Saturday, May 03, 2008
Big huge IFRing last night with the PG and his S. Perfect IFR conditions: low ceilings, high layered tops, and low vertical development = stable air. Shot the VOR/DME-21 approach into 6B6 and went missed, diverted to KBED with an ILS-11 approach, drove to 6B6 with a courtesy car (got to show off at dinner with royal treatment from Don & Nancy, including free fake champagne), dropped off PG and his S at MMK with a GPS-36 approach and a through clearance, then landed back home at HFD with an LDA-2 approach! By the time we got back, Tower had already left for the night.
Posted at 2:15:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
[Note: I slacked and got Dean to write most of this. I told him I wanted "one of those entries that don't make any sense." I miss those!]
We JUST NOW got back from the hangar!
Posted at 1:49:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Posted at 6:08:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Yeah!! Check out the Fish Locator on the New England Shad Assoc. site! The shad are here! I have to find out if Hale's is open yet. I want shad milt + purple spargle. That would be dreamy.
I had good ol' salty oatmeal with frozen (formerly fresh) blueberries for breakfast (lunch?) and it was great! I hadn't had it in ages. I lost my taste for oats when we were in Grand and I kept getting seasick on the choppy dive boat, but maybe it's back. I couldn't remember how to make my special salty oat recipe, but lucky for me I'd posted it on ALB, so I just followed the directions of Past Self and it turned out perfectly! I think the blueberries were Rusczyk's. I even ate it outside in the sun, even though it's still kind of cold out.
Posted at 2:37:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
I had to drive on Roast Meat Hill Road today. I always try and try to avoid driving on Roast Meat Hill Road, but I always end up doing it anyway. I guess Roast Meat Hill Road's not that bad, but I still hate how I always end up driving on Roast Meat Hill Road despite all my earnest efforts otherwise. (Yeah, I really love saying Roast Meat Hill Road. And writing Roast Meat Hill Road. But not driving on it.)
Posted at 5:51:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Big shopping trip: Clinton Premium Outlet Mall (my Guy just calls it "Clinton Premium") and, since they're really close (sort of), Given Fine Chocolates and Willoughby's Coffee & Tea. I got a small package of dark chocolate covered caramels with crunchy sea salt crystals on top at Given, then drove myself insane trying to open the package whilst driving home so I could eat one. It was not possible. I also couldn't remember for sure if the caramels were the same ones I tried last time that nearly made me faint with pleasure, but I just checked ALB, and they were. Fran's brand. Finally now that I'm home and far away from Roast Meat Hill Road, I opened the package with a knife and consumed one. All I can say is, Past Self has impeccable taste. Overmuch delectable! They're even better than the Vosges caramels.
My cappuccino from Willoughby's was very good (the barista even remade it for me, without my asking, because he didn't think his first effort was dry enough) but I asked if Patrick (aka the Dry Guy) works there anymore, and he doesn't. Too bad. Good old Dry Guy.
I love "Tell Ol' Bill." Love LOVE. And I still think it's about shad.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Okay, this is going to be my huge anti-linear everything-but-the-shark-dive post to almost finish up Maui. (I'll write about the shark dive/Maui Ocean Center last, separately.) First of all, our Maui lists.
Posted at 5:27:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Best Food & Drinks of Maui
- Mango Lassi from Down to Earth natural foods store
- Spinach Mushroom Poblano Enchillada from Cilantro (Dean's vote)
- Fresh Catch Pita from Pita Paradise (my vote)
- Maui Brewing Company's Coconut Porter (we had it at the Maui Ocean Center restaurant after our dive!)
Premium Things In Maui (Non-Food)
- Hawaiian Airlines flight from the Big Island to Maui
- Our rental car (an Infinity FX35)
- Roads
- Radio stations
- View of the Big Island at the top of Mt. Haleakala
- Cilantro restaurant
- The fact that Maui Dreams dive shop (recommended to us by Norm at BID) had the exact gear we like to rent
- Shark Dive/Open Ocean tank dive @ Maui Ocean Center
- Maui Ocean Center itself
- Westin Spa
- Views of other islands
Un-Premium Things In Maui
- Wind
- Minuscule parking spaces
- Hotel-style "villas"
- Tropica restaurant
- Farmers' market
- Coffee (no 100% Kona to be had)
- Crowded
- More touristy than Big Island
- Less aloha than Big Island
- Shore diving too sandy, boring, and wind-influenced
- Feels less Hawaiian
After about four encounters with coffee shops that advertised 100% Kona coffee which then turned out to be crudely crossed out or pasted over with something else (either Maui coffee, some random non-Hawaiian coffee, or a 10% Kona blend), on our last day I finally asked the dude at the Sir Wilfred stand what the heck was up with everyone dropping Kona coffee. He said it was just too expensive because the supply was so limited! Wow. 100% Kona coffee is everywhere on the Big Island, and you don't even think twice about it. It's no more expensive than anything else there. (I mean, yeah, the beans are more expensive than other coffee beans, but just buying a brewed cup of it is a normal coffee shop coffee price.) I was so shocked that they can't get Kona coffee on the other Hawaiian islands. Just one more reason why the Big Island is the best!!
Here's my other miscellaneous food topic. A confession. I had the opportunity to eat balut and I passed it up! I should feel shame, I know. I guess I failed the Would You Eat This??? of balut. It was at an outdoor farmers' marketplace thingy being set up at the "local" (i.e., not tourist-oriented) mall we visited. I saw these weird eggs that were dyed bright purple, so I asked the lady behind the table what they were, and she said, "Balut. Duck egg." And I was like, "Ah, yes... I know what that is..." and I sidled off. Maybe I'd eat balut from a less scary source. Maybe.
Speaking of which, I need to update my Weird Foods I've Eaten list with all the new stuff I did try in Hawaii. Fruits, mostly.
The sea star in my hand at the top of the post is from a touch tank at Maui Ocean Center. This pretty cushion star is from our night dive at Ulua Beach. It was the only dive we went on in Maui that was in the actual ocean, because the beaches were just too windy and choppy in the afternoons. We did it with Maui Dreams dive shop, but it was just us and the dive master (because no one else signed up), so that was cool, and it was a shore dive, which was also cool. We'd never gone on a shore dive at night before, nor had we ever gone on a shore dive with a dive shop (rather than by ourselves)--it's not really something that's done on the Big Island. The divemaster actually called us up shortly before we were about to leave and wanted to cancel the dive, saying he thought the ocean would be too rough, but we said we wanted to give it a shot since it was our only opportunity for a real dive on Maui, and we needed to pick up the gear to use on our dive at the Maui Ocean Center (which was the next morning) anyway.
So we did it anyway, and it was the calmest dive EVER. The waves were nothing. It was extremely relaxing swimming out in the darkness, from the smooth sandy beach, and it was a nice dive, but it would have been really boring if it hadn't been a night dive. There wasn't that much to see other than zillions of red pencil urchins, the viz wasn't that great, and the underwater topography was zilch. We did see a pretty striped Yellowhead Moray, and a couple of cute porcupine fish, but it was kind of pathetic compared to Big Island or Grand Cayman dives. Oh, I did love this sign at Ulua Beach, though. Sheep Drop! Ha!!
Conclusion: we're glad we checked out Maui, and there were some parts of it that we really enjoyed (esp. the Maui Ocean Center), but it doesn't hold a candle to the Big Island. Not for us, anyway.
My pal the sun is out!
Posted at 4:55:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Posted at 2:05:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I was really missing the Big Island last night. Probably because it's cold again. And I couldn't fall asleep.
It's raining & raining & raining. Smead is growing new fronds! (He badly needs them.) He's not allowed outside yet, though. Too cold.
Since I'm thinking about Hawaii, I really should finish my last two entries. Heh.
Monday, April 28, 2008
What the heck, postage rates are going up again?? (I do love the new Tropical Fruit postcard stamps, though.)
Posted at 12:50:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Posted at 1:50:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I haven't posted a Thursday photo in a while, so here's one. (It really was from Thursday, too.) I am totally in love with my new Roxy top. I got it at the consignment store, natch. On Monday. It's made from that wrinkly gauzy hippy-ish material, embroidered around the neck, with long, slightly flared sleeves. And it actually fits!
It's cold again here now. But the trees in the Connecticut River Valley have all their spring leaves! It's really dramatic from the air. The ones beyond the C.R.V. are transitioning, warm and soft-looking with buds, and the farther out ones (the Northeast part of the state, Mass, New Hampshire...) are still bare scratchy brown branches, amongst scattered evergreens. We went to Jaffrey again yesterday, and this time there was no line. And this time they had veggie burgers for Dean, and we got our peppermint stick ice cream. Best ice cream ever. We landed on runway 16, so we flew right over Kimball Farm and I snapped a photo. It's so cute and New Englandy! But weird with no lines and hardly anyone at the picnic tables.
