A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

We went to camp last weekend. The weather was gray, which was appropriate to the mood with Senator Kennedy's funeral. I looked outside during the Mass and knew I had to capture these scenes.

 

 

I thought the fog that was rolling off the mountains while the windmill turned was beautiful.

A new picture for my office

I just love this...

A Great Time in Newport (RI)

Mike and I started off last weekend with a trip to the Sole Proprietor for dinner (lobster salad sandwich -- extra yum!), then we headed out to camp. We ended up driving through a deluge in spots and arrived to a quiet campground. We watched the first few innings of the horrible Yankees vs. Red Sox game (Red Sox lost 20-11), then just hung out.

By Saturday morning we had decided that since the rain was set into the Berkshires and it was sunny at home, we'd beat feet back. Steve and Helen had mentioned a trip to Newport Saturday afternoon and were still willing to have us along. We all wanted to see the big waves from Hurricane Bill, about 100 miles east of the coast.

The four of us headed out around 3 pm. We stopped at Beavertail State Park in Jamestown to look at the waves. The surf was pretty impressive.

I like these pictures of Mike, so had to include them!

Helen and I also took the time to explore the lighthouse museum. It was a really neat place, complete with a fourth-order Fresnel lens that was replaced by a rotating beacon in 1991.

Next, we headed over to the Brenton Point State Park in Newport. The waves were crashing like crazy there, but that didn't prevent the kite fliers from enjoying the breeze. At that point we realized the memory in Mike's camera was not fully inserted while we were at Beavertail. The only photos we got were the ones above. He righted the memory and got some more shots of Brenton Point.

We were hungry for dinner at that point and decided to head to downtown Newport. Busker's Irish Pub had available seats and turned out to be a great place for dinner. Mike and I got the Shepherd's Pie, while Steve got Chicken Marsala and Helen got the Garlic Herb Chicken. We gave four thumbs up!

We rounded out the night by walking around the downtown and stopping for gelato at Cold Fusion. It gave us the energy for the ride back home. Hmm, ok, I slept on the ride back home... But it gave me energy to stay up with Mike until 3 am after we got home!!!

Eating my way through the Vista (Columbia, SC)

As mentioned in previous posts, I traveled to Columbia, South Carolina for work last week. I stayed at the Hilton Columbia Center, located in a part of the city called "The Vista." I did not rent a car, but there were plenty of places to visit on foot so it was a great location.

I arrived on Monday night. I didn't feel like venturing out of the hotel, so I went to Ruth's Chris for dinner. They were offering a Summer Specials menu that had a three course meal for $39.99. I started with a mixed greens and asparagus salad. It was very good (and big!). I selected the Petite Filet and Shrimp for my entree with Sautéed Mushrooms for my side. It was very nicely prepared. The steak was by far the strong point. The mushrooms were fine, just button mushrooms. I had the Fresh Seasonal Berries with Sweet Cream Sauce for dessert to round out the meal. If you are interested, yes, I ate everything (remind me of that when I next complain about weight gain).

By Tuesday night I was ready to explore the area. I saw the Motor Supply Company Bistro in some area literature and decided to give it a try. It was by far my favorite dining experience of the week. The menus are hand-written and change daily, and the food was prepared exquisitely. I had a lovely cold cucumber peach soup to start. It was delicious.

Next, I had White Shrimp served with bacon, corn, and green beans over a bed of rice grits. This truly southern dish was superb. I mean, it was just wow.

I got the Crème brûlée for dessert. I was just tingling with happiness after the meal.

I tried Ristorante Divino Wednesday night. I started with the Insalata Divino (Baby greens, plum tomatoes, gorgonzola cheese, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar). It was nice. I selected Cioppino (Fresh fish, scallops, mussels, calamari, and shrimp in a tomato-garlic saffron broth over linguini) for my entree. There was so much food!!! Very little linguine, and there must have been 15 mussels. This dish was great!

I had a walnut pie with ice cream for dessert. It was very rich. I'd have it over pecan pie any day of the week...

I am glad my meals from Mon-Wed were such hits, because dinner at the Blue Marlin my final night was a huge disappointment. The iceburg wedge was marginal, the Firecracker Flounder was overcooked (and accompanying grits were not seasoned correctly; coleslaw didn't hit the spot), and the Blackout cake was just too much. I ate less than half of the entree and about a third of the dessert. I would not go back to the Blue Marlin.

So, if you ever find yourself in the Vista of Columbia, be sure to check out Motor Supply Co if you have the time! I'd pick Ristorante Divino as second because it is local, and Ruth's Chris last because they have locations everywhere.

Bon appetit!

The Story of My Life...

What I've Been Reading (Last week, anyway)

I know I have been a bit quiet as of late. Traveling kept me busy last week. The free time that surrounded my training sessions was filled with a lot of reading, and very little of much else. I was about 1/2 way through reading Roadside Crosses by Jeffrey Deaver when I left for my trip on Monday. The story features Kathryn Dance, a spin-off character from the Lincoln Rhyme series. The plot is two-pronged: one prong is the continuation of the Daniel Pell case (The Sleeping Doll) and the mercy death of an injured police officer; the other prong follows a serial killer who announces his intentions using roadside crosses. This suspenseful book kept me going. I finished it on my way down to Columbia.




My second book of the week was Lisa Kleypas' Smooth Talking Stranger. This is the third book in Kleypas' series about the wealthy Travis family. Middle son Jack meets strong-willed Ella Varner in this story of unexpected parenthood and family "issues". The story was well-paced and interesting. It was definitely an easy read as a romance.I finished it on Tuesday night...




 Next up was The Neighbor, by Lisa Gardner. Detective D.D. Warren is calling to a missing person's case when Jason Jones reports his wife missing. Of course Jones immediately becomes the primary suspect, and exacerbates suspicion by refusing to talk with the police or actively look for his wife. I kept thinking something about his character struck a chord as I read. Near the end, the tie-in with Gardner's Say Goodbye (which, by the way, was a horrific but well-written story). I was sucked into this story and couldn't wait to find out what happened. Gardner's writing is fast-paced and contains lots of twists and turns. I really like her.


Having finished my supply of books by my flight Friday morning, I stopped at an airport bookstore to get something for the flights home. I had no clue what to get, so I called up Amazon on my iPhone to read ratings and reviews of the books I had to choose from (yup, this really is how I shop). Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had great reviews, so I got it. Larsson was the second best selling author in 2008, behind Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns). Larsson, a Swedish journalist and editor of Expo, died from a heart attack weeks after providing three manuscripts to his publisher for this series. His writing style is very engaging and the story is well written. I am glad there are other books in the series to be read next. The Girl... is set in Sweden and intertwines stories of publisher Mikael Blomkvist, corporate magnate Henrik Vagner, and the troubled Lisbeth Salander. The story line as described by Amazon.com:

Once you start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there's no turning back. This debut thriller--the first in a trilogy from the late Stieg Larsson--is a serious page-turner rivaling the best of Charlie Huston and Michael Connelly. Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch--and there's always a catch--is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo. --Dave Callanan

I am about 1/2 way through and can barely put it down!

The Safest Airlines to Fly On (via Lifehacker)

I got this today from Lifehacker. It is very interesting...

The Safest Airlines to Fly On [Travel]:

There's no accounting for terrible fate and random events, but The Daily Beast wants you to see how major and regional airlines rank in accidents and incidents. It's worth a peek before booking your next flight.

Rudy Maxa ranked, charted, and broke down data from 10 major air carriers using data from Airline-safety-records.com, which itself pulls data regularly from the Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Then he did the same for about 25 prominent regional carriers, the smaller airlines usually contracted by the bigger guys to connect passengers between smaller cities.

Maxa's charts reveal some interesting factoids—like how passengers seated near a plane's tail are 40 percent more likely to survive a crash than those in the first few rows. More interesting, or perhaps disheartening, are the statistics on regional operators, which have

[Regional carriers have] an accidents and incidents rate more than twice as high as the national carriers. 'In the industry, one of the biggest concerns are the regional operators,' says Jim Asker, the managing editor of the trade magazine Aviation Week. Among those The Daily Beast measured, several smaller airlines had perfect safety records, while Midwest (based in Milwaukee and now a subsidiary of Republic Airlines, which has won an auction to acquire Frontier Airlines) had the worst.

Hit the link for a full helping of charts and analysis, and tell us what safety factors you consider when you're arranging air travel in the comments.

How Safe Is Your Airline? [The Daily Beast]

It doesn't take much...

So this made me laugh!

Thumb, thumb, thumb, thumb...

I just thought I would give you a quick update on Michael's thumb. He did see his hand surgeon today. Based upon the point of entry in his thumb, it is likely he is suffering from nerve damage in the thumb, and possibly some torn fiber. His doctor recommends using a paraffin bath, some exercise (offset by wrapping with an ACE bandage), and stimulation from various textures for the next month. Hopefully the numbness will subside and the nerve will repair itself. He can consider surgery at that time, however, there is always a risk that nerve surgery will damage the nerve more than what has already been done.

Next stop: Amazon.com. I scoped out a paraffin machine for him earlier this week. We'll have to grab one to help his thumb.

Have a happy day!

Fun Weekend

Please don't let the lack of posts let you think something is amiss in our little world. We've been having a good time, and that has kept me from having time for blogging!

We took Friday as a vacation day and headed to camp for a long weekend.  We got up Friday morning ready for an adventure. I starting with an attempt to make Aebelskivers, a Norweigan treat, for breakfast. The experiment ended up being a messy flop, but we had fun all the same. I tried two batches before giving up and make a giant pancake for two with the remaining batter.

Next, we headed off for a hike to Rounds Mountain.



View Larger Map

We used to make the hike, top to bottom, in one and a half hours. We knew the path would be overgrown, but gave it a shot.

We greatly underestimated the degree of over-growth. The path was barely passable. It was covered with weeds and briar coated plants that reached out and snagged us.  It took us about 40 minutes to cut a trail 1/2 mile long. Mike used this feet instead of the clearly needed machete or scythe that we did not bring. He was covered with cuts and blood and we were both drenched in sweat when we decided to turn around and bail.

We got back to camp only to realize we'd both being cut to ribbons. Even though I trailed Mike, my fragile skin looked worse for the wear. Below is a photo showing part of the damage. It was taken 24 hours after the hike.

That part of my legs didn't actually look too bad... Luckily, a few soaks later and I am looking much better.

Our next adventure was a trip to Bob's to find out the extent of damage to our trailer. We noticed a wet carpet in the bedroom. They investigated and found that a trim piece had dried out caulking that was letting water wash into the insulation below the trailer. It all has to be replaced, as well as removing and replacing some caulking around the outside. Fortunately the damage was caught very early on. We were lucky.

We headed back to camp and ended up having happy hour with friends. The time was happy and fun until Mike was trying to staple a tablecloth to a table using a staple gun and stapled his thumb instead. Ouch! He didn't even blink, he just pulled the 1/2" staple out of his thumb. He was really hurting on the inside. Fortunately, the healing process seems to be going smoothly. No swelling, no discoloration, no temperature. The site is very sensitive when he hits it wrong and his outer thumb is partially numb. He may or may not go to the doctor (boys).

We hung out at the fire and had a nice evening Friday night, then off to bed! Saturday was the Ghetto event, a pig roast. We needed to rest up. The event ended up being a lot of fun. There was a corn hole championship with a $50 first prize. Food was good and socializing was great.

We came home Sunday in time to have lunch, go for ice cream, cut the grass, wash the cars, and wax the Accord before dinner. Whew! What a weekend!

We hope you had fun, too! Smiles!

The Pastor's Ass

I got this in a forwarded email from Mike's mom today. I think the moral of the story is important, thus the silly content is worth sharing.

The  Pastor's Ass

The  pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won.

The pastor was so pleased  with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won  again.


The local paper read:

PASTOR'S  ASS OUT FRONT.


The Bishop was so upset with this kind of  publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another  race.

The next day, the local paper headline  read:

BISHOP  SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS.

This  was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the  donkey.


The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby  convent.

The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following  headline the
next day:

NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.

The  bishop fainted.

He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the  donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10.


The  next day the paper read:

NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.

This was  too much for the bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead  it to the plains where it could run wild.

The  next day the headlines read:

NUN  ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.

The  bishop was buried the next day.

The moral of the story is . .. . being  concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery . . even  shorten your life. So be yourself and enjoy life..

Stop worrying  about everyone else's ass and you'll be a lot happier and live longer  !

Have  a nice day !

Smiles!

Coyotes, Calves, and Mattie. Oh My!

Last night was pretty interesting on a variety of levels. We were out weeding when the neighbor's son came by. They had run out of gas at the bottom of the hill and had a load of dairy calves they were transporting to Kathy's barn. The father was able to get the calves in the barn while Mike took the son down to the gas station for gas.

On the way to the gas station the son mentioned that they've seen coyotes around their house. One even followed him down the driveway recently. Hmmm, that doesn't bode so well for Mattie. We haven't seen a coyote for about 5 years, but I guess they are out there lurking.

I visited the calves in the barn. Two are about a week old, and the new load of five are just days old. They are so tiny and very sweet! Apparently they were "no sales" at auction, so they are very skinny (all bulls). I hope they make it.

Mike visited with the neighbor when he returned from the trip for gas. As we understand, the coyote are not the only threat to Mattie. Apparently Mattie starts his own problems... He decided to take a trip up to the neighbor's yard Tuesday and managed to get in the pen for the sled dogs (12 or 14 of them). They don't like cats. Someone in the house was able to get Mattie out in time.

The part of the story I've omitted involves Mattie sitting (yes, sitting) in the middle of the street. Heavens, this cat is too carefree. I'm wondering how many of his 9 lives remain. I hope there are still a bunch!

I'll try an get some photos of the calves. In the meantime, stay happy!