Neverending story, or hole

Oh man, Facebook is like a neverending hole! It's like every time I find a person, there's one more that I know. It's going to look like I have a lot of friends even though I barely ever speak to these people. But it'll help out siginificantly if I'm supposed to pull off a high school reunion.

Now Sara will just have to teach me how to use it.

laundry list of my thoughts and actions lately

1. I am happy that the Boston Celtics won only because of Kevin Garnett. Otherwise, I hate Boston and all of their punky winning teams. I especially enjoy listening to Kevin, who is usually a quiet person, be so elated when he wins. And whenever Michelle Tefoya interviews him he always takes the time to tell her "Michelle, you're lookin' good tonight." This cracks me up every time. He just won the national championship by 50 points, and he stops and compliments Michelle as usual.
2. I hate the Miami teacher girl on So You Think You Can Dance. I mean, seriously, she has no technique, and she's awkward as hell, and yet they still compliment her. And they say how sexy she is...doubtful. If outlandish outfits and long uber-dyed blonde hair mean sexy, then they're right, she is.
3. My FIL is totally awesome. Over the years I continue to be impressed by him more and more. We may bicker in the garden over the right or more efficient way to do things, but he really moved me this past weekend. In preparation for the keg at our annual Olympics he has begun filling his used water bottles or any plastic bottles with water and freezing them. This will be more efficient than small pieces of ice at keeping the beer frosty cold. And when they have fully melted, we can poke a small hole in the cap and tip them into the garden for a slow-release waterer. Double use for the same water. Ever since I bought him a rain barrel, he's been making extra effort to take their cat litter jugs out there and fill them up with water so we can collect as much as possible in the barrel. Did I mention he's great?!?
4. We 've been working hard on the garden for mass production this year. D and his dad installed a deer-proof fence, not to be confused with rabbit-proof fence, which is a very sad concept. These deer need to not destroy all our crops this year. However there may be a groundhog attacking our lettuce and eating all the leafy good parts and leaving us all the bitter bottoms. I do not like bitter bottoms. The greens have been plentiful so far--buttercrunch lettuce, arugula, mesclun mix, a small amount of spinach, collards that are getting quickly eaten by some caterpillar infestation, romaine. We also have fava beans which I will hopefully try to make tonight.
5. I am furiously furiously knitting every day to finish two sweaters for Lily & Grace for my impending visit to the Hamptons. Yes, this weekend and I'm not done with either of the sweaters...wait, what the hell am I doing typing to you fools who probably don't read this anyways?? I have full faith in myself. I'll finish the post. I'll post pictures of my achievements for you to laud at a later time.
6. I'm going to the Hamptons this weekend--wahoo! It'll just be an extended weekend, but I'm so excited to see Sara, Alan, the girls and this very wealthy and beautiful part of the country. I've never been to any of the posh New England places--Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Block Island, etc etc. Perhaps I'll run into Ina Garten in her ridiculously luxurious garden. Or P. Diddy would be just as good :)
7. Daniel gave me an early birthday present for my upcoming trip--an ipod Touch! My Virgin MP3 player, bought Christmas 2005, is already defunct and stupid. It just one day decided that it's software was no longer going to work and won't recognize songs any more. I don't know that much about technology but I tried a little to fix it and I can't. So I'm currently learning how to use it. i think i need a stylus pen because i'm having trouble getting it to react to my touch. we'll see.
8. Due to the rising prices of gasoline, the public transportation and personal commuting costs are now just about even. A roundtrip Metro ride costs me $9 if you can believe it. How do they expect people to WANT to use public transportation when it costs that much! But regardless, my 42 mile round trip commute costs probably about 2 gallons of gas and wear and tear on the car. So when I can't commute with my lovely friend JZ, I am trying to Metro. i even took the bus to my house from the Metro, which costs an extra $.35 and a ten-minute walk! Using the bus is a little daunting and time-consuming, but it feels good to know you have a nearly zero-carbon footprint for the day!
9. The RNO is in just one week. I'm so excited!!! Are you coming?

dancing in Africa

Determined to find an outlet of exercise which removed me from the oppressive DC conditions, I consulted one World Wide Web for inspirational dance classes. I've tried to spread out my interests over the last few years, taking first a Beginner II salsa class at Joy of Motion, then a Beginner Flamenco class, but both fell short of my expectations. It's all about bonding with the teacher and feeling like you are their number one priority for a full hour. At Joy of Motion the teacher was nice and could shake her hips just fine, but the class was not at a fast enough level. I might end up giving them another chance in the future because they have such a well-rounded curriculum. The Flamenco class had a nice enough room at the teacher's home, and she was a nice person, but not that great of a teacher. The class moved too slowly for me, and I wanted to learn more and at a faster pace. It became frustrating and I realized that the dance had lost its joy. I very much enjoyed learning these new techniques, but didn't really have a good time doing it.
So last night I branched out big time from my roots of tap, jazz and ballet. I took a Beginner African dance class from Dance Place. It was a blast! It was high energy, emotive, and heart-pumping. Five drummers sat on one side of the room, including a young boy about the age of 4. As they played the infectious rhythms we learned pieces of the Guinea Fare (said Far-ay) and worked across the floor in a few moves the teacher lead us in. And with the temperatures at about 100 yesterday, it was literally like I was dancing in Africa. Having soaked my brand new workout clothes completely through, I left with a smile and sore toes. I can't wait to go back next week. I do have a feeling that in at least one of the classes I'm going to get smacked, hard, in the face. The movements are just too strong and thrown to escape it.

camping at Big Run State Park

Pat set up awesome plans for all our friends to get together and haul our camping gear to Western Maryland for a fun outdoors weekend. Despite the temperatures in DC being over 100 degrees I believe, the campsite in the mountainous valley offered a cooler climate for us to enjoy ourselves. As my mom said when I mentioned we were on our way to camping "Are you bringing air conditioners?" HAHAHAHA The nights were cold enough to be in the sleeping bag, and even during the day the cooler stream wind and tree cover made it completely bearable. A nice cold beer in the hand was a good alternative as well.

I learned a few of the techniques relative to fly fishing while on the upper Savage River. I have never ever been fishing before, so starting with the artful fly fishing was a real treat. It's pretty dang fun to flick that extended line back and forth and just watch the fly drift down the river currents. I nearly caught a 5 or 6 inch fish, but I think he outsmarted me. Go figure. Laika took multiple dips in the flowing creeks and rivers and got a good amount of swimming time in. She's adorable because she really likes to swim but still isn't completely comfortable with currents. So she'll go to chase a thrown stick but might end up wimping out half way to it. She hates it when other dogs succeed though and usually lets out a small whimper like "I could do that. Throw it to me. Throw it to me".

The Samples also let us borrow their kayaks for an hour to go out on the Savage Reservoir which was absolutely beautiful. Green Tree-covered mountains billowed down to the calm flatwater making for an ideal quick paddle for us. Next purchase: canoe. I say canoe rather than kayak because people have convinced me that they're more versatile and useful. I've only canoed once or twice and they seem more difficult to manuever and gain ground. However you can carry more things in a canoe, Laika would probably sit in the center of it which means we could take her along, and you can fish from it. I don't plan on fishing from it, but Daniel made this point.

It was nice being in such a peaceful and welcoming place. Big Run State Park was beautiful and I'll be sure to visit there again.