ice skating as a waltz

Yesterday, NWC and I went ice skating on the three frozen bodies of water in our area—a tour of the ponds and lake.  The muscles in my feet usually get tired after about 40 minutes, so the was a nice way to take advantage of the outdoor ice skating opportunity without wearing myself out.  As soon as we got tired, we took a break by switching to the next one.

I'm still very much a novice when it comes to ice skating.  This season I've made it my goal to practice two things: stopping and skating continuously (instead of two pushes and parallel gliding; repeat).  My biggest problem with smooth skating was speed; I could skate continuously by constantly pushing off one foot then the other, but then I end up going far too fast and losing control.

Yesterday I finally made a break through on skating continuously: I turned it into a waltz.   I was watching a slow experienced skater, and started to count how often she pushed off, and it was every third beat.  Once I found the rhythm and turned it more into a dance, it was like flipping a switch.  Now to figure out how to stop properly...

Christmas at home

This year we celebrated Christmas without much fanfare.  We didn't travel, we didn't have a tree, and we didn't even bake cookies.  I did make two nice dinners for Christmas eve and Christmas day, but they were still low-maintenance as far as holiday dinners go.  I missed seeing family, of course, but it was a very relaxing way to spend the holiday.

We did go see the reenactment of Washington's crossing of the Delaware, which was cute, though the actors might shudder to have that word applied to them.  When the first boat crossed, it looked like they were struggling for a bit against the current, but they made it.  One of the highlights was an actor not wearing any pants, which was hilarious.

We bullied this guy into taking a picture with us.
Can you see the fear in his eyes?

The struggle.

Mr. Nopants has disembarked.

The Saturday before Christmas, we went to the mall briefly.  It was a very bad idea; never go to the mall between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Never.  It was very crowded, bustling with people walking everywhere.  In the midst of this, I heard a violin.  I thought I was going a little mad as I stopped in place and turned to NWC and started muttering about how it sounded like there was a live violinist in the mall.  As we kept walking, it got louder and I kept alternating between jabbering about it and enjoying the calming peace it brought amidst the swarms of people.  Eventually, we made it to some kind of indoor central plaza, and there he was, playing along with a subtle recording.  It was very sentimental to listen, as my father plays his violin much more during the holidays.  I got a little teary and just stood there for a minute, like calm in the eye of a storm.  Eventually we moved on to decide that we didn't want to deal with the lines, but we got to pass him again on the way out.  I was glad to have experienced his music, and oddly enough, the contrasting unpleasantness of the mall probably made it all the more memorable.

Sourland Spectacular

This morning NWC and I participated in the Sourland Spectacular road biking event, doing the 36 mile route.  It's the best biking in the area, and there are also a lot of small farms nearby, so several rest stops featured delicious local produce.  It was the longest bike route I've done, and the first athletic event I've ever done as an adult, though I wouldn't call it a race.

To make things more challenging, my front derailleur (part that shifts the gears) is broken, which meant I could only shift within the middle three gears.  It kept me from going to fast on the flats and downhills, but there were a couple uphills that were brutal because of it.

I finished in about 3 hours 45 minutes, including all four rest stops.  It wasn't great timing, but it wasn't embarrassing either.

People were very nice and encouraging, although one lady was a little unintentionally condescending in her encouragement.  Overall, it was very enjoyable and I wouldn't mind getting in shape for a proper race.

a motley of summer photos

I took a bunch of photos this summer, but I didn't post a lot, so here they are now.

Bowling!

This was my favorite shot.

Beach

Food & Garden

		A bird made a nest in my dying peas.
Picked a bunch of wild raspberries (turned them into sorbet).	We're still getting okra from the garden.	A happy family of peppers.

People

Hanging with Sister Missionaries!

Wedding anniversary flowers.

Lots of Jenga.

YW Camp

Mah girls.

Lots of silly.

buttercups at Valley Forge

I spent last night in an angsty range against my bike as I tried to fix it up after a winter of dormancy.  It looks nice and works well now, but there are still some grease streaks on our kitchen floor.

It was worth it because this morning nwc and I biked through the Valley Forge Historical Park in Pennsylvania. I wish I had taken my camera, because the views were lovely: rolling fields dotted with buttercups and a crisp blue sky.  We punctuated our ride by reading the historical descriptions along the way.  I chased frogs with leopard-like speckles and nwc wore a medium blue shirt which from a distance made him look like a piece of the sky floating along the road.

We're going to try to go someplace new at least every other weekend this summer; there's so much around here that we haven't seen.  I'm plotting a day trip into Philadelphia for our next adventure.  For that, I'll remember my camera.

Matilda the musical

NWC and I went to see Matilda the musical this week, and it was the best musical we've seen in a while.  We've been singing When I Grow Up and some of the others ever since. The acting, singing, and dancing were all excellent, especially considering that such a high portion of the actors were under ten years old.  (They were all pretty adorable.)  The stage magic was very clever and the tunes were catchy.  And, of course, the story is a classic.

The Smell of Rebellion sung by Miss Trunchbull was also a treat.  At one point, she gets on a desk, and is surrounded by a slow, sparkly spotlight, and sings a curious mononlogue involving a dwarf called Zeke living in a cottage telling you not to let them steal your horses.  It was totally off the wall in a way that could only be pulled off by a man in drag.  Revolting Children (about 4:30) was a fun play on words with lots of energy. The video clip on this page is also pretty good at giving an overview of the production.

All in all, Matilda is one of the few musicals I wouldn't mind seeing again!

ice skating

There are some feats of coordination at which I am horrible.  Tennis is one of them.  So, to match our mildly pretentious summer sport, we've taken up an equally swanky winter sport: ice skating.  At least with tennis, I'm able to stay upright.

For the past few days, we've been ice skating every day, if only for short stints.  About every 5 years the local lake freezes over enough to skate on it, and yesterday it opened. The lake is HUGE. Our outing consisted of meandering across it and getting back to where we started.  NWC could have skated more--in fact, he literally skated circles around me as I worked my way across.

Skating on natural (or semi-natural, since the lake is man-made) bodies of water is really interesting. The ice is much rougher, which I actually like because it gives me greater stability. I also like exploring outdoors, and this is just a new venue for that. You can investigate interesting shapes that the ice makes and things that get stuck in it.  Skating indoors is more about the skating itself, rather than being outside.

Lily pads of ice

This morning nwc and I went to inspect the Delaware, since rumor had held that it has been so cold of late that it had frozen over in places and that chunks of ice were floating downstream.  While we did not witness any freezing over (except for bits around the edges, as expected), I can testify to seeing giant lily pad-like chunks of slushy ice floating down the river at a much higher velocity than I anticipated.  They made lovely sounds when they ran into each other, like two sandbags cuddling for a nap.  Still, I'm glad that it's warming up.

New Year's Eve hike

We went for a hike today, partially in the spirit of the New Year hikes my family has done in the past, but partially in the spirit of nwc's family love of doing crazy hikes.  (As an aside, N wants to go by nwc now to prevent people from calling him "N" in real life, which has been springing up. There you have it.)

We went up to Magic Mountain--the real LA-98 Magic Mountain, not the theme park, and took a look at the ex-nuclear missile silos and testing area.  It was about 6 miles up and 7 back because we took the steep firebreak on the way up and the longer dirt road down. Our feet hurt now, but it was a lovely hike.

There was an inversion, so it was surprisingly warm to start, with lovely cool pockets all through the hike.  It was fairly clear as well, and we got lot of great views.

I also had the chance to try out my new hydration pack, which I've been lusting for ever since we saw our friends using ones in Nepal.  I was a little too enthusiastic, though, and drank the full 3 liters, which is about 12.6 cups for non-metric people.

All-in-all, a beautiful morning.

concussion!

N heard word on Friday that he passed his general exams, meaning he's officially a PhD candidate. To celebrate, we went down to Gettysburg and planned to bike around.  I remember waking up, packing, sleeping most of the drive down, parking, and going into a visitor center.  I sat in the back of the car with the hatch open and put on sunscreen, and have a hazy memory of stoping to look at a monument while going up a hill.*

But then I biffed it pretty bad going down that hill. I think it was a combination of my going to fast (which I tend to do), a gravelly road, and my brakes being a little worn down.  I got a concussion, had an accompanying seizure, and spent about 5 hours in ER--good times! I also go scraped up pretty bad, especially on my face, but it should heal pretty well, with maybe one or two small scars.

I had some severe short term memory loss initially.  N got the car to drive me to the ER, and when he got back, I said something like I don't know what happened, but I know I'm married to you and I love you.  N said I kept asking the same things over and over again.  Did I just finish my first week at Hunch?  I have to get a new helmet now, right?  Are you cold?--you can get in here with me.  I'd get stuck on one to five things and just repeat them over and over, with less than 30 seconds between repetitions of the same question.  He says I thought it was July 2011 for the longest time, and that I talked about my first garden here.  I was pretty punchy too.  When we checked in, N was getting a little worked up, and I told him, blood running down my face, that he needed to calm down.

I feel like I'm pretty back to normal memory-wise now.  I can't remember what happened after visiting the monument or much of the ER, but I'm able to remember most of what happened after checking out of the hospital.  However, it's still pretty early in the recovery and they say that it could take up to months for me to get back to 100% memory.  I need to have a follow-up early this week in order to see if I'll be allowed to go to my conference in Ireland (I'd have to leave about a week from now).  Part of me wants them to say I can't go.

* The monument memory came back to me when we drove by it, but I forgot about it until I was writing this.  I also remember seeing signs for an auto tour, and saying that that's what we did when I visited as a kid with my family.

Above: When we checkedout out of the hospital, we drove by where I crashed before heading home.  There I be.

blaze daze

I spent seven hours outdoors today, which was absolutely incredible.  The weather was perfect--it was sunny and in the low 80s--and I thoroughly enjoyed everything I did.

The first patch was a four hour stint up in Hopewell: I fed sheep, bathed a cow, and groomed a horse.  There was also a good amount of walking, talking with and listening to the shepherdess, chasing after/playing with a young (3? 4?) kid, and petting the animals.  I learned a lot; when a cow licks its hide, it looks like a cowlick!  One blunder I made was mistaking straw for hay...sheep don't like to eat straw.  Now I know.  I also learned about the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which I sadly can't attend this year.

After a brief interlude for some grocery shopping and lunch, I went to work in my new garden plot!  It took forever to get the fence halfway around the rectangle, and I ended up with a mild sunburn.  Hopefully I'll be able to finish the fencing tomorrow and plant my greenlings the day after that.  Yay garden!

I am drained right now.  Seven hours in the sun mid-summer wouldn't pull quite a number on me, but to go from indoor-all-the-time mode to this jarred me some.  To give me a boost, N treated me to Chipotle.  So here I sit in the cool of the evening, my four layers of muck scrubbed off and full of yum.  Can I do it again tomorrow?

saturday skirt and wild leek treat

I've been fiddling around with my sewing machine for a while, doing mending and a few ill-fated projects.  Today, however, I completed my first real project--a skirt--start to finish in one day.  It wasn't much, made with cheap natural-colored muslin, but it felt good to finish something.  I made a pattern based on a purchased skirt in my closet, but had to adjust it along the way since I ended up using less of the seam allowance than anticipated; it went from a 12 panel skirt to a 10 panel one.  I also doubled up the fabric on every panel because muslin is so incredibly thin; even with the two layers, I'll still need to wear a slip.  There's a lot I need learn and work on when it comes to sewing, but the skirt will be fun for around-the-house work and such.

After that project was done, N and I went for a long walk in the woods.  Along the way, I discovered the secret hiding places for wild leeks!  I'm determined to learn what and where to forage out here since I thoroughly enjoyed what little foraging I did in the Berkeley area.  I'm trying to start with very distinctive plants: I've been keeping my eyes out for fiddleheads and morel mushrooms too, but with no luck at all.  I have no idea if they even grow in our woods since the granularity of range with online resources is pretty large.

The wild leeks were pretty young and N was impatient since we had been out a while, so I didn't bother to dig them up; instead, I plucked off the tops of a handful.  There were lots and lots of them, so I plan on going back when they're a little more mature.  When I came home, I chopped them up and put them in a béchamel sauce with some cheese for a tiny tasty treat!

lazy weekend

I finished a paper submission late on Thursday, so I was all sorts of lazy this weekend.  To get us out of the house on Saturday, N came up with the wonderful idea of driving down to Island Beach State Park.

Of course what he told me was "we're going to the beach," so that lead to some confusion since I was navigating to the Avon-by-the-Sea area.

Anyway, it was lovely, windy, and on the warm side for April; I had packed a picnic lunch which we ate on the shore before walking up and down the coast.

There were a bunch of foxes wandering about, and they handed us a warning flier about not feeding them upon entering the park.  The waves were mild and the sand very fine and clean.  I poked at the seashells and developed a funny walk for the purpose of making as shallow a footprint as possible (on packed sand).

It was N's first time to an east-coast beach, and my second.  We liked that there were so few people, but that's probably partly because it was April.  Perhaps we'll take another drip when the weather gets warmer.

snow silliness

There's been plenty of snow in our first year in NJ and it looks like that's finally it for now.  We've had fun digging out our car and making all sorts of things out of snow.

Starting the end of winter break, N and I started taking regular strolls and play in the snow.  We started on an ice volcano (a.k.a. palace) and built up its walls until they closed together in a peak.   At its best, it was three feet tall or so.  I spent an hour on another snow project--a life-size sculpture of a woman--which toppled just as it started to look good.  Later, we made a lumpy igloo for two, which we had fun destroying when it started to melt and collapse.

The remaining snow is melting in fits and starts, but it has passed both its prime and the most dangerously icy days.  Spring is a bit far still, but I look forward to it.

a frozen weekend trip

This weekend, N and I took a trip to northern New England, which involved many, many hours in the car, which was very, very salt-covered when we finally got home.  Salty roads aside, the trip was wonderful.

We stopped in Somerville, MA to visit N's brother-n-family.  Our nephew, who recently turned two, is finally starting to recognize us.  He was about to go for a walk for an "attitude adjustment" and when he was informed that we wouldn't be going with him, he became very sad and insisted that "both friends come."  It made my day.

We also took a day to drive up to New Hampshire in an attempt to get our much-needed mountain fix.  When I first saw the White Mountains from afar, I called them hills and was a little pouty (in need of an attitude adjustment myself).  I insisted on calling them "little mountains" as we got closer, but eventually gave in and appreciated their full beauty.  I might even say that I fell a little in love with them.

We stayed off the main highways and took brunch on the eastern side of Lake Winnipesaukee (above).  After a stunning scenic drive, we got a room at an inn in North Conway.  

There, we rented snow shoes and took to the trails, which had fairly deep powder.  It was my first time snowshoeing and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Afterward, we found a fantastic Indian restaurant and spoiled ourselves with hot chocolate at the "Bavarian Chocolate Haus."  N took a second to count and then declared that all the splurging was in celebration of being married six months.
We returned to Somerville for a night and had an excellent potluck dinner with Swattie friends, and then headed home again the next afternoon with our well-salted car.  During the entire trip, temperatures were very low, so it was nice to get back to our apartment which is uncontrollably overheated by a central system.

Snow-covered stream boulders.

Snowshoes!

This was just a fun shot.  Alas, we saw no moose.

A lovely view from a pass in White Mountain National Forest.