Saturday, April 28, 2007
Posted at 7:19:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Scored BIG on the Golden Guides!!
Here's my list of Golden Guides I already had:
- Fishes
- Fossils (2 different editions, by mistake)
- Non-Flowering Plants
- Mammals
- Pond Life
- Reptiles & Amphibians
- The Sky Observer's Guide
- Seashores / Seashore Life (2 dif. editions, intentionally)
- Zoo Animals
And here are all my new ones:
- Cats
- Everglades & the Florida Keys
- Gamebirds
- Rocks & Minerals
- Sea Shells of the World
- Weather
- Zoology
I can tell Zoology is going to be my favorite of the new ones. It has a jellyfish on the front. And it was originally purchased at Caldor (aka the borange store). My new Golden Guides were only $2 each. I also got a book as a present for someone (no, not June) and one called Marvelous Math (for $1), because I liked the pictures. I think it's actually poems about math (what the heck?).
Before The Book Barn, we went to a nearby munching spot called Dad's Restaurant (on Main Street in Niantic) where we all got lobster rolls (well, we got two lobster rolls; the Gs shared theirs). They had the cold style, like at Kimball Farm, and also a hot style (which I've never tried), so I was dilemmaed about which to get, but I decided on the cold style, for my lobster roll comparison contest. (So far, only Kimball Farm in Jaffrey NH and Rick's Crabby Cowboy Cafe in Montauk have competed in the contest.) Verdict: not surprisingly, it was good, but nowhere near as good as Kimball! It was way better than Crabby Cowboy's though. For one thing, it had a New England style hotdog roll, buttered and toasted (but it wasn't as perfect as Kimball's, and wasn't warm). It also had a lettuce liner, but it was shredded lettuce, so it wasn't as crunchy as Kimball's. The lobster had more mayo and celery than Kimball's (if Kimball uses any mayo, it's so subtle you can't even taste it) but it did have nice large pieces with big claws and stuff. So it was definitely good, but I wasn't moaning in pleasure.
After The Book Barn, the M wanted ice cream, so we went to the best-ever-according-to-Sheena ice cream place in Old Lyme. We all got nutty flavs. Butter pecan for me (it was very good), maple walnut AND butter pecan for my G (I didn't try his), and white pistachio for my mom (she loved it, but I hated it because the base ice cream tasted like amaretto). Excellent ice cream, but not as good as Kimball's of course. :-)
We also walked around the grounds at the Gs timeshare, where several weddings were going on. I told the Gs they should have brought fancy clothes so they could crash them (I think that place has weddings nonstop) but they didn't seem too excited about the idea. There's a small beach there and I could smell the ocean. It has very pretty pockets of purple sand, like the pockets of pink sand at Montauk but bluer.
Using the laptop with GPS tail is fantastic. I could go anywhere and never get lost!
Just talked to the Gingers! (They're visiting for the week, staying at a timeshare in Westbrook. And Dean's away for the week, doing his instrument training in Schenectady. I'm planning to watch lots of weird movies he'd hate.) Anyway, we're going to go to The Book Barn today. I suggested it as one of my Activity Ideas (they told me to come up with some ideas, so I actually researched and made a list, with URLs and everything!) and they loved it. Good deal, because I want to go there but it's kind of far all by myself. It's not far at all from where they're staying. I wonder if they'll have some more Golden Guides for my collection??
Posted at 11:53:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Posted at 5:32:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
That mauve magnolia in Middletown is in bloom now, and it's magnificent. Single bohemians (light on the syrup, heavy on the foam) are really really good. And I got a cute little field guide called Life on Intertidal Rocks (marine life of the rocky north Atlantic coast) on the library sale shelf. It has great illustrations. I also snagged another old Golden Guide, The Sky Observer's Guide. The only bad thing is, I don't have any room left on the shelf where I keep my Golden Guides.
Oh, also: this Animals in the Depths of the Sea page is insanely cool. Those octopuses are just amazing looking. And the jellies! I think my fav is the ping-pong tree sponge, though.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
As we were nearing MMK, Dean told me to "Play the most distracting thing you've got" (and loud!) right when he began his instrument approach. I didn't have much time to figure out what that was (and I have over 2,000 songs on my iPod) so I just sort of instinctually picked "Pledging My Time." I have good instincts.
Posted at 10:45:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I kept hearing faint mutters of "Awful!" but he managed to concentrate anyway. The only thing is, the music is way louder through my headset than through Dean's, and that horrific bloodcurdling harmonica blaring for almost four minutes killed my ears. (Or maybe they just wanted to die.)
I computered outside on the deck in the sun this morning! It was really hard to see the screen, but my hair loved it.
That new little weeping something-or-other tree at SBUX is in bloom now, and it's so pretty. White and fluffy. Everything's blooming now.
We watched "Hostage" last night (I didn't remember it at all). It was a pretty boring episode, but I liked the part when Avon kneed Vila.
I think more cakes should have cream cheese frosting.
[Edit, 1:14: P.S. Watched "Countdown" tonight and I was totally rooting for Space Major Provine throughout the whole thing, even though he was supposed to be the bad guy. But he was the best character in the entire episode, including the regulars! And lucky for me, there were lots of Provine scenes.
When Blake was trying to force the wounded/dying Provine to tell him the location of Control/Star One, I urged, "Don't tell him, Provine!" Dean: "Why don't you want him to tell him?" Me: "Because I like Provine!!" I don't have to be rational.
Barely remembered this episode either, except for the melty scenes near the end.]
Rode my bike to the post office, and to the school to vote on the referendum. Beautiful. Magnolias in bloom, perfect temperature. It was so fun!
Posted at 2:54:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Posted at 1:53:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Such a beautiful weekend. For so long it's been dreary cold and dead, and now suddenly everything's happening and the weather is 100% perfect. We visited our land on Saturday. (And Rein's. Dean told me the waitress thought my order was weird.) No BWP Dragonfly voyage yet, because it was idyllic just sitting amongst the pine needles and spring frogsong, looking out across the very clean very high pond, crocuses blooming on the far shore. First we went on a big surveying walk of our woods, all the way up to the ridge and the monolith at the point of the triangle that marks the Willington/Ashford town line. Dean found a small ring-shaped nest for me, and I found the spine of something (a tiny snake according to me) which I left on the monolith as a warning for other snakes. (I love my bulgy veins in that photo.) (I didn't leave the nest there; only the spine.) Stuck my hand in the cool sunny runny shallows as we walked back along the western border, until it was numb with cold. Also found many masses of amphibious eggs in the swamp-pond and in the brook (clear and gelatinous, very clean and full of life).
Today we went to Jaffrey (lobster roll = moan) and on the flight home we could see Harborpark in Middletown, where I went on Friday. The water has retreated a little; the road doesn't look like it's washed out anymore, although the park and restaurant are still flooded. (Dean circled around a few times, so I could get a good view.) We also could see how fat and wide the river was in lots of places as we flew North--instead of looking like a snake, it looks like a snake that's swallowed a series of very large snacks, overbulging its bounds at this town and that, enveloping trees and lowlands on either shore. Like when Smiley ate that melon. [Edit: That little bunch of tall white buildings to the left of the river, about midway down the photo, is Hartford .]
