more summer

So that ME trip went well.  We got the audio book of Captain Blood for the 3h trip.  Lots of fun there!  We had a lovely visit with Cecile and Taylor and Zoe.  Yard sailing Saturday morning was epic!  We found this one place where a professor was cleaning out his house.  He had tons of math books and games and transparencies.  Then off to GNE!  We decided not to bother setting up our tent because it was supposed to rain.  We walked around a bit, had dinner with SharkPit, and waited for the parties to start. I belly danced the rainy night away in the gypsy camp.  The gypsy king actually picked me out of the crowd and asked me to dance for him!  Me!  It was awesome!

We slept in the warm dry car that night and took off at dawn.  Back to Cecile’s to pick up Sukie, and then more Captain Blood on the way home.    lets see, that was 7/11/09? The next event was Retro Game Night X on 8/1/09 at Kate’s house.  Epic.  Hura was even there via video chat!  I believe the next event was when my parents and Nick’s parents came up to visit on 9/4/09.  We went yard saleing (Labor Day is the biggest yard sale day of the year) and hiked to Smith Pond and installed electricity in the garage and got the Chief ready for the drive to Montana.

9/13/09 the beginning of my first cross-country drive!  We left early in the morning and drove to Albany to pick up Kat.  Then on to Cleavland to meet and crash with some of my kin mates from the Celainedhil!  I gave them the t-shirts I made for them and fun was had.  Monday we drove through Chicago to Milwaukee to visit with Mike and Lindsay.  We had an excellent meal of chicken and rice!  Then on to Madison to stay with Aunt Cindy.  We arrived late at night and couldn’t find the numbers on the houses, so we drove around for a little while.  Finally I was like “Stop the car!  I’m going to knock on someone’s door!”  So i did, and it was Aunt Cindy!  Yay!!  She has a beautiful house with 3 beautiful kids, a dog and bird.  Tuesday on to the Bad Lands.  We stayed at a motel just off I 90.  Wednesday morning we drove through the Bad Lands National Park.  Very cool!  Knick’s favorite place!  We had lunch at a tourist stop in Interior and drove on to Bozeman MT.  Hungry and exhausted, we stumbled to Tim and Jane’s apartment and begged for dinner.  That was easy to find.  The hotel was not.  I think we finally found it around 11pm.  We checked in and collapsed.  Thursday Tim’s sister arrived and we all had lunch together and then took Tim on his bachelor party fishing trip to Hyalite Reservoir.  Quote of the Day: “The perfection of the fishing trip would have been spoilt had we actually caught any fish.”
-Katherine.  Then we went bowling and ate greasy food and drank bad beer.  At a loss we found our way back to Tim’s place and were trying to pick out a tasteless movie to watch when Jane and the mothers returned.  So we just went back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub for a while before bed.  Friday was the rehearsal.  So Knick left in the morning with the car and Kat and I caught a ride to the natural history museum with Charles’ wife and son.  For lunch EVERYONE met at the 18 Miles From The Boarder restaurant and we had some lovely mexican food.  Then off to rehearsal for the wedding party.  Kat and I went back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal dinner, which was at this lovely park.  Saturday, the big day!  Knick left early with the car again and Kat and I waited for the bus.  The wedding site was beautiful!  Out in the woods with a view of the mountains!  There was dinner and dancing, but the festivities ended early due to a sever thunderstorm.  So we left in the pouring rain.  Sunday 9/20/09 we said goodbye to everyone and headed down to Yellowstone for our first anniversary.  We saw some mud pots and some waterfalls and elk and bison and several hot springs.  We had roasted chicken, grapes, Dublander cheese, nuts, and veggies with dip for dinner in the car.  It was lovely!  We put the back seats down and slept in the car on a leaky air mattress.  Boy did it get cold at night!  Monday we went for a hike to another waterfall and saw lots more hot springs with crazy colors and we saw Yellowstone lake.  If it had been warmer I would have liked to go for a swim.  As it was I desperately wanted to sit in one of the hot springs.  But they were all too hot.  Then down to the Grand Tetons to stay the night.  We couldn’t find a cabin for less than $100 a night, so we slept in the car again.  bla.  Tuesday we hiked a small mountain. What a view!  And had lunch by Johnson Lake?  Very beautiful!  Time to head back east!  We drove as far as we could that day and ended up sleeping in Kimball NE.  The room was nice but kind of expensive for being out in the middle of nowhere, but I was done sleeping in the car!  Wednesday, on to Iowa City, Iowa to stay with cousin Ben and his lovely girlfriend.  They have a very cool flat and a very comfortable couch.  Thursday back to Cleavland to stay with my kinnies!  We cooked for ourself after getting ingredients from the farmer’s market down the street.  Poor Ala was feeling sick, so we had a quiet night.  Friday we had to stop in Buffalo to see the Niagara falls.  I had never been.  Everything was expensive there, so we just walked around and saw the free sites.  Then back home, finally.  I would do it again, but not for a long time.

Next event was Chris and Nora’s wedding on Long Island 10/24/09.  We drove down to MA and caught a ride with Mike and Lottie.  We stopped on our way for the best fast food ever, Boston Market!  We missed the rehearsal dinner, but thats ok.  Saturday it rained, but the wedding was so beautiful!  I had a good time and I got to wear my prom dress again!  Sunday morning was bright and sunny and I don’t remember the drive back.  I probably slept through most of it.

11/21/09 Gina’s 6th Annual Middle Eastern and American Belly Dance Show!  What a rush!  My mom, Lottie, Lottie’s mom and Sukie came to see me dance!  It was awesome!  They got me flowers and everything!  Mom stayed for a couple days and then we drove down to NJ together for Thanksgiving.  What a lovely time!  My favorite holiday!  Just family and food and thankfulness!  We stopped by Uncle Dave’s on the way home Saturday night.

Then I got laid off.  But hey, now I had free time to finish making christmas presents!  Actually, no one got anything from me.  But I’m not going to go out and buy crap for people cuz I ran out of time.  They’ll get something awesome when I find it.  Christmas was in MA with Knick’s parents.  So relaxing and full of amazing food!  Home made ravioli and 7 fishes!

And that about catches me up.  I’m back in catering and I’m also doing web design for a friend.  very cool.  And attempting to get back into babysitting so I can have some fun money.  And I’m applying for jobs with game studios.  let me know if you know anyone who can get me 3D Artist position!

Summer

Let the parties begin!

6/20/09 in NYC for TallFest 28. The drive was no problem until the last set of directions. Took us 3 tries to get off the highway at the right exit. But we made it just in time to park at Kimball’s and catch a cab to the Astoria Beer Garden for some perogi, lots of beer, and lots of laughs. We stayed there Saturday night. Sunday we met Sheila for lunch at a lovely Tia place and stopped for Italian cookies on our way back to Kimball’s to get the car and get the heck outta this huge and crazy city!

Thursday 6/25 on the road again, down to the Cape to spend 2 slendiferous days on the beach with Nick’s parents at this cute little cabin. It was very relaxing. Nothing to do but nap in the warm sun. ^_^

Saturday 6/27 back to NYC for my great Uncle’s funeral. It was really beautiful. They had it in this catholic church full of stained glass, and then 2 soldiers played Taps and folded an American flag for my great aunt. We also saw cousin John and Udi, and had lunch with them at this lovely little Greek place. Good food.

7/4/09 Would have been back in NYC for my grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary party, but they canceled due to my great uncle’s death. So we enjoyed a relaxing long weekend at home. Friday we did lawn work (it finally stopped raining long enough to cut the grass). Saturday we were in and out. The weather was crazy! 5 min of downpour, 5 min of sun, 5 min of rain, and so on. Our neighbors set off quite a show of fireworks, which we enjoyed from our bedroom window. The best way to watch fireworks, warm and bug free on a cumfy couch. ^_^ Sunday was glorious! We spent the day reading in the backyard, and then had the Diehns over for some s’mores! What fun!

This coming weekend 7/11/09 we may combine two ME trips into one fun filled weekend of epic yard saling, bbq and mad SCA camping (GNE). I’ll let you know how it goes.

We hope to stay home for the rest of the summer.

Oh, and in the beginning of May I had my first (an probably only) visit to Houston TX! We went to Galviston and I got to stand in the Golf of Mexico! the water was so warm! Like bath water! Brian showed me around Houston and took me and Sarah bar hopping. Graduation was hot and long, and then off to the airport for a family beach vacation on the Outer Banks! Oops! gg. more to come!

Cold?

I call it the lunch cube.

This weekend was so awesome!  I played LotRo all weekend!  And I got so much done!  It feels great!  I baked brownies, banana muffins and sandwich bread.

I finished my super cute, soft, warm, flannel pjs!

I made an advent wreath from stuff around the house.

…..We put up Christmas lights.  And we insulated 3 windows! Imagine what we could accomplish if we could stay home all the time!

Here’s a good project for anyone who lives in cold weather and has old windows.  We got 5 4x8ft sheets of sliver, closed cell, ridged foam; a utility knife; and 4 rolls of 34ft weather stripping for $175 at the local hardware store.  Had to tie it to roof of the car.  Anyway, Knick did some fancy math and figured out how to use one sheet for 3 26×60″ windows.  We cut out the pieces with our fancy new utility knife and duct taped them together.  Then tape around the edges to keep the foam from crumbling/shedding on your carpet.  And go around the edges with weather stripping for a good seal on the window.  Don’t forget to put a tab on the bottom edge, to make it easier to get the foam back out of the window. 

And there you have it!  3 windows insulated in one evening.  The only problem is, its get really dark inside.  So, when you are home during the day, you can just take the foam out of the windows and let the sun shine in. They are also super ugly.  I’m going to cover them with paper, or fabric.  What ever I can acquire on the cheap.  Then I’m gonna paint a scene across all the windows!  Not sure what yet though.  Just trying to get the foam in for now.

There is also this pink ridged foam stuff. But I don't think its as good. It was harder and messier to cut.

This morning it was 0.6 deg F out.  Our older windows on the east side were totally iced over on the storms.  I can’t wait to get the rest of the windows insulated.  I hope it makes a huge difference in our heat costs.

this was THE weekend…

…for leaf peepers. The weather was perfect! Sunny, 70deg, clear blue skies from Friday to Sunday, and the leaves are blazin’! I tried to capture some of the glory that is New England in the fall, but I have to say, these photos don’t do it justice.

Mascoma Lake

Good old New England church

The stream that runs paralelle to the rail trail

The rail trail

yellow

My back yard

Just a cool shot.

There is an old abandon (I think) factory on the rail trail, that I think would make the coolest condos if renovated.

part of the abandon factory

abandon factory

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

9/19 is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Pirates attacked our wedding rehearsal that evening. My sister got the only picture. When the pastor said “Speak now or forever hold your peace,” they jumped out of the woods! The groom’s men were caught by surprise and the pirate captain was able to take me hostage rather quickly. But in less than a minute the men had killed all the scurvy knaves but one. The groom challenged the pirate captain openly as she held me in front of her like a shield. Stealthily, my sister snuck up behind the swashbuckler and stabbed her in the back! And so, disaster was averted on the day before my wedding.

The not-so-dead pirates then crashed the rehearsal dinner, which was a back yard cook out. Our lovely neighbors used their awesome grill to cook everything for us. That was such a huge help. We just have this little charcoal grill that could feed maybe 10 people tops. There were over 70 at the dinner.

9/20/08 was glorious! Clear blue skies, 70 degrees out, no wind, the trees were just starting to turn. We could not have had better weather!

The ceremony was beautiful. Pastor J did an amazing job! He spoke about losing our marbles, and the importance of saying “You are right. I am sorry. Please forgive me.” And the father of the bride and the mother of the groom read some excellent readings from the Bible and the Prophet.

My mom made all the dresses, by the way, including her own (except for Lottie’s. Lottie did her own.) She worked so hard this year. She is so amazing!

And another huge thanks to Lottie, Linda, and Maureen, who kept mom sane and helped with the last minute sewing and all the decorations while I sat on the couch like a zombie.

The reception was nice. i don’t really remember much of it cuz people kept asking for pictures. And we got some great ones!

The toasts

The signing of the marriage certificate

The AO picture

The Hopkinton picture

The Battle

The Cake

The cutting of the cake

After that it was starting to get pretty chilly and a lot of people left. But we still had some dancing with the valiant few who lasted till the end.

The first dance

The second dance

Some more dancing

blogging

…is pretty cool! I’ve had fun posting. Also, wordpress posted a “related link” on my “Stuff” post. It links to the magazine (as far as I can tell) called Green Daily and they just have a bunch of articles related to sustainable living. I couldn’t stop reading! (until just now) I found a bunch of useful tips in just 1 hour of poking around. (I read slow) And here’s what I found so far:

Ways to get rid of flies – Make sure doors and windows are sealed so flies can’t get in in the first place. Flies dislike pine oil, mint, basil and cloves. I wouldn’t mind putting those things around the kitchen. Also, you can put out a bit of sweet red wine for the fruit flies. You’ll have a floating grave yard in the morning.

Bank of America – all their new buildings are super green, and they have a credit card where, for every dollar you spend BofA will donate a dollar to help community-based renewable energy projects in the US. That seems pretty cool.

Laundry – always do a full load. zip up zippers and do any repairs before putting your stuff in the wash. It helps make the clothes last longer. I guess that makes sense. If the clothes don’t get tangled up and stretched out … less stress on the fabric… *nods*

Eat less meat and save the world – IPCC says meat production, from clearing the land, to cow emissions, to processing plants and transportation, makes up almost 18% of green house gas emissions. Plus a can of beans is generally much cheaper than meat. I don’t have a problem with eating less meat.

That’s all for now! I really should get back to work…

Stuff

A lot has happened since my last post. Finally got that Earth Magic book. Haven’t had a chance to read it yet though. We bought a new car 8/4/08. Still haven’t sold the old one. We went on an EPIC yardsale Labor Day weekend. We hit about 20 yard sales in 4h? I found a cheese grater like the one Nick’s parents have (he’s been wanting his own) and I got a new bike for $5! and some wedding stuff. And I’m getting married in 1.5 weeks. And I’ve been sick for the past week.

That’s about it. Did some cleaning last weekend. Got some more cleaning to do this weekend. Been checking prices on flowers and food for the wedding. Our Caterer, Ron of Seasons MarketPlace in Enfield, is so awesome! He’s been more than helpful and is giving me a GREAT price on this fabulous dinner! He told me how much food to buy for the rehearsal dinner cookout and places to get it for cheap! He’s given me suggestions on flower shops and bakers, he’s letting us use his walk-in (fridge) and his super huge cooler and he’s letting us make the pasta for the lasagna, to make the evening just a little more special! He’s also getting all his food from local farms and he’s using stone ware serving dishes to give everything a home-made look. ^_^ I’m really excited. This is going to be awesome! Plus we are going apple picking at a local farm, RiverView Farm in Plainfield, and they have pick your own flowers for $9 a pound! So we can pick our own flowers for the tables!

Naturally, I’ll have a ton of pics to post after the wedding. Our first awesome photographer’s car fell into the river and she lost all her equipment and all her contact info. So I freaked out when I couldn’t get in contact with her and hired another awesome photographer who runs the beer olympics every year. He’s great and his work is awesome. Eli Burka Photography. I don’t know if I posted about the beer olympics. The pics are online. The beer olympics were 8/16/08. He’s made some really funny trailers for this event.

Anyway, the wedding is going to be awesome and I’m very excited! Wedding planning has taken over my life for the past year and I’ll be happy to relax when it is all over, and look at the awesome pictures. My mom has been a huge help! Because I’m really picky (about some things) and wanted a medieval-ish wedding, I had the girls make their own brides maids dresses (to save money). But, not everyone sews and my mom ended up making 3 out of the 4 dresses. Plus she made my dress! And she’s been doing shopping for me for decorations and such. My mom rocks! And so does my sister! She’s putting together a slide show of pics of us (the bride and groom) to show our guests, and she’s doing my dance music as well! And both my awesome mom and my awesome sister will be in charge of decorating the tent.

So, yeah. wedding stuff has been my life so that’s all I really have to talk about. Besides being “green”. The general idea of the green rant I have not posted yet is that: one should not be “green” because it happens to be “in” right now. One should be “green” because one cares. I don’t like the term “green” either. But its shorter than saying “environmentally conscious” or “sustainable living” and I’m lazy. Oh! I haven’t posted about low impact housing! or my dream house that I will build some day. Another time perhaps. “I sleep now!” (a quote from The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra)

Plantain

Not the banana, but the weed in your back yard. Apparently its also called Plantago. Anyway, this weed is wicked awesome! If you get a bug bite you just pick some of these leaves…

and chop them up….

and tape them onto your bite, just like this…
and, boom! Your nasty bug bite is gone! The leaves suck out the poison from the bite. Even days after you’ve gotten bitten, plantain still works! I got several really bad bug bites the other day, but never found the time to chop some leaves until now. I put them on the 2 day old swollen bites, and now the swelling and itching are gone!

I’ll post more on super awesome weeds in your back yard as soon as I get that Earth Magic book….

Cool Card

My college room mate just sent me this awesome card with an awesome envelope! Check it out!

I removed the writing.

And check out the envelope!

I removed the writing.

But the coolest part is that Tree-Free Greetings uses Kenaf to make their paper! Here’s what they say on the back of the card:
“Paper can be made from any plant fiber, not just trees. We use tree-free alternatives like Kenaf whenever possible. This fibrous plant grows 15 feet in just five months, uses no harmful chemicals in processing and is fully recyclable. Kenaf is grown here in North America – bringing income to farmers and preserving our forests. We continue to strive toward the use of 100% tree-free paper. Unfortunately, it is a struggle to find it in the quantity and the quality we need. Every card purchase helps us to build a more consistent supply of tree-free paper, ultimately helping our forests to stay tree-full.”

Thanks Monica! You rock!

Cool research

Yesterday Lorie Loeb came to the Interactive Media Lab to talk about her work at Dartmouth College. Lorie is co-director of the Digital Arts Minor and Research Associate Professor in the computer science department at Dartmouth College. The reason she came to speak to us is to create connections between groups with similar goals. She and the Lab both seek to create and use interactive technology to teach people in a meaningful way.

The project that inspires me the most is The Real-time Energy Display Project or Green Lite Dartmouth, aimed at lowering energy use at Dartmouth through information and compelling real-time feed-back.

What a great idea! We have all this technology, lets put it to good use! For example, there is a little graph on my water bill showing my water usage for the term. But I can’t make heads or tails of it! And it looks like my water usage for May was way high. I don’t remember what I was doing in May. This graph is useless to me, in terms of monitoring my water usage and finding ways to use less water (not only to cut the bill but save on the environment too!) If I could log onto a web page like Green Lite Dartmouth and see how much water I just used in the shower, maybe I’d take faster showers. Or is it the washer that uses so much water?

Lorie guides students to explore how to use interactive technology and animation to inspire other students to be more conscious of their energy usage. Dartmouth installed digital meters in some of the dorms. The information is fed into a data base and then displayed online and on low-energy displays, so students can monitor their energy usage.

But how do we get people to care about their energy usage? By displaying the information in a fun way that evokes an emotional response. Graphs and charts can get boring fast, but Sonia Lei ’08 used Flash to animate a polar bear who reacts to the energy usage in the dorms. High energy usage distresses the bear, and low energy usage makes the bear happy.

For me, just having a live meter in my home would help me a lot. The fun presentation is less important to me because I already care. If I could effect the polar bear I’d go around turning on and off the lights just to see all the different animations. But after that, I’d try to keep the polar bear happy.

What I also like about this project is that the information is gathered by dorm, or floor, to inspire friendly competition between groups or teams of students. Who’s polar bear is the happiest today? If the information was gathered from smaller units, like a single dorm room, more passionate students may gang up on someone who uses more electricity… But keeping the groups larger, I think, helps to eliminate that blame game. This is just my uninformed opinion. Dartmouth is doing research into the subject right now! What is a good sample size? Is the polar bear effective? How can we make it better? Is it useful to allow students to have this information sent to their cell phones or to present it in many different ways?

I had no idea work was being done like this. But I think its a great idea and I can’t wait for it to filter down to the individual consumer from the larger organizations.

And this leads nicely into my rant on being “green”, which I will get around to posting one of these days.