Apple Picking

Chang grew up in Maui with avocado trees and Plumeria and no such thing as Fall which subsequently begins Winter.  I equate Fall with apples and pumpkins and sweater and all that jazz, but for Chang it means that it’s almost snow, almost dark all the time, almost time for the perpetual heating pad.  Chang looks like skin covered string beans affixed by tacks and I think this is why he has terrible circulation i.e. cold toes and fingers for 5+ months of the year.  I decided that if one is never moving back to paradise then one should start enjoying what one is around or else one might decided that most of the year is misery here in the Northeast.  Apple picking seemed to be the ultimate in autumnal enjoyment so …

I started with a website that I have used in other seasons for other fruits to decide where to pick.  This website has all 50 states and 10 countries worth of picking spots.  This is a warning: I tried to find a small farm, not too commercial, with pick your own apples and pumpkins.  There were many a farm with scary hay rides and haunted houses, I wanted to stay away from that.    There are places all over but I wanted to drive a little out of the city and a friend told me about a town on the Delaware River she was visiting soon, so I thought I would combine both.  I started with the ultimate destination, New Hope, PA and searched the database on pickyourown.org.  I decided on the family owned orchard, Styer Orchard.   It took a little over an hour and half, I followed Google’s directions on the way there and a meandered back to Brooklyn via map.  We picked apples and pumpkins.  We had the farm to ourselves given the misty weather and on and off rain, and we took advantage by trekking around in the wet grass; it was no comparison for a rainy day traipsing around the city.  Near the parking lot (a grassy roped-off area), near the orchard of Concord grapes is the farm stand.  Here a girl and her dog were staying dry and selling the farm goods: Long Island Cheese pumpkins, Blue Hubbard squashes, ornamental hay and corn, pumpkins in all sizes, and apples.  Simply put this place is a special little family farm.

From Styer Orchard we headed 30 minutes north to New Hope, PA.  New Hope is a little town on the Delaware River home to many a gallery, thrift shops, gift stores, and restaurants.  The drive from the farm to town showcases 300 year old homes with unique PA masonry.  We stopped into a hotel and asked for a map of the downtown area and spent a couple of hours touring.  We had a couple of drinks and a late lunch/early dinner at a restaurant on the river.  (No complaints.)  We stopped into a couple of galleries, watched the river, dug through the racks at a thrift shop and were home around 9pm.  We wanted to get back a little early but Point Pleasant is just over the bridge and apparently has lots to do too.

When life gives you a giant coconut…

After two glorious days off in my hometown, today was my back to work “Monday.” It all started innocently enough with some pancakes and my favourite almond butter-syrup.

Then, my wonderful morning came to a crashing end. Literally. If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that a beautiful 2007 Mazda 3 was the victim of my “built Ford tough” Focus. There’s lots of blame to lay here. I didn’t properly scrape the ice off my back window, I didn’t look behind me enough before I swung out of my driveway. The Mazda was parked on a narrow no-park street, on the opposite end of my driveway. Blame will only get you so far. Bottom line is, my life became a lot more stressful in a split second.

Luckily, the Mazda owner was very nice about the whole thing. My insurance can cover it. It’s my first ever accident. And my daddy is an insurance litigator to boot But man, I know we’re supposed to make lemonade when life gives us lemons, but what are we supposed to do when it starts throwing us limes? Grapefruits? Giant coconuts?

Sometimes it feels like just when I’ve maxed out on responsibilities and things to stress about, life piles on more. It reminds me of these impossible assignments my boss sometimes likes to give me. He’ll schedule me to cover two events happening at the same time. I’m expected to get interviews and stories from both, because apparently, I can split into two people and do that. However, each time I’ve managed to do the impossible and cover both. One time, even being to three places at once. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed at the thought of being poor, unemployed, getting out of my lease, finding a new place to live, etc, that I forget what I’m capable of. Dammit, I can be in three places at once! I can snap my life into order, right? Don’t ask me to clean my dishes and do my laundry though – cause that’s just asking too much

Sometimes I need to step back and remind myself life is like a to-do list. One by one I check all my stressors off. Soon all the above responsibilities will be taken care of, and new ones will emerge. I’ll continue to check them off, and try my best not to drown in the thought of doing them all at once.

And it is important to find little things to bring us joy in each and every day. These little things are going to be what gets me through these next several weeks at work. Hopefully some day my daily joys won’t be so little, but expand to become much larger things

On that note, I’m joining Holly and Angharad for their November yoga challenge. There’s a few of these going around blogland, but I love that they’ve chosen three days a week. Currently, I’m only going to yoga class at my gym one evening a week, but I would love to increase the amount that I practice. I think a little extra yoga could be JUST what I need at this time in my life. Whether it be through finding the time to make it to extra classes, or rolling out the mat in my living room. Feel free to join us as we stretch and flow our way through November!

Today’s little joy:

My mother’s leftover taco dip on top a garden salad. Healthy food with no preparation necessary

Oh, and I counted. The votes for tea and coffee were split down the middle. Each had equal representation in the comments

 

Question of the day: Name one thing that brought you some joy today.

And it ain't the Highway code...

You’ve heard of etiquette and netiquette, now get autoquette.
Rule 1: NO PARKING IN FRONT OF THE LOWERED KERB BY MY SCHOOL, OR IN FACT ANY LOWERED KERBS ON MY ROUTE TO/FROM SCHOOL OR ANYONE ELSE’S!!!!!!!!!! (Maybe too much of that was capitalised)
For two years, I’ve had to bump up and down the kerbs (I cycle to school) on either side of a small road next to the path along the front of my school, but when I came back to school in September this year, there was a lowered kerb! The bumping (and damaging your suspension) days were over! The next day I had to bump again because some person’s car was parked right along the whole lowered bit on one side.
So the first thing in my book about Autoquette will be (if I ever get round to writing a book):
Parking in front of a lowered kerb is the same as admitting you are a dickhead.

As you can tell. I find it very annoying.

Excellent Teamwork!

So true Henry...so true!

I was emailed this hysterical image this morning from a friend who obviously had nothing better to do… but i found it so funny and clever i had to show you all.

I love it when someone can take something and make it to mean something else. I think it reflects major creativity and wit.  Ford has got some lovely cars and there is one in particular, a Ford Fiesta in mid Sussex that has a custom paint job and the license plate PI SSS. The dealer told me the previous owner said it stood for ‘Piss Off’. It was custom, classic and honest i loved it. My sister has been thinking of getting it ever since we saw it, i keep telling her YESS…

Got 8 kids? Buy a 10 seater Prius!

For those mad families who have 6+ kids!

 

This is a custom Toyota Prius 6 door-10 seater car made by a crazy Canadian man. It still gets 50 mpg would you believe. I do wonder how it takes corners however! It’s a very odd design but very well done. For me though a 7 seater is just enough for the extended family. We hire a Kia Carens from Sussex over Christmas for big family get-togethers. We like the garage and they do the best deals.

Oxford Circus X-crossing the future of urban cycling?

I just wanted to draw your attention to this article on the new development at Oxford Circus in London as something of an innovation for the UK. See what you think about it. The thought is that by making it cross-directional it will make people a lot more responsible for their own actions. Could be interesting to see how it works.

I’m going up there on my Bigfish tomorrow to check it out (cycling and wheeling the folded bike along with me for the complete picture!)

Check out the article and cool video here

Happy Halloween

I had the BEST BEST BEST work day on Friday!

We had our big company luncheon and celebration. The lunch was  a lot of fun and I got to hang out with all of my friends and laugh and have a good time. After the lunch, there was a big presentation for the company. All of the bigwigs spoke and then they showed the promotional video that I made. I was mortified watching myself on a huge screen in front of the WHOLE company. I didn’t realize that it was going to be shown and my friends kept poking me and making faces everytime I said cheezy things, which is most of the video. Afterwards, though, our president came up to me and gave me a big hug and said “I love that video! You are SO ADORABLE in it” and that made me feel happy. I got a lot of compliments.

The company was allowed to go home early… but I still had my big important meeting! UGH! Oh well… it ended up being such a success!!! I could tell when the people entered the room, that they were kind of dismissing me as a “junior” person, speaking more directly to my boss and his counterpart. But… by the end of the meeting, after I had presented my thoughts, all eyes were on me and it was clearly my meeting. It went SO WELL and I was SO PLEASED with the results. I left work on Friday feeling really good!

Tom did not have such luck getting me a car on Friday. We were on the phone most of the morning while he bid on cars, but the prices kept getting too high. I think I might be glad though because I’m having second thoughts about the CR-V. I test drove another one and it felt so no frills. I like a little more luxury in my car.

I picked up the boys early on Friday and we carved our pumpkins. They had a good time getting all the seeds and goo out. We (I) cut very basic faces.

Saturday was rainy so we decided to skip soccer. R went with us to look at cars. I really need to decide what I want. I’m now interested in a Lexus R-330 or a Toyota Highlander… still useful, but a little less basic than the CR-V.  I still have to do some research.

The boys were pooped and cranky after a few places so we went home for naps.

R came back for an early dinner and for trick of treating. We had the BEST dinner- not very traditiional Halloween- but I made an assortment of dumplings, rice, bul-go-gi, and sauteed veggies. Yum. The boys ate so much. They decided at the last minute that they didn’t want to be knights (ARGH- after I bought both boys fricking knight costumes) and instead wanted to wear their old costumes. Oh vey.

We had a fun time trick-or-treating. E was really into it, ringing doorbells and chatting people up. That kid is going to be a politician. A was a little shy and nervous, but still had a good time. We stopped at Bob’s house and R and Bob met. I thought nothing of it, but R claims that it was an awkward moment.

We got home and everyone got into bed. R and I had plans to watch a movie together, but we were both beat, so he took off. I’m a little disappointed because it would have been fun to hang out.

I am up way too early this morning because we had to change our clocks back. Ugh. This is going to be a long day.