Knitting, Botany, Mycology, Nature, Adventure, and Life... in no particular order.
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Vacation Wrap-Up
So I have now been home from vacation for exactly 1 week. It sure doesn’t feel that long ago, and it feels like ages ago. It was a wonderful time.
We started out heading out to Northampton to pick up the last member of our ragtag crew. I had shotgun for that leg and had the Madelintosh sock yarn ready to go to start the Kai-Mei socks. (Which I did cast on in the car.)
While there we played a LOT of boardgames, swam. boated, kayaked, I found some fun things in the woods
we relaxed on the deck with a great view of the lake
people went tubing with various levels of success. Our buddy was very successful so the boat driver took evasive maneuvers to try to knock him off.
while when handsome and I went I screamed my head off while he laughed and waved. Contrary to my ascertations, we did not actually die.
We all cooked together and cleaned together and had a great time. We had amazing hosts and everyone did a combination of individual and group things. I got up early every morning to either drink tea and knit, drink coffee and knit/read, or to run and then want to die. (Vermont has these strange things called hills. Cambridge isn’t sure what they are but I think Somerville has heard of them.) This means that in addition to playing a lot of games, swimming, boating, and tubing I also got quite a bit of knitting done. From casting on in the car on Tuesday to leaving on Sunday I was almost done with the heel flap and about ready to turn the heel.
And now I am well on my way onto the foot and working the lace. I also am well on my way to wishing we had another vacation lined up. Maybe we’ll get to go the other place on Vermont, the one with no electricity! (Gas lights = knitting for me but no computers for the fella!)
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Vacation
From the Oxford English Dictionary:
I. 1. a. Freedom, release, or rest from some occupation, business, or activity. b. Without const. Freedom or respite from work, etc.; time of rest or leisure.
That’s the plan! The fella and I are going on vacation with about 8 of our friends. We’re headed to a house in VT where a friend is oh-so-graciously hosting us with a lake view and people will arrive over the course of the week.
My plan: drinking coffee on the deck, reading Winnie Ille Pu (Winnie the Pooh in latin), knitting (bringing 2 projects! The afghan and new socks!), hiking (I may have some field guides and a couple hand lenses), kayaking, swimming, and playing lots of games.
Things I will not be doing: Thinking about program documentation for the wiki at work, thinking about databasing, thinking about filing or loans, thinking about the backlog of work that just keeps growing, and worrying about how to actually get effective IPM monitoring going.
It’s a good time for vacation! I hope everyone else has a good one this summer too!
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Belated St. Louis 1
So some time ago now I went to St. Louis and then promised a recap of my trip. I failed to follow through. Forgive me.
So, the thing about this short 4 day trip to St. Louis (end of March/beginning of April) is that is was really quite full. I mean, some of you will probably think we didn’t do near enough, and if we had rented a car we might have done more, but it sure seems like we did a lot. So I am going to break things up a bit. Here I am going to show you some of the lovely adventures we had in St. Louis, mostly Downtown. Then, in the next post (hopefully within a couple days) I will show you our trip to the wonderful MoBot!
Our evening arrival, waiting for the rail to take us downtown from the airport
Rooster, where we had an awesome breakfast. (We visited their sister restaurant later)
Then handsome went to his conference and I wandered down to see the big metal thing…
And the Mississippi River!!! (which was a little high)
Then I walked past the first Catholic church in St. Louis and headed to the Old Courthouse where the Dread Scott case was held. I figured I would pop in but probably spent over an hour there. It was incredible! (I have so many photos it could be its own post, but I will refrain.)
From here I was able to continue walking through the new City Garden sculpture park
pass the library
and head to get some well deserved gelato and sit before meeting up with conference man. (Did I mention it was almost 90 out?)
Later in our trip we did go to Bailey’s Chocolate Bar (FANTASTIC!) where we also had fancy drinks in addition to
On the day we were leaving we got to see a some friends and go to the City Museum, which was awesome and crazy! I gave a teaser photo before, but I think this sums it up nicely.
And that was pretty much our trip. We also ate great Thai food, met some friendly people, drank coffee and tea, and I took the fella back over to the City Garden and such. Of course, we also spent almost a whole day at the Missouri Botanical Garden, but that’s for another post.
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PAX report
So, last month I went to PAX. I went with friends, with family, and with strangers. It was very different from my first time going to PAX in Seattle a few years ago. Then I really knew nothing of gaming culture and played pretty much only Dr. Mario on occasion. I used it as a great excuse to go on vacation in Seattle with friends (which worked out great as I had lots of time on my own to explore) and did spend some time at the convention having fun and being totally overwhelmed.
This time was different. This time I knew a lot more going in, and I had some plans. I wanted to do some console gaming (and I did! played a Wii for the first time), I wanted to learn how to play D&D (which I also did, rolling a d20 for the first time and now knowing what “roll for initiative” means) and I wanted to meet up with other knitters who were also PAX attendees.
The last of those is one of my favorites. Many of us worked through the PA forums and Ravelry to spread the word. The most difficult part was that the place we chose was very crowded so not everyone found us. However, we had a great time and I met some great knitters & crocheters (or hookers if you prefer). There is a great post by Rows Red over here with more pictures of PAX. Playing D&D and other games with friends, getting a Castle Crashers t-shirt, having Will Weaton walk by (and then later take a pic with my sister while I was learning to play D&D… the irony), going to panels, and hanging with my sister really made the whole weekend awesome.
So, here are some pictures, since detailing the convention isn’t going to be interesting for anyone. However this summer I am totally going to the classic arcade museum up in NH, so feel free to join me!
The Beginning! (Gateway to PAX)
KN1TT3RS!
Saturday Night Concert
My first D&D final dungeon!
Nerd Sisters!
And in a couple weekends the DM there is going to teach our parents to play!
That’s all for now. Next big summary: St. Louis!
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Gaming meets Knitting
So, most of you now realize that I like to knit… a lot. Many of you may not realize I also like to play games. (Ok, and by many I mean any strangers that happen upon my blog since my friends and family all know I like to play games… often with them!) I like board games, card games, and even video games. (I am especially bad at video games… even worse when there are 2 analog sticks involved and I might get killed.)
Indulging my love of games is something I do less often than my handsome, XBox360 & PS3 owning fella. (He indulges his gaming, I indulge my knitting and we both sit on the sofa together.) However in 2 weekends it will be a 3 day extravaganza of gaming indulgence, and other game/comic/nerd type things. That is right my friends, the Penny Arcade Expo is coming and it will be in Boston! Yeah PAX East 2010! (I hope you already have you passes cause the 3 day ones are sold out!)
There will be panels, there will be concerts, there will be video, board, and role playing games (I’m gunna learn to play D&D and my sister will be competing for best DM in the Underdark D&D thingie) and there will be knitting!
That’s right. I said it. KNITTING!
So it turns out there are other people on Ravelry that are going to be attending PAX East. So after finding these people across several threads I have tried to organize us. I have also gone onto the PA forums and checked for interest there… and there is interest! Low and behold a PAX East/Ravelry unofficial meet-up is born!
So, if you love knitting, crochet, spinning, fiber arts, etc. (we have other crafter types coming as well, and hopefully the guy who knits with steel!) and you are going to the PAX East in 2 weekends then come on by! Right now the plan is to meet Saturday the 27th at 2.30p in the food court in the Prudential. I will make a sign, people can come and go as they please, and rumor has it that Paradise Bakery has excellent cookies. (Personally unverified cookie status.) See you there!
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Celtics
So last night I went to my first Celtics game courtesy of a good friend with his family and my fella. Since I hadn’t really watched basketball since I was a kid I was actually a bit nervous about the whole thing. I mean, I’d heard some names of new players but I probably had not seen a game in over a decade. (Keep all those comments about being old to yourselves)
It was GREAT! The game was fun and fast paced, it was easy to know what was going on, there were some good plays, and we won!
Here are a few choice photos:
I of course wore my Chucks… the original basketball shoe. It was thematically appropriate, which made my sweetie laugh.
My fella, our charming buddy, and his Dad behind who actually was responsible for all the tickets. Thanks again!!
Garnett may be a giant, but Pierce is an animal! (Cannot believe I caught this!)
Oh yeah, you all had to know this was coming.
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Wicked Cool →
Sliding scale to see the size of things. From a coffee bean down to a Carbon Atom. Excellent!
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Whip It
I loved the movie. Good music, hip/alternative roller derby vibe, touching moments between friends and family, and lots of female actors in their 30’s having fun and looking awesome, and a really kick-ass food fight. Not too melodramatic, angsty, or sappy.
Though he didn’t come see it, my fella might be right… “It’s like a chick flick for tough chicks.”
Now I just need to go watch some actually Roller Derby…
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Beer differences
Things beer may make seem different (or actually be different)
- Role playing (especially if you are new/nervous)
- Knitting tension
That is all I am currently testing. Results to follow.
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Planning
Some of you who know me may realize that while I am up for spontaneous fun and adventure, I like planning. I think it’s the act or organization, making lists, making piles, plotting courses, etc. If I didn’t like those things I would probably be less good at my job and I probably would not have done as many cool things on vacation in Seattle and San Francisco in the past.
So what am I planning now? Well there is the upcoming and forementioned trip to Maine, which requires good amounts of gathering of various nerdy equipment (and also material to explain and exemplify herbarium practices); a wedding present to make and give to my friends (well after their wedding next month it seems) that has me plotting with cables and with lace; what to make for a ravelry swap partner that lives way off in Canada (yarn to be purchased soon); and a running training schedule!
So the knitting things all seem reasonable and logical and unsurprising. (I spent a good portion of yesterday with graph paper and reference books!) The trip to Maine also seems like a good thing to plan. Showing up at a field station without your favorite reference books or flashlight or collecting gear (or Pooh Bear) would make for a difficult week! And well, of course I want to be organized and prepared to help figure out how the collections there could be handeled and grown, that takes a lot of thinking and energy! But running… that doesn’t seem so plannable, or does it.
A group of friends at work and I are going to participate in the Susan G. Komen 5K run in Massachusetts on September 26th. People will be running, joging, walking, pushing strollers, etc all to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research in Massachusetts. In addition to feeling like it was a good time to step up and raise some money, I felt like it was good time to step up my running game, so I joined a team. While there is no real onus by the team to run, and our training is fun, I have decided to go for it. 5K is a mere 3.1 miles, and I hope to really give it my all. Hence the planning. I have a decent schedule for the 8 weeks before the race and I hope to get my time in at 27 minutes at the highest. Right now I can do it in about 31-33 minutes so that seems reasonable. BUT this is planning that now leads into longer term planning…
I am giong to sign up and run my first ever 1/2 marathon in November! The Harvard Pilgrim Maine Coast Half Marathon in York ME! Whew! I’m excited/terrified, but now I have plenty of time to plan. Anyone want to join me?
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Sum Magna Anas
This is Roland Anas, duck #10 from the Odd Ducks swap group on Ravelry. Roland seemed both a good name for the little fellow and harks back to Roland Thaxter, mycologist and entomologist who did a great deal of world traveling.
He and I have also visitied the HMNH together so far
And then he helped me at work
Hopefully this weekend we’ll go the the Boston Public Gardens and visit the Swan Boats and the Make Way for Ducklings statues.
