CSA

We joined a winter Community Supported Agriculture a couple weeks ago. I had heard about it back in the spring from some friends and it sounded like a really neat idea. You pay a lump sum up front to a participating local farm and then every week you get a certain amount of fresh produce/eggs/meat for a period of weeks. I believe ours is ten weeks and we are two weeks into it. So far it's been great! We are getting to try a lot of veggies that neither of us have eaten before or pretty much strayed away from. So far we've gotten a hubbard and acorn squash, kale, collards, spinach, kohlrabi, variety of lettuces, Italian sausage, breakfast sausage, and whole wheat flour. The kohlrabi was the weirdest veggie we've gotten so far, followed closely by this baked hubbard.. green alien egg anyone?


I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it yet, you are supposed to be able to use it like pumpkin.. we'll see. The acorn squash was really yummy though. I found a recipe in Joy of Cooking and it turned out really well. This was definitely the first time either of us had acorn squash and Glenn who is leary of winter squash, loved this combination of baked squash stuffed with apples, dried cherries, orange zest, apple cider, a little brandy and some cinnamon and nutmeg. I think my favorite thing so far has been the kohlrabi, probably cause it was delicious simply sauteed in a little butter. I think it would be good just plain raw too.

Another reason to love fall.. strange veggies!

MACE 2009 (warning, geekery)

This past weekend I went to MACE (Mid-Atlantic Convention Expo, a backronym if ever I saw one...), the "largest gaming convention in the Carolinas." I have no idea if that claim is true, but it was certainly a good-sized event, with a whole lot of gaming going on. My past gaming convention experience consists of only two extremes - Dragon*Con, attendance about 30,000 (!), and a one-day event put on by the UGA Gamer's Association, attendance about 30. So this event was, obviously, somewhere in the middle size-wise - I'd guess about 300 people were there, more or less.

As I see it, a con like this is a chance to try new games that I've never played before, so I consciously avoided any games that I'm already familiar with. As a result, I got to try five different game systems: Call of Cthulhu, Dark Heresy, Changeling: the Lost, Kobolds Ate My Baby!, and Savage Worlds. Conveniently, this also let me play in five different genres as well: 1920s supernatural horror, science-fiction Spanish Inquisition, modern urban fantasy, silly fantasy, and weird Wild West.

I quite enjoyed all five games - the people running the games at this con were clearly very good at this, and everyone I met seemed easy to get along with, which was a pleasant surprise. (Obviously, when you sit down at a gaming table with five strangers to play a game that half of you haven't ever played, you're taking quite a gamble...) The most impressive by far was the Call of Cthulhu game - the game master had detailed floor plans of the haunted house we were investigating, plus individual "newspaper clippings" that he handed out as we did our research in the town archives, and the journal entries from a madman that we found genuinely gave me chills, which I wouldn't have thought was possible in a convention environment (i.e., sitting at a table in a hotel ballroom with a half dozen other games going on around me.)

There were a few minor glitches - the gaming areas were all massively over-air-conditioned, while the hotel rooms themselves were overly warm, and two of my games were double-booked with other games at the same table - but that sort of thing is to be expected. All in all, I had a great time, and schedule permitting, I will definitely try and go again next year.

Anyone still reading this? Wow, brownie points for you! Now, go and read something more interesting! :-)

SchnOctoberFest

Our friends Eric and Leandra invited us to come along with them to SchnOctoberFest, an awareness and fundraising event put on every year by the local miniature schnauzer rescue group. I have to say, now that I've been, there's something about the feeling of being surrounded by dozens of mini schnauzers that you just wouldn't get from being among an equal amount of dogs of different breeds. Maybe it's just the sudden awareness that there are a LOT of schnauzers in the Triangle area, or maybe it's just the fun of seeing how many different sizes, colors, and temperaments that you can find among even a single breed, but it was unquestionably a thoroughly unique and fascinating experience.

The event was spread out enough that I wasn't able to get any pictures that really captured the sheer schnauzerness of it all, but at least I got a few cute pictures of our own "Barky von Schnauzer".


Pasha being coaxed into the agility dog tunnel. Not pictured: her U-turn and exit, 0.5 seconds later.


Pasha is usually either completely wired or conked out and dead to the world. Here, a rare, calm middle state is seen.

If you want some more pictures, check out Leandra's post about the event. As usual their pictures are much better than mine (Experience and a fancy camera really does make a difference compared to my amateurish point-and-shoot technique...!) but I think our dog is cuter anyway. ;-)

Blowing Rock

We spent last weekend in Blowing Rock, NC for our 2.5 year anniversary. (a whole quarter of a decade!) Blowing Rock is a very cute town, right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. We spent Thursday afternoon after we arrived walking down the main street of town and looking in all the shops. That night we had dinner at Bistro Roca Antlers Bar, a restaurant in town that Glenn had heard a recommendation for. It was really great food and I would recommend to anyone heading out that way. I just wish we had made it back there again!

Friday we had a full day of exploring! We started out first thing in the morning to Crabtree Falls. It was about a hour and half drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway...through some really dense fog. It made for quite a mystic drive - except for all the turkeys on the side of the road. The falls were beautiful and worth the hike back up the mountain.


After the falls we decided to embrace our inner kid and go "Gem mining." Or otherwise known as "sifting through gravel on the flume to find all of the stones they've added." It was great fun though. We found a lot of garnets, rubies, and quartz though nothing of any significant value. :)

The tricky task of "flume mining"

After working up quite an appetite trying to find some precious gems we stopped at the Little Switzerland Cafe a couple miles north of Crabtree Falls off the Parkway. Cute little place that locals and us tourists alike seem to enjoy. Next we were off to Linville Caverns, the only caverns in NC open to the public. The limestone formations look like they are straight out a sci fi movie. I was fine until they took us down this tiny little tunnel and started talking about how deep the water was beneath the grate under our feet. Yikes!

And here is an example of the pretty views we had driving back the Parkway.

We had a great time. Thanks Glenn for the wonderful trip! :)

Onto the next great adventure..

So now that we've had the house warming party and the house is in a livable state I'm feeling like its time for the next big (or medium, or even small) thing. Done with the house, onto the next project/idea/object of focus! ....Like, traveling!

Our Fall season is starting to fill up with trips and I'm really looking forward to it. While we were looking, buying, moving into, and settling into the house we didn't really go anywhere (nevermind that we had just got back from Ireland and Vegas, that's beside the point) but now that it's all over with I'm ready to hit the road! Well that, and I can see the end of summer is so very close and I will get a reprieve from sweating like a pig* - and be able to enjoy the outdoors again! Oh how I love thee, Autumn! So far there are a couple camping trips in the works, a quarter-decade anniversary trip to the NC mountains**, a trip to Busch Gardens, and a weekend trip home to see family. YAY

Back later with more info.
Heather


*I broke my summer hibernation rule by going to the Lazy Daze art festival this past Saturday. It was an awesome festival with a lot of cool stuff that we drooled over, boggled at the prices of, and a few things that we happily carried home. Some of these included a jack-o-lantern made from a propane tank and a few cute hand sewn pumpkins. (Again, can you tell we are looking forward to Fall??) We went early in hopes of beating the summer heat with no luck there - I almost drowned in my skin at one point. I thought we were moving somewhere cooler than GA. How sadly we were mistaken.

** Glenn has planned our anniversary trip with little input from me. Its great to have a trip coming up that I don't have to worry about planning. I'm really looking forward to seeing whats in store! :-)

Catching up and settling in

Wow… it's been six weeks since my last post… how'd that happen? Clearly I've been slacking off on the blogging — time to fix that!

So, what's happened lately? Nothing much… and by nothing much, I mean a lot!

The biggest thing is that we're really, truly moved in and settled in now. Everything's unpacked except for stuff that's staying in storage, the furniture is arranged in pleasing and practical ways, pictures and artwork are all in place on the walls… it's a wonderful feeling! We put in a major push over the last couple weeks to get everything ready for the housewarming party and it was worth it. It's amazing how motivational a deadline can be, isn't it?

I think we actually surprised people with how settled in we are now — we got more than one comment about how “it looks like you've been living here for years.” (I think they meant that positively — “you've got it all figured out and made comfortable” — rather than the opposite — “jeez, you've been here for two months and already trashed the place!”…)

Anyway, I've really been struck lately by how everything in this house already has meaning for us and memories associated with it. It's a really good feeling. I'm going to post some examples now — please bear with my ramblings, or ignore them and just see some of the house pictures you've been asking for (though now that we've had the open house, a lot of you have already seen this stuff by now!):

Of course the pictures on the wall themselves have a lot of meaning — our wedding, the places we've traveled together — but the stairway itself also makes me think of how Heather spotted the opportunity that this big blank wall presented, and how we worked together to get the pictures arranged and hung aesthetically. A real team effort!

Our office/guest room/craft room is full of thoughts and memories. The bookcases from our eight-hour IKEA shopping spree. My D&D books and miniatures, both old and new. Even the successful room layout itself, which came from Heather saying thoughtfully, about a week after we moved in, “This room just isn't working! What if we switched all of the furniture around the opposite of how we have it right now?” This is a really cozy, comfortable room, exactly as it should be.

Our “Mickey's Shadow” walls make the bedroom a wonderfully tranquil place. The bed frame was a spontaneous purchase when we found a deal too good to refuse, a pleasant change from our usual modus operandi (see also, 8 hours at IKEA). The comforter on the bed was made for us by my mother from the tablecloths at our wedding rehearsal dinner.

See what I mean? Memories and good feelings everywhere I look!

House Pictures

Oh yeah, people keep requesting pictures of the house. I'm not sure how to give you any more pictures of the house. Do you know how hard it is take pictures of the inside of a house? Very tricky indeed. I end up with furniture pictures mostly and that's not very exciting. So until you let me know what it is you want to see (or come visit!) here is the front again:

Huh, yeah this is when we first bought it.. now imagine crazy overgrown hedges with weeds around them. We haven't quite made it to the outside of the house yet. We are in serious need of some hedge trimmers and a weed whacker.* Glenn at least keeps the grass at a reasonable height thanks to a cool push reel mower I found on Craig's list. (No really, he wanted a push reel mower, I didn't surprise [punish] him with it.)

The inside consists of 2 upstairs bedrooms and a bathroom. The bottom floor is the living room, kitchen, dining nook, craft/office/misc/guestroom room. All with new floors that I think we mentioned before. :) So there, now you've seen everything.

*Well that, and some motivation to get out in the July sun to do anything with them.