March 1, 2008
Marvelous Maine
So, it's taken me all week, but I finally pulled together my photos from our trip to Maine last weekend.
I am thrilled to report it was a fantastic, incident free trip! Well, we did drive up on Friday in a snowstorm... but we made it through without a scratch! And there was the incident where my right snowshoe broke through some ice and my leg plunged into a brook of icy water... but I managed to keep all my toes! That goes down as a success in my book.
On Saturday, Andy and Missy took us out for some snowshoeing down the road from The Lake. We shoed out to a really RAD little pond, which houses a blue heron rookery in the warmer seasons. You can't get anywhere near this place when the birds are in town - they don't put up with us humans. But, being it was February, they were on hiatus and we strolled out onto the frozen pond and wandered amidst their nest laden trees.
We eventually made our way up to the top of Big Hill (really - that's it's name. Mainers ain't the pretentious sort...) and were treated to a great vista. Our trek back to the car was a little longer and - for some of us - a little wetter. We eventually worked our way around a lot of thin ice and rushing water to find our way back to the Jeep. It was a hard day's work - you'd better believe showers and beers were the first items on the agenda when we got back to the house...
Sunday was another great, sunny day. We headed out to the outer part of Acadia National Park to hike the Wonderland trail for a walk on the coast. It was fantastic. I love the ocean - and to spend an afternoon exploring in the Winter, was a special treat. We headed down the road to take a peek at the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse and then went into Bar Harbor for dinner at Geddy's. Yum!
So, it was a perfectly lovely weekend. SteveKam was introduced to 2 more relatives, snowshoeing, and my beloved Downeast Maine all in one trip. Quite a productive couple of days!
Oh - AND - Kyra got to run around on top of the lake with some new doggy pals and I went on a snowmobile adventure with my Uncle! :)
I will now begin my countdown to July when I get to go back for a whole week.
Only 124 days to go.
Posted by Sarah at 9:05 PM | Comments (2)
February 21, 2008
Love is in the Air
SteveKam: I love you.
Me: Oh yeah? Why?
SteveKam: You bring me dinner ... and we sit around making fun of stuff like laxative commercials together. You're great.
So, SteveKam and I are off on a snowy adventure this weekend. We leave in the morning for Maine! Wish us an injury/illness free trip. :)
See ya on Tuesday!
Posted by Sarah at 8:29 PM | Comments (2)
January 2, 2008
What's a Vacation?
I don't think I know anymore.
SteveKam and I headed to sunny Florida to celebrate Ecksmas with his folks, then mine. We decided to drive down to save some bucks and as an added bonus, we got to bring little Kyra dog. :) The trip held such promise...
It started out really well... (I am now convinced this will be my epitaph.)
Traffic was ugly. Real ugly. But, we kept our chins up and chugged down 95 like champs.
There are many little stories from this trip that I could regale you all with. But, they all (unfortunately) pale in comparison to the story of this trip. Lordy.
Basically, we got down to SteveKam's parents' house and spent a lovely day on the beach with Kyra:
And ended with a beauty of an evening in St. Augustine:
All seemed well in the world. Sunny skies, happy puppy.... Okay, so we had to spend the night in twin beds... Well, you can't have everything.
The thing is, we woke up the next morning (Ecksmas Eve, that is) and Kyra was limping a little bit. It was pretty slight, so we chalked it up to over exertion from puppy's first visit to the beach and loaded up the truck for our 2 hour drive to Melbourne Beach to see McFamily.
Kyra was very slow moving for the next day. By Ecksmas night, we could see it was something more than a twisted ankle. Her little leg had become swollen and she didn't want to leave her bed lest to do her business or head to the water bowl. :( We decided that we would take her to the vet in the morning.
Morning came... and now Kyra couldn't walk at all. In the car she went and SteveKam and I drove her to the nearby emergency animal hospital. Very scary stuff! We had to leave her at the hospital so they could put her on an IV and run a whole lot of tests.
Long story short (too late, I know), after a day at the hospital, Kyra was released to our care so we could drive home while awaiting the test results. She responded really well to the antibiotics they sent her home with, so she was moving around again - a biiiig relief.
The verdict? Immune mediated polyarthritis triggered by Lyme Disease. Completely treatable. The girl is back up on all fours and acting like the Kyra we know and heart.
Phew.
So... I will pose to you all the same query I aimed at my darling SteveKam. Why do all our vacations end with me crying in a hospital? Ugh.
On the bright side, we won't have this problem in 2008. I just spent the entire vacation fund saving my best friend. :)
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are enjoying the shiny new year!
I leave you with a festive photo of my hero, the ever patient professional shoulder, SteveKam.
Here's to 2008!
Posted by Sarah at 8:30 PM | Comments (7)
September 30, 2007
Back in Business
So, I'm back from Cali and was back at work mid-week. Between being sick and playing catch up at the office, I'm just getting caught up with "me" stuff. (Like sleep, laundry, doing dishes, blogging. Okay - so I haven't gotten to the laundry yet.)
Cali was fantastic. SteveKam and I woke up at 4am a couple of Saturdays ago and made our way to our plane, where we joined our friends Dan and Tara for a lovely 6 hour flight cross country.
We spent our first evening in San Jose, visiting with SteveKam's brother Dave and his fiancee Nina. They were both super nice and despite a wicked case of jet lag late in the evening, we had a blast hanging out and playing video games with them.
The next day we drove up to Palo Alto for lunch with my BFF, Danielle. She took a break from her crazy busy life as a first year res at Stanford to have a margarita and some tacos with us. It was great to see her - she looks fantastic! California is definitely agreeing with her. I've never seen someone who's working 80 hours a week look so good!
After lunch, SteveKam and I climbed back into our rental (we had a Kia and I loved that sucker!) and made our way up to Healdsburg to meet up with the rest of the gang for our Wine Country adventure. And what a few days we had up there! I fell in love with that part of the state... I had never spent any real time in that area, so it was a real treat for me! We spent Monday touring wineries in the Dry Creek area in Sonoma County. Again... I'd never been wine tasting, so this was new. :) I could reeeeally get used to spending my weekends this way.
On Tuesday, a couple of the braver gals joined me for a trip to Calistoga for mud baths at Doctor Wilkinson's. This was an EXPERIENCE. It was amazing. When you walk into the bath area in the back, you feel like you've traveled back to 1955. You spend the next 3 hours naked. In mud, in a mineral bath, in a steam room, in a big blanket, and then finally during a 30 minute massage. Again... I could get used to this. I think everyone should give this a go! I can't wait until I'm back in Cali to get another tub.
Tuesday was one of my very favorite days of the trip... After the mud bath, I took a nap with SteveKam for about an hour and then we walked around taking pictures before dinner.
Dinner was an amazing cookout at the house and the wine flowed freely. 80's music was blasted and dancing ensued. You can follow the evening's events through the eyes of a certain dinner guest here.
The next morning, my fella and I left lovely Healdsburg (*sniff sniff*) and headed down to San Francisco for a day in the city! We spent most of our time on Fisherman's Wharf ogling the sea lions at Pier 39. We grabbed lunch and did a little shopping, before taking a nice long walk through Chinatown to hit Artfibers before it closed. (Have I mentioned how awesome my boyfriend is? He went to a yarn shop with me! And he didn't even mind! Sigh.) We had a nice dinner in Little Italy and hit the sack early - all that walking took it out of us!
We woke up bright and early on Thursday to start down the coast to Santa Cruz. We decided to drive down Route 1 so we could get our beach fix. :) We stopped like every 5 minutes. I loved it.
We ended up getting into Santa Cruz in the early afternoon and after checking in at the hotel and grabbing a bite, we decided to take a drive up to Big Basin State Park to see some big ol redwood trees. We had a great time feeling very small.
That night, we went out for sushi at a place called Pink Godzilla in Capitola. YUM. My favorite treat of the evening was roll with tuna, avocado and macadamia nuts. But my favorite part of the night? Watching SteveKam eat raw tuna for the first time! The verdict? "It's not bad. It's okay. Kinda weird." Good enough for me! I love the fact that he's always willing to experiment - even if he ends up hating it, who cares? A lot of people won't venture outside what they know, so it's a big deal to me that he's willing to try new things. Just hooray.
Well, hooray until later that evening.
I started feeling a little funny later that evening... but it was when I tried to go to bed that I really started to feel strange. My back was killing me and I started to have a tummy ache. As I lay there trying to fall asleep, my head started to pound.... Not good. But, I have a really sensitive stomach and when I travel, I often get wicked stomachaches and the like - especially when I spend a lot of time in the car. So, I chalked it up to travel and after a little discomfort, I was able to fall asleep.
The next morning? I tried to make it out to breakfast with my honey, but once I was in the car it was clear that it was going to be a no go. I felt TERRIBLE. My lower back was killing me and a fever came on fast and furious. I crawled back into the hotel bed as SteveKam told me that he thought I should go to the hospital. In typical Sarah fashion, I informed SteveKam that I was perfectly FINE and that I just needed to stay in bed and drink a lot of water and my "stomachache" would go away. I was determined not to ruin the last day in Cali for both of us. Bad enough that I would be in bed all day, I explained to him, no reason he should suffer the same fate. It took about an hour, but I finally forced him out the door so he could meet up with the guys for their big mountain bike adventure they had planned.
I spent the day moaning and rolling around the hotel bed. And not in the way I would have liked to - especially on vacation.
I managed to eat a salad at dinnertime and though I was slow moving, I thought for sure I was on the mend. Turns out I was wrong. I didn't sleep a wink Friday night and it was around 6am on Saturday when SteveKam was awoken for the gazillionth time by my flailing about when he said "That's it." After one more round of "I'll be fine.", I finally conceded that it was time to go to the hospital. I didn't feel good and it wasn't getting any better.
Well, good thing SteveKam finally wore me down. Turned out I had a kidney infection and was severely dehydrated. After a 3 hour visit to the ER, we were on our way, antibiotics in hand.
We missed our flight and JetBlue wouldn't help us out in any meaningful way. They wanted $400 to let us fly home the next day! Well, hindsight's 20/20 because if I knew then what I know now... I would have paid anything they wanted.
We took the red eye Saturday night and it was the worst ordeal of my life. I won't tell the whole sordid tale here, but let's just say that fainting, vomiting and vomiting post fainting were all involved. It was Hell. And poor SteveKam stayed awake the entire flight to make sure I didn't repeat the vomiting post fainting. It wasn't good.
It took my a few more days to get back on my feet. Honestly, today was the first time I really felt like myself again. Phew. But, after checking in with my regular doc a couple of times this week, I am finally in the clear! My kidney's all better and no one can tell my why it happened in the first place. It's a mystery.
But, no matter! I still rate the trip 9 stars out of 10. The good was so good that it made up for the terrible ending. I was nervous about taking a real vacation with SteveKam, as I've never travelled like that with a boyfriend before... But, he was the greatest traveling companion anyone could ever ask for. We had a blast together - but in the end, he carried my sick ass all the way from California to Connecticut. And continued to take care of me when we got back home. What can I even say? He was incredible and I owe him ... like a million.
It's all good. :)
The full array of vacation photos can be perused here if you are interested. Commentary is included. Tee hee.
Posted by Sarah at 6:56 PM | Comments (4)
September 24, 2007
And We're Back.
And we're sick.
Typing is hard. Once I'm back on my feet, I'll fill everyone in on our trip to Cali. In short: 85% Gloriously Fantastic, 15% Not So Much (but, at least that 15% was at the end).
You'll get the dirt and a ridiculous amount of photos before too long. Promise.
Now... back to my bed. It has never looked or felt so good before. :)
Posted by Sarah at 12:47 PM | Comments (2)
September 14, 2007
Later, Gator.
SteveKam and I are off to Cali-forn-I-A.
See ya in a week!
(If I come back.)
(Well, if I don't come back, I can't live without the innernets anyhow... so you'll hear about how I didn't come back.)
Woo!
Posted by Sarah at 8:30 PM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2007
A Day in The Country
So, I have 3 perfectly good posts waiting in draft status right now - all I need are some GD pictures of my finished projects! Argh.
In the meantime, I'll share some photos from this weekend's outing to Bridgewater. SteveKam and I headed up to Sunny Valley Preserve for a quick hike before stuffing our faces full of junk food at the Bridgewater Fair. It was a good thing - because I had fried clams, french fries, some of SteveKam's fried dough and a caramel apple. Lord. We should hiked the SVP loop twice to make up for that.
Unfortunately/Because I am stupid, my camera battery was near dead upon arrival in Bridgewater... So, I snapped only the most important shots and left the rest of my amazing finds uncaptured.
Here are the most crucial highlights of the day:
Posted by Sarah at 12:11 PM | Comments (1)
August 9, 2007
Ive Been a Bad, Bad Girl
Sunshine and fresh air have long distracted me from this poor little blog. But, no more!
Time to fill y'all in on the recent goings on. And there have been plenty!
Vacation
Last month, I headed up to Maine with the fam for a whole week. It was glorious. We spent 4 days up on the West Branch of the Penobscot River paddling our hearts out. It was an incredible trip and a real learning experience for me! Mary chronicled our trip here. And there were plenty of photos taken! You can see my album here and Mary's over here. I'm already dreaming about next year....
Babies
Everyone's having them! Jessica and Lee brought beautiful little Penelope Grace into the world on the 4th o' July! That is somehow just so darn fitting....
And Mary's BFF since grade school, Melissa, had a gorgeous little lady herself! Gianna Loreen was born right on Mary's birthday!!!!!!!! How perfect is that? WTF?
And last, but certainly not least, our own darling Michelle is baking bun #2 in her oven. Julian is gonna be a big brother! Watch out world... another baby Barnier is on its way! And, appropriately enough, her due date is Julian's birthday. How funny would that be......... damn.
Boys
I'm surrounded. And I'm loving it. (That sounds so much worse than it was meant.)
I've been reconnecting with some of my male friends as of late - and I am really happy about it! I've been rocking some serious girl power around here for a while and while that is incredibly fantastic, it is really refreshing to get a different perspective on things.
So, in the spirit of keeping up with my boy friends (separate words, people) I'll be trying to hang with them more. My buddy Drew and I are planning to take swing dance classes together! (FUN!) And Gordon, who is back from Portland for a little while, and I have decided that drinking and backgammon are therapeutic, so I see chit chat over beer and a board in my future.
And for you romantics out there... there is some news on that front as well. I am dating someone. He is super nice and given that it is a fledgling relationship, I won't go too in depth but I'll tell you that I'm enjoying myself. Nice to date someone who actually likes to go outside! We'll see where this goes... but, for now, it's off to a nice start....
Outdoor Adventures
Speaking of... I've been taking a lot of photos during these outings! Check these out - we did 2 hikes one weekend - both in Newtown! Then there was Sleeping Giant over in Hamden. Then we went up to Kent to hike up the falls and visited Bull's Bridge. And just last weekend the fella and I teamed up with Mary and Scott and went kayaking on the Housatonic, which was just delightful!
And More Vacations!
Good thing I am travelling so much the year I turn the big three oh! It is staving off depression!
In mid-September, the fella and I are heading to California (WOOOOOOOOOO!) with a bunch of his friends for a whole week. I will get to spend some quality time with my favorite person - Danielle! (hee hee) - in my favorite state! I can't wait to see her in her new environment. And I can't wait to see redwood trees and a west coast sunset. I am counting down....
In mid-October, I am heading out to Taos, NM for a gigantic group birthday celebration - hippy style! My faboo friend Amy has organized a long weekend gathering for us. Hoping the whole gang will make it out there. I can't wait to reconnect with everyone!!!
The plane tickets are purchased, the rental cars are reserved... and I'm about to blow my savings. And I couldn't be more excited about it!!!!!!!!
So, that's that.... life has been hectic - but in a great way! But, now that I am becoming acclimated, it's time to get back to my routine and my websites. :)
I've got a couple of finished objects to post and one that is aaaaaalmost there! Figured I would save you all the eye strain and put them into their own post.
See ya then! (now go outside!)
Posted by Sarah at 3:57 PM | Comments (1)
May 22, 2007
A Mom-To-Be and A Doctor-That-Now-Is
Or: A Very Busy Weekend
Well, I've been anything but bored for the past few days!
On Saturday, our darling squadder Jessica was the guest of honor at a dee-lightful baby shower thrown by her cousin Jennifer. A bunch of us headed up to the Ghetto Mansion for the festivities!
We had a faboo time hanging out with the mama-to-be and I found myself awestruck by how glowy Madame Emerson is these days! Belly fulla baby and she looks fantastic. It's just such a happy thing! Check out zee slideshow below, won't you?
Player pianos, group discussions on zombie readiness plans and a contest that forbid us to use the word "baby" for the duration of the gala. It was a great day. Can't wait to meet the newest member of Lee and Jessica's family! Not long now...
On Sunday, I headed down to Jersey for the second part of my busy and uplifting break from the office. My best friend, Danielle, graduated from medical school.
Me and my BFF.
Dani and I have known each other since 8th grade - but didn't become close until the end of high school. She and I dated two guys who were best friends. I love to tell people that we were smart enough to kick them both to the curb and keep each other instead. :)
She is the person I confide most in - despite the fact that we rarely get to spend time together anymore. I consider myself lucky to be one of those people that has someone in her life that will always be there - no matter if we don't speak for 6 months or a year. Of course, anytime we do get a chance to talk... it's for 4 hours at a clip. We can talk.
She is also the most compassionate person I have ever met. And she is now the most compassionate doctor that will ever be. I got a little teary eyed at lunch with her family when everyone was talking about how awesome she is! She has worked her ass off and is about to live her dream! I live for seeing things like this happen for people that I love. So good.
She's now off to Palo Alto with her hunny to start her residency at Stanford and the next phase of her life in her favorite part of the country. Hooray! Just hooray. :)
In honor of her gradu-mo-ation, I set my mind on making a special little something.
My first crocheted item.
Can you believe it? I know. I have put down this art form for a loooong time. It takes a backseat in my verbal abuse only to scrapbooking. BUT, I decided that I was being closed minded and it was about time to give it a shot.
The verdict? I love knitting. But, crochet is okay... I even kind of like it. In a non-knitting kind of way. :)
Here's the finished product...
Pattern: Fit To Be Tied from SnB Crochet The Happy Hooker
Yarn: Rowan Cotton Glace, 1.5 balls
Hook: Size E
Notions: Satin and sheer ribbons, some yummy quilt fabric for the lining.
So, I'm now off to figure out how quickly I can save up to move out to Cali and join my two favorite girls in the world on the Left Coast. I ain't stayin here all by meself.
Posted by Sarah at 7:01 PM | Comments (2)
March 31, 2007
Arctic Adventure v 2.0
Mmmm. A long weekend in Maine. Snowshoeing, maple syrup and lobstah!
I went up to Maine last weekend to see my Aunt and Uncle and have a snowy adventure.... I recently scored a pair of badass snowshoes at 50% off due to the severe lack of Winter around here, so lucky little me (and lucky little Kyra) headed North!
The agenda for the weekend was a 3.6 mile hike up and back down Trout Brook Mountain in Baxter State Park. My biggest Winter adventure to date (Andy and Missy's, too! And that is saying something!) and it was incredibly rewarding! Turns out there was PLENTY of snow left past the rain line in Northern Maine. And with a nice crust of ice on top, it made going up *relatively* easy and going down.... well, less so... :)
And as an added bonus, we took Andy's snowmobile into the park to the base of the mountain (YOWZA! Deathciting!). When we got to the top of the mountain, we had some seafood chowder and chilled out enjoying all our hard work. (Even though we soon found out, our hard work was only half over...)
The next day turned out to be Maine Maple Sunday, when all the sugar shacks have an open house! We went to the one right down the street from Andy and Missy's house. I got to see all the tapped trees and went inside the shack for a peek at how they make that delicious liquid gold! (I seriously heart maple sugar.)
Great weekend, great company, about 14 hours in the car to listen to whatever I wanted. Heaven. sigh.
The full photo album can be found here. Enjoy!
Posted by Sarah at 11:35 AM | Comments (1)
October 23, 2006
I Heart Rhinebeck
So... I was a terrible blogger at this year's sheep & wool in Rhinebeck as I took zero photographs.
I was just so consumed with shopping and tasting wine! The day just got away from me...
But I did manage to see a few friends :)
I met up with the lovely Cook 'n Knitter, Karen, who gifted me with some fantastic foot warmers after reading about how I've lost my lust for sock knitting as of late! Check these bad boys out!
Firstly, you simply must see how she wrapped them up - tooo freakin cute:
Here they are on - keeping my tootsies toasty warm and happy bright! I put these suckers on as soon as I got through my door as my feet were tired and sore after all that walking and carrying my sacks of goodies:
Thank you Karen! You are the best blog buddy a blogger could ask for! Go check out her new arrival, by the way - congratulations are in order. ;) Hee.
Speaking of sacks of goodies, let's see this year's haul, shall we?
2 bottles of fruity vino (to be reserved for holiday gatherings don't ya know), a jar of YUMMY smoked red pepper puree (oh, grilled portobello sandwiches here I come!), a big ol' ball o rambouillet for Fiberfly, some loverly alpaca laceweight yarn (also for darling fiberfly!), a WPI gauge, a 12 inch size 7 Addi Turbo (an extinct breed in CT apparently....), some deeeee-liss-ious silk roving for - you guessed it - Fiberfly!, a giganto hank of sportweight Silk/Rayon chenille (a good bargain)... and my favorite purchase of the day? Why, it's a table loom I picked up for 5 DOLLARS! (Props to MH for spotting this treasure!) It's missing the shuttles and a small metal clamp to hold it to the table, but those are easy peasy to replace! The loom itself is actually quite nice! I will take some pics when the playing really starts :)
Now, the question of the hour.... I have 1300 yards of sportweight Silk/Rayon chenille and would very much like to make a fitted, 3/4 length sleeve cardi - or something along those lines... Any of you knitting maniacs out there know of any suitable patterns? I think I might just wing it and start one from scratch... but thought I'd give a holler first. Just. In. Case.
See, I am not really a "chenille gal", but this was such a lovely champagne color and it was so soft and it was such a bargain... it tempted me with it's luster and softness. And I gave in. I'm just that weak!
Anyway - it was a great day with great company. MH and Michelle came with and provided much comic relief... oh dear. Those girls can make me laugh until I pee pee in my pants pants. Sweet Jesus.
I even spotted the gang of Spiders on my way out! Steph looks faboo! All you beautiful pregnant ladies are really making me want to find some hot guy and retire to make lots of babies. So, stop it! ;) The whole gang was there (minus dear Sassy - I will come visit you soon to make up for it! Bearing gifts, no less!), I just love seeing their smiling faces!
So, to sum it up: Good Laughs, Tasty Treats, Warm Feet, New Toys.
Good Day.
Posted by Sarah at 7:42 PM | Comments (5)
July 28, 2006
My Summer Vacation by Sarah Jayn McNally
One week in Maine + Sarah + hiking boots = Heart
This was one incredible vacation. First, my littlest sis Caitlin came up from Florida a week early just to hang out. She played with the kitten all day while I was at work and became familiar with the genius that is/was Arrested Development. We took her to a Scissor Squad meeting... it was great fun. Then on Saturday she and I drove up to Maine with Kyra in the backseat, and met up with the entire fam who had assembled. The whole gang was there for a change! Mom, Dad, Uncle Andy, Aunt Missy, Heather and Bra/endo/an, Caitlin, Mary and Scott! There was drinking, there was jumping in the lake, there was eating, there was more drinking....
Then on Monday, 7 of us (me, MH, Scott, Heather, Cait, Dad and Andy) got up at 5am and packed up for our trek North. We drove to Baxter State Park, which was to be our home for the next 3 days. :) It is without question my favorite place I've lived thus far... beating out various houses, apartments, and even my beloved VW bus.
It was a 7.6 mile hike into the Russell Pond campground where we had a bunkhouse reserved. It was 90 degrees and pretty darned humid! With a 30-something pound pack on my back, there were a couple miles in there that seemed endless, but it was such a great hike that none of us dared complain! We saw a mama and baby moose at a pond! Yeeee! We got there, unwound, explored a bit and just soaked it all in. And spotted moose #3! A young buck I quickly dubbed Morris. SIGH. Here we were in the incredible place. And really......compared to most places I've been to - or even hiked to - not that many people on this planet have ever been to this place! I felt that the whole time I was there.
We woke up on Day 2 and some of us just hadn't had enough hiking. Despite reports of a 70% chance of thunderstorms which would include giant HAIL, we figured what the hell and grabbed our daypacks and headed back out. (MH and Cait said hell no. No hail for us! They stayed close to camp and went on their own little adventure that day). Scott, Heather, Andy, my Dad and I headed out on another 6 mile hike. :) This time to Grand Falls...... almost at the center of BSP and pretty much the furthest in you can hike in the park. Along the way, we stopped at Ledge Falls, where the water was flowing over these giant rock ledges. After leaving LF, the skies turned daaaaaaaaark and we prepared for the worst. We got to Grand Falls and climbed down to the base to go for a dip before the rains came. The water was moving so fast it knocked me right over! Talk about a current! We all swam around as best we could (for Heather this meant hanging on to her favorite rock the entire time) and my Dad even brought his fins, snorkel and a tiny scuba tank to explore the pool!
We hung out there for some fluffernutters and started back. And guess what? The sky cleared up. The sun came out. No thunder. No rain. No giant HAIL. Just 5 happy hikers and what turned out to be a beautiful day! On our way back, we spotted 2 pheasants (and by spotted, I mean one flew into Heather's head). It was just a lovely day. We came back to camp and I went out on the canoe with my Uncle for some moose hunting (with my camera - no worries) and some fishing. Andy caught 4 trout! I think I might try fishing next time I go up... It's nice to remind yourself where your food really comes from... you know?
The next day, we packed up again and started our trek back out to civilization. (BOOOO!) I could have stayed a week there. Maybe next time I will..... We took a longer, but easier trail back - so it was an 8 mile hike. Hot, but the humidity wasn't near that first day. There were lots of blueberry breaks and head dunking stops at cold rushing streams. (Ummm... I wish that I got blueberry breaks and head dunking stops at cold rushing streams at work every day.......) We saw our last moose at the same pond where we saw mama and baby on the way in! This one was SWIMMING! Ack. Just about the coolest thing to see.
Mary started losing it toward the end, claiming that she was the Queen of the Forest and that Morris the moose was to be her king/loyal steed/national moose. There was a fair amount of giggling and shenannigans that last half mile. It made me realize how lucky I was that all 3 of my sisters wanted to do this. I couldn't have asked for better company than my 6 travelling companions. I felt like an adventurer again. :)
We headed back to the Lake for BEER and a jump in the lake. I loved the woods, but missed my dog! The rest of the week was spent mostly throwing her floaty dog toy off the end of the dock for her to jump off and retrieve. There was lobster devoured and, yes, more drinking. Hey - I hiked over 20 miles..... I could drink and eat as much as I wanted to!
Overall, it was just an incredible week. I've documented everything in my giganto photo album to be found here. And this is after deleting the shots I didn't like. I looooooooooooove my camera. I hope you looooooooooooove the pictures. :) I wish I could say I was glad to be back, but I cried while driving away from my favorite place in the world. It was an amazing week, which has led to yet another introspective week.... Another reason why it was the right vacation to take.
XOXO
Posted by Sarah at 2:04 PM | Comments (6)
May 1, 2006
A Tale of Sheep & Wool, As told by Zhaan the Cameraphone
So, Mary, Michelle and I headed up to Tolland to meet Jessica and her hubby and spend the day at the CT Sheep & Wool Festival. Little Zhaan captured it all, so I'll turn it over to her.
The girls saw a lot of sheep.
The girls saw some noisy alpacas.
The girls saw some bunnies and Sarah squealed and giggled like an asshole when she saw all the bunnies.
The girls watched border collies chase the stupid sheep. Here Mary and Michelle are mesmerized. (And Mary is laughing because even the shepard can't get his well trained dog can't get the little bugger to lay down on command when he's all riled up. They said this means Gracie's not so bad after all.)
But above all these cute creatures, the girls seemed really enthralled with the oxen.
(I'm so jealous. Jessica's cameraphone caught the full photo here. This ox is actually taking a giant OX SIZED piss while Mary is making kissy faces with it. Yeah. Earth to Sarah! Can't you do anything right? Can't you even capture a proper photo of an ox PISSING on your little sister while she smiles all goofy about it????? Jesus.)
Some of the girls even shoved small children out of the way to get onto this cart and be pulled around the fair by the oxen. It was quite the scene.
Sarah did not partake in said cart ride. So Jess's cameraphone was ordered to send me this picture to show Sarah. The caption read:
What you missed.
Wow. Sarah really screwed up by not hopping on the Oxen Ass Trolley. But, there's always next time.
Posted by Sarah at 8:40 PM | Comments (4)
April 24, 2006
Happy Day
What a great weekend. Okay, so it rained so hard for so long that my ceiling started to get jealous so it started raining too.... Aside from a wet apartment, a lovely weekend was had!
Heather and her boyfriend Brendan/Brandon (and I really don't mean to offend here... I can NEVER get the guy's name right) popped down to CT Friday evening and came out to dinner with me, Mary and Scott. We went to Sake in Southbury and it was INCREDIBLE! By far the best meal I've had in a long time. I had red snapper in a thai chile sauce with brown rice.....drool. Very nicely decorated - quite a chic little spot. I'd like to eat there every Friday night. Do you ever wish that you were rich? I do. Every day. Damn it. sigh.
After dinner, we headed home and drank a bottle and a half of sake to keep in theme. Woooooo! That was fun.
Saturday morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed to our cups of java and headed out to the grocery store to shop for some ingredients to make a yummy hors d'ouerves. H and I decided on mini quiches in teeeeeeeeeeeny fillo crusts! We made half with spinach and feta and half with gruyere, topped with a slice of teeeeeeeny cherry tomato! No, I don't have any photographic evidence. Yes, they were that good.
We picked up Mary and Scott and boarded a ferry in Bridgeport. The ferry might have been out on a bender the night before, too, as it seemed a bit distracted when it came to staying in the water.
The seas were choppy that day, friends. I saw a round lady waddle ever so quickly to the ladies room. She was never heard from again.
Disclaimer: I really don't know if the round lady was never heard from again - she might have come right out. As I tend to become bored with things I watch once I've decided how I'd rather see things play out, you never can tell.
After an hour and 15 minutes of up, down, and all around with the ferry, we were happy to disembark and find our teeeeeeeny Aunt Nancy arriving in cousin Connie's giganto Suburban to pick us up! It was a sight to see. She explained that Connie was busy and her hubby Paul wasn't feeling too great, so she was sent to grab us. She then conjectured that Paul must really not feel well if he let her drive. Hee. Agreed.
As she always seems to do, Aunt Nancy immediately did something that made me feel just wonderful. She called Heather's boyfriend Brendan, then Brandon, then couldn't remember which was right. Maybe it's genetic?
We arrived to be greeted by the gaggle of children. Riley was a bit shy at first, but Finn, Shane and Bridget made up for that with immediate giggles and hugs. Oy. Just when I think I'm over that whole "maybe I should think about having babies someday" nonsense, I see these kids. They make you want to have a dozen.
Here we have the gang! From the left: Shane, Finn, RIley and Bridget.
Here they are trying to teach Heather how to gamble.
The occasion was Aunt Nan's 65th birthday! She looks amazing! (Hoping that's genetic too....) Con made an amazing meal of fresh crab cakes and veggie orzo salad with feta. DROOL. And topped it off with a cake decorated so beautifully, it made me want to take one of those crazy cake decor classes! (Okay, so she bought the cake - but you need to give credit for having impeccable taste to pick out a cake like this!)
So pretty! Aunt Nan loves shells and anything to do with the ocean and beach. It runs in the family....
Connie doing the honors.
All together now!
And I can finally unveil the finished Flower Basket Shawl! It looked great on her - as I so modestly predicted. ;) I'll update the gallery with all the details.
From the front.... Aunt Nan always feels a need to hold something in front of her when posing for a picture. Hee.
And the back. Click the pic for a larger view.
It was great to hang out with everyone. I got to be green with envy over hearing about Paul's trip to the Master's tournament (yep, I'm one of those strange people that likes to watch golf!), got to catch up with the kids and hear about all their daring do in sports and ballet, got to gab with Connie about everything under the sun and got to hug my Aunt Nan about a gazillion times which was the highlight of my weekend.
Present time!
We had rough seas on the way back, but we all seemed to snooze it away.... ah, what good food and neverending wine bottles can do for your mood!
Here we see Ferry Mary, bogged down with booze and choc-o-lates. See those perty baskets? They are our Easter baskets from Aunt Nan! HEEE!
Heather and Bra/endo/an headed back Sunday morning and I spent a mostly dry day indoors working on various projects that have been long neglected.
Spectacular! Don't you love when a weekend filled with terrible weather ends up being so gosh darned great?
PS: Here are more pics if you are interested. :)
Posted by Sarah at 7:43 PM | Comments (2)
April 17, 2006
One Sunny Weekend
I have a major case of Spring Fever. I'll spare you the witty remarks of "Better watch out or you'll catch it!" or perhaps "And I don't want to recover!". I imagine a frail man with really big teeth saying these things and I feel an urge to punch something.
ANYWAY.
This weekend was absolutely gorge. I pretty much wanted to live outdoors. Instead, I went on a couple of hikes.
Saturday's hike was in Bridgewater, in the Sunny Valley Nature Preserve on the Silica Mine Trail. Mary and Gracie came with! (Kyra is on the mend from a bout of ... well, we don't quite know yet.... but she stayed home to be on the safe side.) This was a great hike and an excellent warm up hike for the Spring. Not very difficult, but enough inclines and declines to keep you interested. It was about 3 and a half miles long and with a whole bunch of little breaks, we mosied through it in a couple of hours.
Mary and her faithful companion at the trailhead.
We climbed a hill to a lervley vista overlooking the Housatonic River. Sigh.
At the top of our short climb, we found this spectacular spot! Don't you just want to pull up with a pic-a-nic basket?
The vista.... There's the Housatonic behind those budding trees!
We saw waterfalls
I have some other cool shots in the album.
I was really wishing for my tripod when I saw these little falls!
Lots and lots of rocks
The trail is literally glittering! There is silica in the dirt and when the sun catches it just right... it's really cool. Guess this is why they call it the Silica Mine Trail.... yeah?
Degobah.
Yoda lives here.
And came down a great big hill covered with giganto boulders to meet back up with the River.
I love hiking with Mary because we always have adventures! We wandered around a little mixed up on a couple of trails, but found our way back... We came upon a busted bridge that was meant to take us over a muddy bog, so we had to find another way. And everything is always something. Heather might be the only one to get that.....
The shit got scared straight out of us at one point as a tree was thinking about not being upright anymore - desiring rather to be horizontal. He didn't go through with it while we were there... but the creaking sounded more like a small animal than a tree. Yeah. We laughed our asses off afterwards - realizing that we both froze up over a TREE. Phew.
More pics of our Sunny Valley adventure can be found here.
Sunday was spent a little closer by at Huntington State Park in Redding. It's a pretty flat hike and not too long, so Kyra and I ventured over there for our Easter Sunday. She was soooo happy to get out into the woods! We had a good time. :) A very peaceful, quiet and fulfilling holiday.
My goal this summer is to hike and/or camp every single weekend - weather permitting. Some serious backpacking plans are in the works for late Summer.... but I'm not telling yet. :)
Posted by Sarah at 10:26 PM | Comments (2)
March 10, 2006
Back from the Arctic
So, I returned from Maine on Monday and have been way too overwhelmed with work and what not to make it over to my blog! The trip was freaking FANTASTIC! As much as all of you might hate me for saying so... it made me wish winter would last a little bit longer so I could engage in more snowy fun :)
I picked up Heather in Boston on Friday and we headed up to the great white north, aka Dedham, Maine, to see my awesome uncle and aunt for the weekend. Upon arrival, we were greeted with an amazing lobster dinner *droool* and some yummy coffee brandy drinks as well as great conversation. I love my family - they rock my socks every time we get together.
Heather is so happy to be back in the car! We're on our way to slide around on long planks strapped to our boots!
Saturday we headed up to A Fierce Chase in Monson for a cross country skiing lesson and some fun out on the trails. I AM HOOKED! Ok, I kind of sucked at it at first, but I love me a challenge - I adore the fact that there is room for improvement here.
Andy and Missy looking like pros.
I did pretty okay actually, except for going down hills.... umm... that scared the bejeezus out of me. But, I got a little more comfortable by the end! We had a great instructor who was very patient and after a short break after the lesson, we were back out on the trails! I am totally proud of all of us - it's quite a demanding activity and we kicked some serious arse. And it kicked mine in return... sooooooo sooooooore. Lucky for me, I love being sore - it makes me feel like I've accomplished something!
Wooooo! We can skiiiiiii!
The next day, we were back on the road - this time heading to Baxter State Park where we hit the Appalachian Trail in snowshoes - with Katahdin providing an amazing backdrop on a gorgeous day.
My purpley snowshoes in their natural habitat.
I am buying me some snowshoes, friends. I'm gonna keep 'em in the back of my car in the winter so I can hop out into the woods whenever I feel like it. There is something very freeing about walking around on a ton of snow in these puppies! It reminded me that just because all of my favorite trails are covered with snow in the winter, I can still hike on them if I feel like it!
Rowr! Watch out Baxter State Park! Here comes Snowbunny Sarah!
We hit the trail.
We headed off the AT and forged a new trail ourselves along the Penobscot River. It was beautiful. Pictures really don't do the experience justice. You'll all just have to go out and do this yourselves to get what I'm freaking out about!
I just love them.
We had PB&J breaks and a few sips of blackberry brandy just for kicks. :) We came home tired but so happy!
Ummm... I SWIM in that! Whoa.
Monday morning before Heather and I climbed back in the car, Andy took us out for a walk on TOP of the lake! ACK! There's some scary shiznit. Did you know that lakes make reeeeally weird noises in the winter? It's true. Gurgle gurgle rumble gurgle crack. CRACK.
Andy takes this big pole with a metal edge out on the lake and smacks the ice in front of him as he walks to make sure he's all safe and sound. Or he smashes it into the ice to make a hole and scare the crap out of us.
The ice freezes up and pushes even the biggest rocks around as it pleases.
It was an incredible feeling and I will surely never look at my favorite body of water in the world the same way again. As we were walking around, a giganto bald eagle swooped down over our heads from a nearby tree and totally took my breath away. It was really something. Sigh.
The weekend was everything I had hoped it would be. Relaxing, challenging, funny and tasty. I got a chance to hang with my aunt and uncle (which I don't get to do nearly enough) and got some serious bonding time in with my Bostonian sister.
Here's one for you Heather:
DIDN'T YOU EVEN KNOOOW THAT WE BONDED? DIDN'T YOU EVEN KNOW THAT???
Gotta love inside jokes. It's like totally what you have sisters for... um, didn't you even know that?
Since I got back, I've been super active because I don't want to stop being sore. I really want my ass to perk back up to where it used to be in it's glory days. It's gonna happen. I swear to God. You just wait and see.
Hungry for more icy photos? Take a peek at my photo album here and while you're at it, check out Heather's right here!
Posted by Sarah at 6:53 PM | Comments (4)
November 28, 2005
There and Back Again: A Thanksgiving Travel Adventure
So, I went down to Flo-ree-duh to see my folks and my littlest sister Caitlin :) I left on Tuesday and came back yesterday - yes, yesterday. The worst travel day of the year. And I had a connection. In Newark. Yeah.
Surprisingly enough - it was Tuesday that proved to be the worse of the two trips... (Yesterday was no picnic - but it pales in comparison.
I had a 1:20 flight out of Bradley, so I left home about 10:15am. Smooth sailing until I hit the mother of all traffic jams in West Hartford. I kept my chin up, though! And I got through it just fine. Got to the airport with plenty of time and parked in the garage right across from the terminal for a ridiculous amount of money on accounta I'm a baby. (I had no interest in coming back to a snow covered car in some lot out in the boonies all by my lonesome in the dark. Nope. Charge what you want - I'm parkin in the garage thankyouverymuch!) Checked in, breezed through security, grabbed a sandwich for lunch (it was quite tasty Mary - you'd have been impressed!) Flight boarded on time - I thought things were going my way!
But no. After they trap us all in this tiny "plane", they inform us that we can't take off for at least an hour because there are too many planes trying to land in Newark. FRELL. They start figuring out everyone's connections to see who won't make their flights... They inform the poor girl in front of me that she will most likely miss hers and there's not another leaving until the next morning. They explain she can resign herself to her fate or try to catch her flight if they happen to land in time. She says she wants to give it a shot! They offer to move her to the front of the plane so she can run right off, but she declines - she thinks she's ok where she is. We'll come back to her in a moment.... Enter the craziest flight attendant I've ever been in the presence of. She's been yammering on about the delay quite defensively before anyone can even bemoan their situation. Now she waltzes down the aisle with a box of Kleenex offering tissues to everyone. Now, this is a bit odd - so every passenger she sticks the tissues in front of gives her an inquisitive look to which she responds "In case you're a snotnose!" Hmm... Now here's a lady with tact - no doubt. She continues to proclaim - loud now, so all can hear - "The snotnoses appreciate it!!!".
Okay.
She then shells out cheap mini pretzels which in my opinion, don't come close to making up for the psycho in charge of our well being on this flight or the delay which is costing many their connecting flights. But, I digress. Finally, we take off! The pilot had been trying to convince us that once in the air, the flight would only take 30 minutes. Well, Mother Nature had different plans. That "plane" was jostled this way and that for about 45 minutes - it was r-o-u-g-h. So rough in fact, that some couldn't keep their cheap mini-pretzels down. Remember that gutsy girl in front of me? Determined to make her next flight? Well, she should have stayed in Hartford for the day. About 10 minutes before landing she hurled. All over herself (I felt really bad), her window, the seat in front of her and the aisle. One thing you do not want released into a tiny little plane is VOMIT. Just like the rest of the flight it was r-o-u-g-h. While the noxious fumes were not agreeing with the sandwich I had just consumed, I just kept telling myself no matter how bad my day was going, hers was definitely worse.
That is, until I got up to leave the plane.
I grabbed my bag which was - you guessed it! - UNDER her seat. Yep. Puke. GROOOOOOSSSSS! Needless to say that my first stop in Newark was the ladies room. I then ran myself and my puke covered bag over to my next gate to find that this next flight was also delayed. Le sigh. Le curse. Le bitch! At least it was a bigger plane, I told myself. It won't be so bad. Well - it was a smoother ride. But, apparently the reason they make the bigger plane is so they can cram as many screaming and unruly children onto it as possible. At one point, the cute little boy in front of me stood up in his seat and turned around - he smiled. I smiled. (Like I said - he was cute!) Then he took his little blanket and slammed me in the face with it. I ordered a glass of wine. (I have never drank on a flight before....I think this time it was necessary - don't you?)
And that is the story of the hellish journey I took to Florida. Still with me? Wanna see the good stuff? It did get better... I promise!
That night, my parents took Cait and I to see La Nouba. Oh my goodness - it almost made up for the trip. Almost. It was spectacular - the first time I've seen Cirque de Soleil. I highly reccommend it! I couldn't take pictures... so go see it for yourself! Words can't describe!
The next day, Caitlin and I dug out some white wool roving I had brought with me and I showed her how to kool-aid dye! Here's what we came out with:
from the left: Parrot: pineapple, rapberry reaction, green apple and a little bit o strawberry. Creamsicle: mango, lemonade and pineapple (this one smelled amaaaazing). Lusty Lady: cherry, strawberry and a grape/cherry combo. Wanna zoom out? Do it!
I even spun two of those puffs up on my mom's spindle!
Here's our darling Desi checking out the goods....
And here's Parrot with a flower in her hair....
Caitlin in her natural habitat.
Desi and Toonces missing out a possible meal... is the thrill of the hunt gone?
Ah. The beach. I made a couple of visits... I LOVE the beach! I collected an assload of sweet little seashells that I am going to spread throughout mi casa. :)
Caitlin and I were even witness to one of my Dad's diving adventures. He hadn't yet checked out the water off his local beach, so he decided to go for a dip! I've captured it all right here in a smart little slideshow. Enjoy!
We saw many many pelicans! Some were diving into the water in formation, trying to snatch up some tasty fish! Quite a sight to behold, but I couldn't capture any pics I liked so you'll just have to take my word on it.
My last night there, Pop took me on a sunset sail. Very cool.
Hee.
I leave you with a lovely Florida sunset. It also almost made up for the vomit on my bag. Almost.
PS My mama also made a most delicious Thanskgiving meal. Everything was eaten before I had time to take photos - a testament to the yum!
Posted by Sarah at 9:23 PM | Comments (4)
October 17, 2005
The Happiest Day of the Year
And it ain't Christmas, people.
Ah, Rhinbeck. I so love going to the NY Sheep and Wool Festival! It was just as fantastic this year as last! And despite those billowy dark clouds on the drive up, by 11am, we had blue skies and warm sun!
The Scissor Squad contingent met up at 8am and - of course- it took us until 8:30 to get on the road! In all, we had moi, Eva, Mary, Annie, Christine, Edie and Anne in two carloads and on our way! The Taconic Parkway was flooded out for an exit so we had a little excitement in the form of a detour (causing me to get G-R-U-M-P-Y! Nothing stands between me and Rhinebeck!) but quickly enough we were back on our way.
Then we saw a dog running loose on the highway (YIKES!), so we stopped to try to call him over. He must have been on a mission from God or something cuz he didn't even blink. But, we did try to get the police to come over and pick the little guy up. And once again, we were on our way!
All in all - with two delays - we were only about 30 minutes later than we were shooting for. We parked our cars and then giddily - okay, well, Eva and I in particular were incredibly giddy - skipped in the rain up to the ticket booth with big toothy grins. Wheeeee!
Here are some highlights from our fantabulous day at the festival:
Eva chatting with some llamas.
Some wicked nice wool. Hee!
Mary having a ball tasting some pickles! (her favorite activity of the day)
My friend the alpaca. I wanted to take this guy home and name him Ringo.
My friend the llama.
A picture that I should have gotten but totally spaced would have captured my favorite moment of the day! I got to meet Sylvia Jorrin of Sylvia's Farm fame! I am reading her book right now and was talking her up just that morning to the gals on our drive up to Rhinebeck. I couldn't believe it, but I saw a poster for the book and looked to the left and there she was standing right next to the picture of herself! She is the nicest woman - it was so great to meet her! I told her how much I was loving her book and she was so sweet and humble. She couldn't believe that I knew who she was. I told her that her book is well known amongst the knit/spin blogs and she was totally tickled! Needless to say, that little meeting put a smile on my face for the rest of the day. :)
After a full day of petting and shopping and eating and drinking, we headed over to Morehouse Merino for the wine and cheese and to meet up with the Spiders crew. I had never before visited this shop and I loved it. It's warm and lovely - I can't wait to make another visit.
They even have a backyard with a rushing stream and all! The perfect place to enjoy a glass of wine and relax after a long day. Why, we even had a little scissorina photo shoot!
Here we see Mary. Her turn ons include pickled items, hideously ugly home decor and stabbing wool with sharp needles. Her turn offs include chinese water torture and things that are dumb.
Ah, the ever obiquitous Eva! This lady's turn ons include fox pelts, crawling naked in the woods and big knives. Turn offs? Republicans and nuclear waste.
Indoors was just as gorgeous.
Where's Annie? (She HATES getting her picture taken, but I snapped this while she was unawares. She's in there somewhere) Someday you'll thank me! You need to have some pictures that you actually appear in!
Here's Sandra and Joy saying cheese, pretty as they please.
Me and Mama Wong (can you see tiny Baby Wong? He/She is just a wee little bump!)
What a day! This was fucking fantastic. I loved Maryland because it was HUGE and it was my first time meeting the Lovely Ladies - but Rhinebeck holds a special place in my heart. There's a feeling of community throughout. I chatted it up with various farmers, spinners, dog rescuers... Just like last year, I felt that I left with so much more knowledge than when I arrived! And I couldn't ask for better companions! We Scissorinas split up and met up a number of times - it was so fun to see a few of them occasionally and check back in on what cool stuff we found and who we had talked to.
And Mary and Eva and I have decided that whenever the three of us are out and about like we were on Saturday, we should really have a camera crew just follow us around for a day. We get into the most ridiculous situations and get out of control silly. I love those gals. I'm seriously so lucky that one of them is my sister! Right? Too cool.
Perfect, perfect day. I'll flash my new stash tomorrow......
PS: We missed you Christine!!!
Posted by Sarah at 1:36 PM | Comments (1)
October 11, 2005
Wine and Cheese and Yarn and Wine
I am glad to announce that we have an official after-Rhinebeck meetup planned!
When I found out that Morehouse Merino (farm of incredible fibers and THE nicest sheep I ever have met!) was holding a Wine and Cheese on Saturday after the festival, I had a sneaky suspicion this might be where the gals might land to relax and gab about the day's events!
So, in conjunction with my gal Kaitlyn, the Scissorinas will meet up with the Spiders (whoa girls! we sound like chicky street gangs preparing for a dance fight!) at the Morehouse shop after the festival!
Wanna meet up? Come on! (We'll all be much less distracted than trying to meet at the festival itself where I, for one, will be chomping at the bit to buy buy buy and pet pet pet!!!)
Details schmeetails....
WHAT: Wine and Cheese with Morehouse Merino!
WHERE: Sheep's Clothing, the Morehouse Merino Shop, 2 Rock City Road, Milan NY
WHEN: After a fiber filled day at Rhinebeck NYS&W Festival (I know my crew ain't leavin till they lock the gates at 5pm!)
Details, directions and COUPONS for Morehouse can be found here. I cannot say how much I adore this company. They are faboo. I can't wait to get a gander inside the store and see my Lovely Ladies of Leisure again....
Posted by Sarah at 1:48 PM | Comments (2)
August 13, 2005
One Stitchy Sticky Summah
Oy.
I can't believe how long I've gone without posting... Lots going on 'round casa de scissorina.... I'm on a hunt for a new place to live. I think I forgot how much finding this place I'm in now sucked.
This sucks!
Almost every potential landlord I talk to is a total weirdo. I mean... Has anyone out ther ever been asked what gender their pets are? I encountered a woman who was fine with me having pets - just as long as their not male. WHATEVER. Ack. I was choking on my own rage by the time I got off the phone with her....
On the bright side, I saw a nice place today. It's a bit small and a bit expensive, but they allow pets and the woman was nice. We might have a winner.
Anyhoo... Mary and i took an excursion to Brooklyn last weekend and had a faboo time! Kaitlyn hosted a yarn soiree complete with giganto yarn pile for a swap! And served us yummy treats including a rum punch that rocked my world. (And my sobriety. Trust.)
I am having technical difficulty uploading my photos for some reason (grrrrowl.) butas soon as I'm back in business, I'll share!
And remember that merino yarn I spun? Well, it decided it like Katilyn's house too, so it stayed behind to become a nice warm hat. :)
In knitting news I finally finished the front of Orangina and am almost done with the second half of the Cabled Shrug! Phew! It feels like I am knitting so slowly lately..... I guess it's just because so much is going on lately that I don't feel like I'm getting anything done. I will be happy when the move is all over with and things will (hopefully) get back to somewhat normal.
Posted by Sarah at 8:57 PM | Comments (5)
July 11, 2005
I'm back, bay-bee!
Wow. Sunny days and relatives sure can distract you from the internet!
We are back from Maine and had an amazing time. The weather for the first few days was nothing short of spectacular! We canoed, swam, snorkeled and hiked. We slept in our little blue tent and ate a lot of lobstah! And even the couple of dreary days turned out to be quite nice for beach walks....
I took a lot of pictures. :) Here's a taste... I'll post again mid-week with some more details. My 'rents and the littlest of sisters are still in the area until Wednesday, so time is short!
My Pop and my cousin Mark flying a kite from canoes in the lake!
The pup and her Poppa.
The troops atop Little Chick Mountain! (From the left: Uncle Andy, Pop, Bune, Kyra, Heather.... a bit tired after what it took to get here...)
Littlest sister Caitlin! On her first hike.... (aww... she's growing up!!!)
A pic I snapped on the beach during our hike in the wildnerness refuge at Petit Mannan.
The waves crashin it up at Schoodic Point in Acadia National Park.
Posted by Sarah at 8:00 PM | Comments (2)
July 1, 2005
TTFN!
We're off! The Bune, Kyra, and I will be piling into the car tomorrow morning for a 7.5 hour car ride up to this glorious lake in Maine! Yip yip YIPEE! We'll get to visit with the fam, it should be sweet.
I'll be back Thursday or Friday with a full report! (Hopefully consisting of sunshine, hiking, and some new additions to my freckle collection.)
Ta Ta For Now!
Posted by Sarah at 7:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 30, 2005
Fulla Fibah.
Anne and I had a grand time at the Massachusetts Sheep & Wool! It was really small, but it made it very manageable for an afternoon. We walked around, took our time and got to see everything!
I took a lot of pictures. Seriously.
This one's the Bune's favorite. He wants this guy on a t-shirt. (I heart Llamas)
And with their mama! See the resemblance?
Who says sheep aren't politically active? Look! They're holding a little rally!
(oh that's terrible. but I couldn't resist. I mean - look at those coats! If I ever have sheep, their coats will be all sorts of colors or animal print or something. No white hoods......)
Thes festival was a blast. I will never get over how amazing it is to watch tiny, little kids lead around huge animals! We met some really friendly folks and - as always - I learned a buinch from chatting with people and just watching others spin!
Here are some beautiful painted rocks we stopped to see on our way back from the festival.
These were painted by Keith Harmon Snow of www.allthingspass.com
. He was holding a tag sale to benefit his human rights work in
Africa. I urge all of you to go take alook at his site - he is taking
part in an incredible human rights effort in Congo. If anyone can
donate to this cause, I encourage you to do so. Iwas a bit short on
cash while I was there, but will be making a Paypal donation on his
site as soon as payday hits.
Here are some more pics I snapped while we were there. I could not have asked for a more amazing scene to shoot.
We made another stop on the way home where I met Buddy. Isn't he just the bee's knees??? He was a giant and a lovebug. Of course, he was so busy greeting people that I didn't get a very good picture of him... still not quick enough with the camera for those good action shots!
And of course, a gratuitous shot of my stash enhancement. Spin spin spin!
Here we see (from the left, clockwise) Yummy pink Bunny Blend (angora merino) from Acker's Acres, Some a purple and blue mohair nylon blend from Barneswallow Farms, a silk cap from A Touch of Twist, a fawn colored alpaca silk blend (also from Barneswallow), a red hank of Ingeo (It's made from corn, people!) from Abi's Web, and some merino tencel blend in "Grass" from The Sheep Shed.
I'll leave you with a picture of a very shady looking sheep. This guy's got something up his sleeve.... or ..mmm.. up his fleece.
Posted by Sarah at 6:32 PM
May 27, 2005
Baa!
So, Anne and I are hopping in her car tomorrow morning and driving to Cummington, MA for the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Festival!
Time to plump up that fiber stash! But, just a little bit - on accounta I am wretchedly poor. But that won't keep me from mulling around, petting sheep and taking me some pictures!
Still no interweb at home, but the Bune is promising he will have us up and running by Sunday, so I hope to have some knitting pics up soon!!!
My Gypsy Mesh Pullover is coming along very nicely! I'm about 3/4 of the way through the front piece.
I also just started swatching for the Ballet T Shirt from Teva Durham's Loop-D-Loop.... YUM! I am attempting to use some GGH Boboli I acquired from a trade - it is soooo soft!
And I'm working on a secret little somethin' for my Pop for Father's Day.... So the needles are flyin in the Land o' Stitch! And after tomorrow, I am hoping to get some spinning time in this long weekend. :)
I'm off to pet baby goats! YEE!
Posted by Sarah at 1:43 PM | Comments (1)
May 11, 2005
One Lazy Lady of Leisure
Well, I certainly live up to the name! I am officially the LAST person in Blog-land to post about her trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool!
After much harassment from all sides, I'll get right to it!
I HEART WOOL! And sheep! And bunnies and alpacas and llamas! And most of all GOATS! How can anyone resist their charms???? Call me a crunchy granola tree hugger, but I can't get enough!
We had a fantastic time. We took the scenic route to Maryland, so Christine, Mel, Mary, Anne and I lived up to our true leisurely lady potential and arrived a whopping 4 hours late into Baltimore. Who knew the Garden State Parkway wasn't the same as the New Jersey Parkway? Apparently everyone but us. Hee hee. And if I may I divert from the topic at hand for a moment, what the hell is with the 35 cent tolls every two miles in New Jersey?!?!?!?! AAAAAAH! I've never seen such a thing. Pure rage friends, pure! But, I digress....
We arrived to the Wharf Rat fashionably late (how else?? People, if we are anything, we are fashionable.) Fantastic place - fantastic beer! Here's the gang all togetha:
Here we is (from the left): Christine, Mary, yours truly, Kaitlyn, Joy, and Sandra.
We stayed up late, Christine grabbed two guys off the street to be our guides (they turned out to be nice guys - swear!), we drank, we blabbed - it was great! It is a really funny feeling to meet in the flesh a bunch of gals you've only known through blogs and emails. I actually expected it to be weird, but I felt comfortable very quickly with this crew! How can you not feel comfy with a gang of uber liberal crafters when you are one yourself? :)
The next morning it was on to the festival!
We met up with a mob of bloggers at 12:30 - wow! There sure are a lot of us! That was really cool - we chatted it up with Rose and Dana who were both really cool chicks. Rose owns Yarnivore in Brooklyn and it will be top of my list of shops to scope out next time I'm in the cit-ay! (subliminal message: buy lots of stuff at Rose's shop on accounta she is a cool girl!!)
I got a chance to make some new friends... who I decided to name! 
I'll take some pics of the faboo roving I picked up to further my newest obsession hobby. I can't wait to spin this stuff UP UP UP! By the by, both Joy and Sandra gave in to the obvious need to spin yarn and bought themselves spindles and some of the fluffy stuff! (I'd like to note that this clear lack of willpower was displayed in the very first booth we stepped foot in - har har har. You girls are my kind of crafters.) I cannot wait to see their progress. And I can't wait to convert the rest of the Scissor Squad into fiber-holics as well. I believe an addiction to fiber-hol is a healthy one indeed.
Alright, pics of the enhanced stash tomorrow! That's right - I'm back on track! My little vacation spilled over into the week and into waaaay too many aspects of my life... ie laundry, cooking dinner, cleaning, and other various deligthful activities. But, we all must come back someday I suppose.... Blech!
I can't wait for RHINEBECK! Baaaaa.
OH! And check out the other girls' sites for the FULL array of pictures! We're talkin shirtless men with nipple rings people! Oh, forgot to mention that, did I? Oops! We did have a good time out on Friday!
Posted by Sarah at 6:37 PM | Comments (1)
May 6, 2005
Gone Fishin'
We're off to Maryland Sheep and Wool!
Hope to see a whole lot of you tonight at the Wharf Rat in Baltimore! Click on the bottle of JD to the left if you need the skinny!
I'll make my full report on Sunday when I'm back....
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
In the words of Christine, "I'm off like a prom dress!"
Posted by Sarah at 11:21 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
May 1, 2005
Will YOU be there?
It's the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, bay-bee! My sister Mary and our fellow scissorina Anne will be piling into a car on Friday afternoon with my favorite Boozehag, Christine, and her pally gal Pam and we will make our way down to Maryland!!!!
Need something to do that Friday night?
Kaitlyn created a kickass e-vite with all the details, so check it out and let us know you're comin!
I'm serioulsy psyched! I can't wait to meet all the gals I've been emailing with for a while now - it will be cool to see who shows up! COME ONE, COME ALL!
Posted by Sarah at 7:59 PM | Comments (2)
March 21, 2005
WARNING: Non Knitting Post :)
So my sister Mary and I and our two fellas went out to Port Jefferson on Long Island yesterday for dinner at my Aunt Nancy's house. We had a BLAST! We got to hang with our Aunty Nan and Cousin Connie - and her ridiculously adorable (and endlessly entertaining) kiddos!
The girls being girls....
Bridget getting some help with her necklace from Mary - and Aunt Nan supervising :)
I'd like to mention that my cousin Connie and her hubby Paul are saints - they have a 7 year old boy, Riley and 5 year old TRIPLETS! Bridget, Finn and Shane! And they are the happiest bunch of kids you'd ever wanna meet.... Every time I visit with them I walk away utterly impressed... I'd imagine it's hard enough to raise one good kid - let alone four!
The boys being boys...
Here we see RIley and Shane in one of the many feats of strength we were lucky enough to witness yesterday.
I've got to share some shots of the little guys playing Freeze Dance - a game sure to sweep the nation any day now! Connie sits at the stereo playing music while the kids dance - she stops the music AND - you guessed it! Last one moving is out! They dance on until there is a victor.... This was simply too funny...
Here they are all together....
Now it's down to Shane and Finn....
Finn took this round with a shake of his hip!
But Bridget came out on top in the next round - those ballet lessons are paying off, little bud!
I leave you with a picture of the guest of honor. A yummy blueberry topped cheesecake I made that was a hit hit hit! This recipe rocked my world, friends. I love me a good cheesecake....
Posted by Sarah at 10:51 PM | Comments (2)