ride 100 miles.

I took off this morning for a typical bike ride up to Lincoln Drive, but made it a point to stop along the way to watch the cyclists go by and cheer them on. Below are a few shots and videos I took along the course.

This video was taken by Falls Bridge on Kelly Drive.

Here are a few shots taken at Lemon Hill, which is across from Boathouse Row.

Lemon Hill

Front-runners (at 12:30 pm)

This guy just got his flat fixed before heading up Lemon Hill

Finally, this is a video of the pack as they come around the bend and up Lemon Hill.

EPA Dragons

2009-06-07T09:28:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was the annual Independence Dragon Boat Regatta here in Philly. There were a good 65 teams this year competing. We entered 2 boats from EPA -- EPA Dragons I & II. It was a cloudy start, but ended up being a beautiful day. Much cooler than last year's close to 100 degree temperatures. Both our boats ended up racing in the same heat in the first round. We were up against NBC10 and another team. We totally smoked NBC10.

After the first heat, we were up against ourselves again in the semifinals for our class. Our other boat managed to win that heat (placing it in the major finals w/ a chance to medal) and our boat was neck and neck for 2nd. The judges seemed to go back and forth whether we were 2nd or not, but finally determined that we missed 2nd by less than .3 seconds (or something like that). That put us in the minor finals.

In the end, our boat came in 2nd in the minor finals and our other boat came in third, giving it a bronze medal.

As you can see in the video below, it's a total team effort. However, the race is a short 2.5 minutes. The rest of the day (I was there from 8AM to 4PM) was spent chilling out along the river watching the boats. Really was a great day for it.

Below are some pictures of other teams. B/c our 2 boats were either in the same heat or right after each other, I wasn't able to get any pictures of us. :(

Hope Afloats -- team of breast cancer survivors

Hydro Warriors -- Winners of the Mixed Finals

On their way back after the race

Here's a video of one of the races. I'm not quite sure what happened in this race (one of the boats might have hit a wave or lost alignment) but whatever it was, it slowed them down significantly.

As you can see, the day was a lot of fun. I didn't manage to get a group picture this year, but maybe someone will forward it around to the rest of us. If so, I'll post it.

Tri Training - Week 1

2009-06-05T16:23:00.002-04:00

So far, so good. I switched the training schedule around a bit to accommodate my schedule. For example, Mondays aren't a good off day for me since I have my trainer that day. Instead, I'm making Weds. my off day. That way, I can meet up with my knitting friends and dinner.

I have been pretty much on schedule except for last night, when I didn't do anything. Should have, but I didn't get home until after 7 from work and was wiped out. Today, I was off so I spent 25 minutes in the pool and then 45 minutes on the track at the gym. Aside from my shin splints at the beginning, I felt pretty good. I wasn't wiped out from my drills in the pool which was a good thing.

I think the hardest thing for me will be the transition b/w the swim and the bike. I don't dry off/cool down so well. That means that it will be real hard to get my bike clothes on quickly after the swim. I'm sure they'll give us pointers this summer.

Group practice is in the pool again tomorrow, but I'm going to have to miss it. Instead, I'll be up early for the Independence Dragonboat Regatta. Our first heat is at 9AM and includes NBC10. So, watch for us on the news later in the day. Both EPA boats will be in the heat and you can't miss us in our GREEN shirts. I plan to ride my bike up so I can get in a little bike time during the off hours (most of the day).

I'm doing a triathlon!!!!!

2009-05-31T13:00:00.005-04:00

I had been planning this all along, but Thursday I finally got off my butt and officially signed up to do the Nation's Triathlon with Team in Training!

I've been interested in doing a triathlon for some time since I enjoy swimming and it doesn't take as much toll on your body as training for a marathon - especially if you are walking one!

Thursday night I got back in the pool after a few months hiatus and went out a little too hard. I don't think I've ever had to stop swimming b/c my arms hurt so bad. This time I did! To top it off, I was meeting my trainer right after for an hour of strength training. Yeah, I was in serious pain the next day.

Yesterday was our first group practice w/ the team and it was in the pool. I was really nervous about it. I didn't want to be the heaviest one there (I wasn't) or the slowest (I wasn't). We focused on drills instead of straight swimming. Up until yesterday, I've had a hard time swimming crawl. It's mostly b/c I've fallen into bad habits over the years and have been performing the stroke inefficiently. By doing so, I could barely last 1 lap, maybe 2, doing crawl. I've always been a strong breaststroke person so I would alternate. Well, after doing the drills yesterday, I managed to do 2x100 (that's 8 laps) in a row of crawl w/o having to take a major break in between! I was so excited!

It's funny to look at our schedule b/c they have you doing what seems to me to be so little each day. For example, today I was supposed to bike for 45 minutes. I'm normally out for over an hour. Running is scheduled for 25-30 minutes. I usually don't walk for less than 45 minutes, but more like 1+ hour. So, I'll stick to the schedule, but do more of the baselines I'm used to.

Of course, now comes the hard part -- the fundraising. I do these races in memory of my uncle who died of hodgkins before I was born. It's amazing how many lives are affected by blood cancer. If you are reading this blog, please take a moment to help me meet my goal of $3,300.

Thanks!!!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-26T00:07:00.004-04:00

I swear, those weather forecasters are smoking something. The forecast for the weekend called for thundershowers starting Saturday and ending w/ showers on Monday. ???? What a gorgeous weekend!

I was desperate for a haircut, so I started the weekend off in DC. Of course, the perk of getting my hair cut in DC is that I then get to go see my nieces (and my sister and BIL, of course). Alex was so excited to see me and was telling me all about aardvarks, meercats, slugs, beetles, and other insects, as well as asking more questions about volcanoes. Guess the princess phase is over!

At dinner that night, I got the biggest kick out of Leah. This girl can just shovel food down. She and Alex split a quesadilla -- Alex ate 1/4 and Leah scarfed down the remaining 3/4. The best, was watching Katie feed Leah, who was leaning into her to get the food. I got such a kick out of it, I had to take a video of it.

The next day, we went for a walk, chilled out, and then went to a playground where I thought I was going to melt in the shade! Leah and I sat back in the shade and had a bunch of fun "walking" around. She's not really walking yet, but really, all she wants to do is move around. I had to get a picture of the cute little outfit she was wearing!

I then came home Saturday night and spent the remainder of the weekend relaxing by the pool. Not only am I thrilled that summer is here, I'm ecstatic that I am not going anywhere for the next couple weeks! I'm so sick of traveling!