The year of the hat

In my little queendom of knitting, 2011 was the year of the hat. The first project that I completed back in January was this fish hat for Aidan:


The last project I completed in 2011 was also a hat for Aidan:


In between those two hats were 22 other projects, 15 of which were hats. Why so many hats? I like knitting them, we need hats in New York winters and they make great baby gifts. Nine of the hats were part of Project Amelia, providing hats for babies who did not come home from the hospital.

So while I do not plan to knit so many hats in 2012, there are two more in the works that will be completed early in the year: a lovely cabled hat for James and a fun sock yarn hat for me. But I also plan to complete the dreaded ribbon vest for my mother (I pledged to her that she would have it by 31 January. Of 2012) and the lovely pink wrap for my Aunt Eula. After that, who knows?

Happy 2012!

Pork malfeasance

After we took Mom to the airport yesterday to start her journey back to Knoxville, Aidan and I went to Denny's for a late breakfast. Build Your Own Grand Slam breakfasts were just the antidote to a chilly, gray morning and we both earned membership in the Clean Plate Club.

The people in the booth behind us left just before us and as we passed their table, Aidan said, "They committed crimes against bacon!" They had not eaten all of their bacon, which is a travesty of culinary justice in Aidan's opinion; he is, after all, a great fan of bacon.

He was still shaking his head in disbelief as we left the restaurant.

Snow behind

We woke up on Saturday to find snow on the ground, and while that is normally not news in central New York in December, it was our first snowfall of at least one inch this winter season. And it was barely an inch, with the tips of grass blades poking through. Our snowfall this winter season is a whopping 1.7" of snow.

I'll say it again: 1.7 inches of snow so far this winter.

Compare that to last year when by this time we had received 71.7" of snow; I wrote about the 40+ inches of snow that fell between December 5 and December 9. Even an average year boasts about 27" by this time. And while it will feel very weird to not have snow on the ground on December 25 - weather experts at Cornell University give only a 68% chance of a white Christmas - most people are not complaining. We know, after all, that there will be snow sometime soon.

So while we are snow behind, that is okay with us.

Deck the balls...

Deck the halls with sparkly, not schweddy balls! Back in September, I made my first knitted ornament, and over the weekend, I completed the twelfth and final ornament. The glass ornaments were sold by the dozen, so it made sense to me to use all twelve:


I used four different types/colors of sock yarn:


Once I got comfortable with the pattern, I played around with the bead placement:


I will use the ornaments mainly as teacher/staff gifts as well as a few for friends and family. If there is one left over, I will hang it on our tree:


And now for a word about Schweddy Balls: I looked for this flavor of Ben & Jerry's ice cream at Wegmans for weeks with no success. One day I went into Tops for one or two items and, on a whim, checked their frozen food case. Schweddy Balls! We tried it...not bad, but certainly no Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

O Christmas tree

Isn't it lovely?

We are very excited to have our first Christmas tree in three years. Yes, that is correct: the last time we had a fully decorated Christmas tree was in 2008. In 2009, Aidan and I left Georgia just before Christmas to join James in New York, only bringing some of our possessions; Christmas decorations were not part of the items that made the trip then. And because we left before Christmas, I did not go to the trouble of putting up a tree and then taking it down again before we left. James had a tree for us when we arrived in New York but he only bought a few decorations for it.

Last year, we moved into our new home just before Thanksgiving and had not yet unpacked our decorations. And, since we spent Christmas in Michigan with my brother and his family, we did not add to our unpacking workload by putting up a tree.

On Saturday, we drove out to a local tree farm and cut a Frasier fir. James has long wanted to cut his own tree, so he was excited to play lumberjack. We brought it home and got it set up, then yesterday we decorated it. It was such fun to unpack our boxes of decorations and to reacquaint ourselves with the ornaments. We don't have a fancy-schmancy color coordinated or theme tree; our tree is a lovely mishmash of ornaments that have special meaning to us. There are ornaments that Aidan has made over the years, ornaments that we purchased while on trips and even a few ornaments that were on our family tree when I was growing up. Some are elegant, some are obviously homemade and some are downright kitschy but we adore them all.

I sat in the darkened living room last evening, sipping wine and enjoying the lights and sparkles. It was not until that moment that I realized how much I had missed our Christmas tree.

Not for the faint of heart

Warning: this blog post contains talk of bodily functions – proceed at your own risk.

Parenthood is not for sissies; it can test your patience, your nerves, and sometimes, your gag reflex.

We have not been a well bunch. The last ten days have seen all three of us dealing with colds, and on Tuesday night I got the Headache from Hell that laid me flat until well into Wednesday. Then in the wee small hours of Friday morning, a figure appeared by my side of the bed. “Mommy, I’m going to throw up,” Aidan announced.

I managed to shake myself out of sleep and say, “Then go to the bathroom!” He got there in time before, sure enough, throwing up. After he finished and I helped him clean up a bit, he told me that he didn’t want to go back to his bed but wanted to sleep in the guest room. With me. I understood that he wasn’t feeling well and needed comforting, so I agreed. What a night. Aidan got up two more times during the night to vomit and even while in the bed, he was restless.

Going to school was certainly not an option. His stomach continued to be uneasy and by 9 am, his gastrointestinal tract joined the party (er, potty?). I am shocked that Homeland Security did not come a-knocking because the stench in the bathroom was most definitely a Weapon of Mass Destruction. The exhaust fan was completely overwhelmed so despite temperatures in the upper 30s, I had the bathroom window wide open.

Both ends calmed down around noon and the poor child was hungry. I allowed him to have a plain piece of bread, a banana and some water. All seemed to be well as he sat down to play on the computer around 2:30. I was around the corner in the kitchen when I heard an odd noise. When I asked Aidan about the noise, he said “I threw up again.” And boy, did he ever. I honestly think that is the first time I ever had to clean vomit off a wall and I hope it is the last time. I am very thankful, however, that he turned away from the computer because I do not know how I would have cleaned bits of partially digested banana out of a keyboard.

Dinner for Aidan was plain rice and saltines, which did manage to stay down. He got a good night of sleep in his own bed and today is back to normal. If only we could recover that quickly.

That'll do

There is a page on Ravelry, the incredible online fiber community, where all kinds of contests are listed. While many of the contests involve chance (post a comment and a random generator will pick a winner), some involve some kind of participation or skill. Two weeks ago a contest called "Name the Alpacas" was posted. That'll Do Farm in Grafton, Ohio ran out of names before they ran out of baby alpacas - crias - and needed two more names. The only requirement for the names is that they had to start with the letter "b".

My suggestion was Balderdash for the gorgeous black female and Bourbon for the handsome golden brown male. Much to my surprise, the name Bourbon was chosen! His full registered name is "That'll Do Black Forests Bourbon Buzz" but you can call him Bourbon for short - his friends all do. You can read the farm's droll account of the brias and their names and see photos of the gorgeous alpacas at their blog.

So what did I win? That'll Do Farm sent me a gorgeous skein of 90% alpaca and 10% Merino yarn in a rich dark brown/black shade. It looks just black at first glance, much like our cat Spenser, but look at the yarn in the sunlight and you can see the brown tones, too. I tried and tried to take a good photo, but this is the best I could do:


The photo does not show the subtle sheen of the yarn. It is gorgeous, decadent and soft. And get this: the 90% alpaca in the yarn came from Bourbon's mother, Charlie's Angel - that'll do, for sure.

A grand day out

Wallace and Gromit would have approved of what we did yesterday: we visited three farms on the Finger Lakes Cheese Trail. Yesterday was the 2011 Holiday Open House and all farms were open to visitors from 10 am to 5 pm.

Our first stop was 4 Tin Fish Farm, a goat dairy in Conquest. Owners Andrew and Kim have a small herd of Alpine dairy goats, and produce chevre and feta cheeses. Andrew took us into the barn to meet their very friendly and inquisitive goats. Aidan quickly made a new friend:


Andrew even let Aidan go into one of the stalls, where he was quickly surrounded:


Although it may not be apparent from the photo, Aidan loved being amongst the goats and we had a difficult time getting him to come out of the stall.

Doesn't it look like this goat is smiling?


Although there was no feta available, we tasted, enjoyed and purchased the herb chevre. Last night we topped our grilled hamburgers with the chevre and the result was delicious.

Once we pried Aidan away from the goats, we drove down to Auburn to have lunch at one of the restaurants that 4 Tin Fish Farm supplies, Bambino's Bistro. What a delight! We had a delicious, satisfying and very affordable lunch, and we would go out of our way to stop in Auburn to eat there again.

We then traveled down to King Ferry to visit Keeley's Cheese Company at McGarr Farms. McGarr Farms is a third generation dairy farm with Holsteins and Jerseys. We met Keeley, who makes a semi-soft Irish-style cheese in the washed rind style. She had both regular and reserve cheese available, and all three of us preferred the slightly sharper and more complex reserve. We bought a wedge, said hello to a few of the cows in the barn and headed to our third and final stop.

Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery produces probiotic raw milk kefir cheese using the milk from their Irish Dexter cows. The Dexters are more petite than many breeds and are very pretty:


I like the various rich colors of their coats:


Neither James nor Aidan cared much for the cheese, so we did not make a purchase. We pointed the car north and drove up the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake, enjoying the beautiful weather and the beautiful scenery.

Would you like some cheese, Gromit?

Spelling bee

Two days ago, Aidan participated in the Baldwinsville Central School District Oral Spelling Bee Championship, which determined the 14 finalists for the Post Standard/WCNY Regional Spelling Bee. Aidan was one of 54 students in grades 4 - 8 who participated and one of only seven grade 4 students who qualified.

There was a nice crowd in the Durgee Junior High School auditorium. We had no idea that all five grades would compete head-to-head, so I was even more nervous when the spelling started. Aidan's first word was "shamrock", which he spelled correctly:


In round two, he received and correctly spelled "praise" but was tripped up in round three by the word "quarrel" - he spelled it with an "i" instead of an "a". He handled it well and since he was by no means the first speller to go out, he was proud of his performance.

It took about two and a half hours to whittle the field of 54 down to 14. By the end, students were spelling words like "astrophysicist" and "slantendicular". I was spelling silently with the students and I held my own, thankyouverymuch. The audience seemed to hold its breath while each student spelled and we let out a collective "aww" if the student was incorrect. Even while Aidan was still in the running, I wanted each student to spell every word correctly even as I knew they were in competition with my son.

All students received a certificate of participation, and here Aidan receives his certificate:


Aidan had a great time, part of which I'm sure was due to missing the entire morning of class!

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Happy 500! Yes, this post is #500 in my little blog. It has been over four years since I started spouting off, sharing my stories and chronicling our lives. Here's to 500 more posts!

Food day

We drove into Syracuse yesterday morning to Saint Lucy's Church where we worked in the food pantry. Aidan's Cub Scout pack volunteers for several shifts throughout November and December, and two other families joined us yesterday. The food pantry is available to those who live in the immediate area around the church and, when possible, the clients are able to make choices among the food items available.

While some of us prepared shopping bags, the Scouts assisted the clients by pushing the carts and helping them select food items from the shelves:



Although there was quite a crowd at the beginning, we were impressed with both the staff and the clients; the staff members were pleasant and treated the clients with respect, the line moved quickly, and the clients were patient. James and I spent some time talking with several of the staff members to learn more about how their pantry is supplied and their needs. We agreed as a family that we enjoyed helping out and would like to do so more frequently, with or without the Cub Scout pack.

I suppose it is somewhat ironic that we left the food pantry and went to eat lunch. We chose Alto Cinco, a quirky Mexican restaurant in the Westcott neighborhood. The restaurant is tiny and we had to wait for an available table but it was well worth the wait. James had soft jerk chicken tacos, which were made even more delicious with mango salsa and chipotle mayo, Aidan chose chicken quesadillas, and I had the excellent California burrito. Yum! While we love living in Baldwinsville, we don't exactly have many interesting restaurant choices in the village so we take every chance we can get to try new-to-us restaurants in Syracuse.

We stopped at the Baldwinsville Library's used book sale on the way home. Aidan got "the best deal of my life!" by spending $6 of allowance money on 11 books. It seems our entire day was built around food: food for others, food for our stomachs and food for our brains.

See Aidan run. Run, Aidan, run!

Aidan was invited to participate in the Baldwinsville Elementary Schools Cross Country Championships, which were held yesterday afternoon at Durgee Junior High. Four races were run - 5th grade boys, 5th grade girls, 4th grade boys, and 4th grade girls - and each race was 3/4 mile long. Each elementary school group was designated by a different color and Aidan's school wore yellow:

(team photo courtesy of Van Buren Elementary)

There were 76 runners in Aidan's category, the 4th grade boys. They gathered at the starting line...


...and then they were off and running!


I snapped the photo just a millisecond too soon and missed getting Aidan in the photo.

As Aidan neared the finish line, he still looked strong:


I was so excited that I jostled the camera, hence the blurred photo. Or perhaps he was moving that fast!

Aidan placed 24th out of the 76 runners with a time of 5:26.18, and he had a great time. We were proud that he finished the race, finished strong, and that he was pleased with his performance, even though he did not win. When I asked him if he could hear me cheering, he said, "No, but I felt you cheering in my heart."

Love, love, LOVE that boy.

Halloween 2011

The Star Wars theme from the past two years continued this year, but with a change of character: Aidan chose to be a Jawa instead of Luke Skywalker. Don't know what a Jawa is? Neither did I until James and Aidan reminded me, so here is the definition from Wookieepedia: "...typically short rodent-like natives of Tatooine. They were passionate scavengers, seeking out technology for sale or trade in the deep deserts in their huge sandcrawler transports." So much for the days when my child dressed as cute, cuddly creatures.

Aidan as a Jawa:


Who knew that Jawas wear Skechers? Must have scavenged them...

Our friends Kelly, Mike and Ryan came over on Halloween night to share in the village trick or treating. Ryan was dressed as the Grim Reaper, another cute and cuddly creature:


James and Mike walked with the boys around the village while Kelly and I stayed to hand out candy. On a night with no rain, little wind and fairly mild temps, the turnout was great, and Halloween 2011 was all treats and no tricks.

Howe Caverns and Cooperstown

On Saturday morning, we drove to Howe Caverns, which is located in the lovely Schoharie Valley of New York. The trip was a family outing for Aidan's Cub Scout Webelos den and we decided to expand it from a day trip to a weekend excursion.

The cave is 156 feet below ground and a guided tour lasts about 90 minutes. We rode an elevator down and then proceeded by foot and by boat. There are many interesting formations of stalactites, stalagmites and flowstone to see in the cave. It amazes me that the cave was initially explored back in the mid-1800s by lantern, with ropes tied around their waists and sometimes wiggling through tiny openings. Not me!

Howe Caverns also has a zip line and a ropes course. James and I decided to join the scouts and ride the zip line. Many of you know that I sometimes have a problem with heights; or, as my friend Dolores says, it is not that I am afraid of heights but that I am afraid of falling. The zip line, however, was fairly tame and not particularly high up.

Aidan was so excited and got into his harness first, and took off:


Too bad the photo does not show the big smile on his face!

I am proud to say that I enjoyed the ride and did not scream at all:


James, of course, had to show off a bit:


Aidan then started the ropes course. It was three levels of all kinds of challenging crossings. Look at the concentration on Aidan's face:


Soon he was nimbly navigating the entire structure:




We said goodbye to the other scouts and their families, and Aidan stayed on the ropes course. And stayed. And stayed some more - he must have completed the entire structure three or four times.

Once we finally pried Aidan off the course and out of his harness, we drove back to a small village we had passed through on our way to Howe Caverns. Sharon Springs was once a vibrant resort town built around the natural springs. Dotted throughout the village are gazebos, which I suppose were built over the springs:


The Hotel Adler was built in 1927 and catered mainly to Jewish families (who were not welcome in Saratoga Springs), and former NYC mayor Ed Koch was a busboy there in 1946. The hotel closed in 2004 and now sits empty:




It is sad when I think of what she was like in the past. Here is a close-up of the hotel from the historical plaque near the site:


We drove back down to Cobleskill, where we had a reservation at the Best Western. Aidan changed into his swimsuit and happily paddled around the indoor pool while James and I planned our dinner destination. We chose A Taste of Europe, which had very good reviews on TripAdvisor.com. Aidan was excited to try European food.

The restaurant does not cater to children and does not have a children's menu, so with the cooperation of the staff, we opted to get two entrees for the three of us. Aidan chose a dinner of German sausages and smoked pork, and we chose sauerbraten with spaetzle and red cabbage. Delicious! We finished the meal with chocolate mousse for Aidan and apple strudel for James and me. The staff told us that Aidan was very well behaved and could come to their restaurant anytime.

On Sunday morning after a hearty breakfast at the Cobleskill Diner, we drove over to Cooperstown. What a gorgeous village! We did not take the time to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame, but located it as we wandered around (and used their very clean and nice restrooms). We all agreed that we want to return to Cooperstown for a weekend.

As we walked back to the car, we saw this wild turkey wandering around:


We drove out of the village and down to Brewery Ommegang, which brews killer Belgian style ales. The "tour" was rather lame, but we enjoyed trying several brews in the tasting room. We ate lunch in the cafe, where we enjoyed pommes frites along with other tasty dishes:


From there we drove home. As we said several times then and since, we had a fabulously fun weekend start to finish.

In the kitchen with Aidan

Have you seen The Chew? It is a weekday talk show that focuses on food and food-related topics, and is hosted by Mario Batali, Carla Hall, Michael Symon, Clinton Kelly and Daphne Oz. I like to record the show so I can fast-forward through the commercials and any segment hosted by Daphne Oz. Really, I don't get the point of having her on the show, unless the producers think every show benefits from having on its roster a person who giggles incessantly.

Aidan was watching an episode with me over the weekend when he saw guest Aaron McCargo Jr. prepare Coconut Ginger Chicken Skewers with Honey-Scallion Sauce*, and he asked if we could please, PLEASE make that for dinner sometime. Sometime was last evening and Iron Chef Aidan joined me in the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Hands washed and properly outfitted, he is ready to start:


Using the FEB process - flour, eggs then breadcrumbs - he prepares each skewer:


One done, nine to go:


Ta-da! Here is the pan of prepared skewers, ready for the oven:


The chef with his final product:


We served the skewers with lime-cilantro rice and a green salad, and the meal was a hit; the coconut and ginger flavors in particular were excellent. We deviated from the recipe and did not deep fry but elected to bake; while tasty, the chicken did not get that nice, golden color. So the next time - and there will be a next time, based on last night's reviews - I make this recipe, I will pan fry instead of deep fry and we will dispense with the skewers.

*I would like to include a link to the recipe but The Chew's website is a pain to navigate and I can't locate the recipe, nor does the link I bookmarked now work. If I ever find the recipe again online, I will post the link. Nice show but lousy website.

Rhinebeck 2011

Yesterday was my second annual pilgrimage to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck. Unlike last year when I spent the whole weekend in festival-related activities, this year I elected to participate in a one day bus trip from my LYS, Sheep Thrills.

I was out of the house at o'dark thirty and drove to North Syracuse to meet the bus. When I boarded the bus, I found that each rider had a new Sheep Thrills messenger-style tote bag - very nice! We pulled out of the parking lot around 6:45 am and stopped twice to pick up additional riders to the east of Syracuse. Once all passengers were settled, our lovely hostesses brought around mimosas and pastries; later in the trip they brought us chocolates and granola bars.

As we neared the Dutchess County fairgrounds, traffic came to a dead stop. We sat in traffic for an hour and a half - the driver said it took an hour to go just three miles. I finally walked in the gate at noon and immediately met up with Geri, whom I had planned to meet for lunch at 11:30:


Note: In the photo, I am sporting my "Hello, my name is RowdyGirl" Ravelry button (RowdyGirl is my RavID) and my Rhinebeck Bingo button, since I was a square (shut up) in Rhinebeck Bingo. The names of participants or squares were randomly placed onto the bingo cards, which were then emailed to players before the festival. Players printed their cards to take with them to Rhinebeck, and searched for the squares. Strangely, only one bingo player came up to me all day but I did enjoy meeting and talking with Christine from Denver.

Geri and her friend Mo had arrived in Rhinebeck on Friday and were at the festival when it opened at 9 am. So after the two of us shopped and visited for a while, Geri and Mo left to return to their hotel. I went in search of the beer tent that I noticed when I first arrived at the festival (priorities, priorities), purchased a cold one and enjoyed some first class people watching while I took a break from dealing with the enormous crowds of people.

I met up with two of my other knitting friends, Laura and Jacqui, whom I know from the Ravely Motherhood Later group:


It was fun to see them again, although we were unable to make contact with another friend, Andrea, who was also there but had lost her mobile telephone at her hotel.

I bought very little, choosing to window shop for the most part. I bought treats for James and Aidan, and two yarns that jumped up and down and caught my eye.

When the festival closed at 5, we boarded the bus for return trip and, once again, sat in traffic. Our hostesses passed around wine and cheese, and about midway through our drive they handed out popcorn and Goldfish. We pulled back into the parking lot around 10 pm, and I was home by 10:30.

Overall, it was a good day. The bus trip, albeit long, was more fun than I anticipated and I enjoyed talking with Maureen, the woman who sat next to me. I liked seeing all the beautiful yarns and amazing handknits, and I especially liked spending time with friends. I think, however, that I will take a hiatus from attending Rhinebeck for at least a year. A day trip makes for a very long day, the crowds at the festival were overwhelming and the traffic woes were mind-boggling.

Summer's last hurrah

The past four or five days were absolutely gorgeous: warm, sunny and dry. It seemed odd to be wearing shorts so far into October but no one complained. We spent the weekend on both work and play: on Saturday, we visited a few Cayuga Lake wineries with two other couples, then on Sunday we worked on the patio and James did some painting and woodworking.

Aidan was off from school on Monday and Tuesday, Monday for Columbus Day and Tuesday for a teacher work day. I will never understand the concept of Columbus Day; just why should we commemorate the "discovery" of a continent that was already inhabited by people?

Nevertheless, Aidan and I picked up sandwiches from Subway and drove out to Beaver Lake Nature Center for a picnic on Monday. He clearly enjoyed his sandwich:


We hiked and searched for a few geocaches, and generally appreciated the beautiful day. Aidan enjoyed mugging for the camera:


As you can see, some trees are turning and some have already lost their leaves:


"Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn."
- Elizabeth Lawrence

And we did.

Always check the pockets before doing laundry

Aidan came in from playing outside yesterday afternoon and said that he had something to show me. He reached into his pocket and when I saw that the "something" was furry and had small feet, I nearly climbed onto the kitchen counter.

I still don't know what it was, other than dead, but I made him take it back outside, come in and scrub his hands, and then we talked about not picking up dead creatures.

Oh, the conversations that I never anticipated having with my child.

Music boy

B'ville friends and neighbors, we have not adopted an elephant. Nor a seal, nor a rhino. Those sounds coming from our house are from Aidan's trombone. Fourth graders may choose to learn a band instrument and Aidan chose the trombone. Yesterday the instrument (and related accessories) was delivered to him at school, and he was smiling ear-to-ear as he climbed down from the bus with his trombone case in hand.

He plopped down on the dining room floor and opened the case, eager to show me how to put it together:




Success!


So far, the only note he has been taught is B flat, so that is the note he practiced yesterday. I hope the enthusiasm he has right now for the trombone continues, and that he also soon learns another note!