Morning Run Afghan

I finally completed an afghan I have been working on for nearly a year.  This is a gift for a friend--my running buddy I have been missing since the move.  We met twice a week for two (three?) years to run, early mornings in the summer and late afternoon in the winter.  The colors in the afghan remind me of the sky on those runs--streaks of colors against a gray sky.

Season's Greetings

We are enjoying a very nice Christmas break.  We traveled back to our hometown to spend some time with our families--there was much eating, talking, laughing, and general laying about.  Also a bit of hiking, some reading, crocheting, and movie watching.  The weather was gray--ferocious winds on Friday night knocked down several trees in the area, and Jordan spent Saturday helping his dad saw up one that fell in the yard.  We got in our hike on Sunday while it was still fairly dry, though cloudy.  We meant to hike down into Linville Gorge, but started down the wrong trail and found ourselves in the Linville Falls park that we know so well.  We found the correct trail later, but it was already getting dark, so that will have to wait for another time.  The fog settled in on Christmas Eve, leading to many Rudolph references.

Jordan and I read some Grimm fairy tales on the way back home--2012 marks the bicentennial of the publication of their tales, and we recently heard a great NPR interview with Maria Tatar.  One of my favorite tales, one that I remember reading when I was little, was "The Six Swans"--sewing as a heroic act!

I have lots of plans for the New Year.  I get as excited about January 1 as any other holiday.  I have a new journal on order from Amazon, and new challenges I want to pursue. I completed my 2012 running goal in mid-December--366 miles in a year.  I still haven't decided for sure what I want to do for 2013, but I have just a few more days to figure it out!

Mini Pecan Pies

 

I think pecan pie must be my daddy's favorite.  Any kind of pecan pie.  When my sister and I were little, he would buy us the little packaged pecan pies--were they Little Debbies?--that came in tiny tin pie pans.  Part of the charm there was the idea of eating a pie all by yourself.

 

 

These were actually quite easy to make.  I can't remember where the recipe for the pie filling came from, but it is fairly standard.  It is, however, delightfully sweet and nutty, with no corn syrup.  And the mini shape means you get one (or two!) all to yourself.

Mini Pecan Pies

1 box (2 crusts) refrigerated pie crusts (I used Pillsbury)

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tbs. all purpose flour

1 tbs. milk

1 tbs. vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pecans

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  

2. Roll out pie crusts until they are thin, but still workable.  Cut out circles using 3.5 inch round cookie-cutter.  Grease two 12 cup muffin tins with cooking spray and press a crust circle into each cup.

3.  In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy and stir in melted butter.  Stir in brown sugar, white sugar, and flour; mix well.  Last add the milk, vanilla, and nuts.

4.  Spoon one tablespoon of filling into each cup.  Bake 20 minutes (or until down), rotating halfway through baking time. Cool for five minutes in tin. 

 I am looking forward to seeing how Daddy likes this version--perhaps it'll be an improvement even on the Little Debbies!

Our New Home

 Although it has been a few months since we moved in, I still don't feel like our house is "done."  There is, in fact, one whole room that is just stacked with boxes.  But, if I waited until everything was perfect, I would never get this post up, so here we go anyway.

 One of the things we liked most about the house was how open everything was.  The kitchen, dining room, and living room are all open and connected.  We knew that we wanted to be able to put a desk in the living room.  When we lived in our apartment, we originally planned for the office to be a separate room, but we always ended up carrying the laptop into the living room or working at the dining room table.  We don't like being separated, so it works best for us if everything is basically one big space.

 The guest room is still a bit bare.  The furniture belonged to Jordan's grandmother, and it is beautiful.  I really love the old, vintage feeling.  The duvet cover is one I made in college out of a set of sheets!  I am going to use the pillow cases that came with the set to make shams, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

 We really love our home.  We feel blessed to have found one so quickly and just where we needed it.  The move-in process was a real learning experience.  We were very lucky to have both Jordan's parents and my parents come at various stages to help--with unloading, cleaning, painting, and pulling off wallpaper border (nightmarish!)  At some point, I may post some before-and-after photos--the difference some paint makes is really astonishing.

There are still a few things we would like to do--the bathrooms need painting and there is a lot of work to be done in the yard--but I kind of like the fact that it is an ongoing process.  We are growing into our house, slowly making it ours.  It's definitely a nice feeling.

Disney World: Planning

Our family went on vacation to Disney World this summer.  The last time we went was about 19 years ago, so this trip was much anticipated, and excitement was high.  Disney World is amazing and really like a whole other planet.  And so, we put about as much time into planning this trip as would be necessary for a mission to Mars.  There are a couple of reasons that I think careful planning is important for a Disney trip:

1)  It is big.  Disney World covers more acreage than the island of Manhattan.  So clutching your map on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom with the seven other members of your party and saying, "I don't know, what do you want to do?" is burning time.
2) It is busy.  You can spend hours standing in line behind the 300 other people who also want to ride Space Mountain.  Restaurants are booked months in advance.

My mom masterminded the whole plan: she booked our rooms (we stayed at the Pop Century Resort) and dinners about six months in advance, and rented a fifteen passenger van.  With eight of us going, it was easier to ride together than to caravan it in three separate vehicles.  Staying in the resort has some great advantages: the bus service picks you up at the hotel and drops you off at the various parks; your room key is also your admission ticket which is also your Fast-Pass ticket (more on that later); and, you get to take advantage of early (or late) park hours (called Extra Magic Hours).

I took over planning the itinerary.  I found a copy of The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World by Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa, which is a Type-A planner's dream come true.  The book has detailed itineraries for each park; descriptions of every ride, show, and event; a chart showing travel time between each park and hotel; a fright-potential rating for everything; and a lot more.  I devoured the book and used it to plan our itineraries.  The trouble with using their itineraries as they were was that our group was very diverse.  It included my parents (who don't do roller coasters); my sister (no coasters) and her husband (who would do roller coasters) and their two-year old (height restrictions); my 14 year old cousin (he's a roller coaster nut); Jordan (ditto), and myself (I ride baby coasters).  So basically, we had a group that wanted to hit the thrill rides and a group that wanted to watch the toddler.  But, a lot of the rides actually appeal to both groups.  So, what I did was create an itinerary that split the two groups and then brought them back together.  This is an example from our first day, at Animal Kingdom:

Monday: Animal Kingdom (Extra Magic Hours am)

Catch bus around 7:00 am; arrive around 7:20
Ride Kilimanjaro Safaris
Walk the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail in Africa	Get Fastpasses for Expedition Everest, then ride DINOSAUR
See It’s Tough to be a Bug! And exhibits at The Tree of Life on Discovery Island	Ride Expedition Everest
After the rest of the park opens:
Ride TriceraTop Spin	Ride Primeval Whirl
Play at The Boneyard	Ride Kali River Rapids
Watch Flights of Wonder (if wait more than 20 minutes, switch with Maharajah Jungle Trek)
Walk the Maharajah Jungle Trek
Take Wildlife Express Train from Africa to Conservation Station and Rafiki’s Planet Watch.  Tour the areas and take the train back to Africa.
Meet characters along the way to Camp Minnie-Mickey
See Festival of the Lion King
See Finding Nemo—The Musical in DinoLand
Anything else we want to do or see.
Return to hotel to swim, nap, refresh, as time permits
At 5:50, catch bus to Magic Kingdom and transfer to monorail or walk; Dinner at Chef Mickey (Contemporary Resort) 6:50

Yellow was the thrill group, blue was the chill group, and green was for the combined groups.  I also included our travel times and dinner times on the itinerary.  I should make clear that the itinerary represented an ideal: not absolutely everything on the list got done, but we made quick decisions in the moment, and really, we got to do and see everything we wanted.  And, here's the thing: we spent almost no time waiting in line.  We more or less walked onto everything, but our absolute longest waits were maybe 15-20 minutes.  And this was in peak season when the parks were filling up each day.  We were usually done a little after lunch and could leave about the time the park was getting crazy.  There are a few things that allowed us to do this:

1)  The order of the rides: I based this primarily on the suggestions from The Unofficial Guide.  They have done extensive research on crowd flow and movement at the parks and know which rides get busy quickest.  We followed their suggestions with some changes based on our preferences.
2)  We got there early.  Very early.  Like, a half hour before the park opens, even when we had Extra Magic Hours.  This was absolutely worth it.  And, at Magic Kingdom and Epcot they have cute "opening ceremonies."  We also ate lunch early, usually around 11am.
3)  We took advantage of Fast Passes.  For many popular rides, there are kiosks in which you insert your park admission card and you are given ticket with a time to return.  You come back and walk onto the ride.  Amazing.

I am including our full week's itinerary:

Domestic Scholar's Disney World Itinerary

Any tips on how you planned your Disney World trip?  Any questions you would like to see answered here?--I am not an expert (and there are definitely Disney experts out there), but I'll tell you what I know!

Work Referenced: Sehlinger, Bob and Len Testa. The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World  2011.  Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley, 2011.

Book Review: Ann Patchett's State of Wonder

At first, I resisted Ann Patchett's recent best-seller, State of Wonder.  It begins with death, and I have a cowardly disposition toward such painful subjects.  But, it kept appearing on "must-read" lists, so I gave it a shot, and the novel proved worth it.  It does begin on a somber note: the protagonist, Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist at a pharmaceutical company, learns of the death of her colleague Anders Eckman and must face, first, relaying the news to Eckman's wife, and then, traveling to the Amazon where Eckman died while trying to locate a rogue scientist.  The first part of the novel is uncomfortably morbid, as Marina reflects on the Eckman's death and the resulting destruction in the life of his wife and sons.

The novel picks up pace, however, as Marina transitions to Brazil, commissioned both by Eckman's wife and her employer to discover what happened to Eckman and locate Dr. Swenson, the scientist Eckman was trying to reach.  Swenson was also Marina's professor during her medical residency years earlier, and Marina harbors a deep reverence and also fear of her former teacher.  Swenson is formidable, growing almost legendary before she ever enters the novel midway through.  Her research centers around extended fertility among an Amazonian tribe--a pharmaceutical gold-mine that could deliver babies to women in their 60s or even 70s.  The company is then, understandably worried that Swenson has apparently gone AWOL.

Marina's adventures are many: breaking through the gates and gatekeepers Swenson has left behind her, surviving fevers, snakes, and angry tribesmen.  The novel, however, is not merely action-packed.  It raises a number of interesting questions, especially when measured against what obviously must have been the inspiration for the story: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.  The disciple-like reverence that so many develop for Swenson mirrors the devotion shown to Kurtz; thus, a good part of the novel is spent considering how Marina will, like Marlow, experience the disillusionment that comes from seeing the dark heart of the idol.  The novel, too, raises questions, if obliquely, about colonization and its effects, both on the  native populations and the environment.  Indeed, even the research that seems so miraculous, comes under intense and painful scrutiny.

The novel continues to unfold unexpected twists, and even if you have read Heart of Darkness, the resolution of the novel may come as a surprise.

Ultimately, an exciting story, but one that doesn't leave your mind behind.

The Fourth

 Because the Fourth of July fell in the middle of the week, Jordan and I had a rare holiday on our own.  Although it was sad not to be with family, we did make the best of it.  We spent most of the day working on the packing up of our apartment (which has descended into a level of disarray that will probably persist until we totally move out in a few weeks).  However, we did dinner up right with turkey burgers with bacon, lettuce, and pineapple; corn on the cob; and sweet potato fries.

 For dessert I made a Peanut butter-banana-ice box pie; it has a cinnamon-graham-cracker-crust and layers of chocolate and bananas at the bottom.  It was delicious, but even better the next day.

 After supper, we walked over to the local Arts Center, where they were putting on a Music Festival (which was really just one band inside and a DJ out on the ball field).  The band was really great, very talented, and played an evening's worth of oldies and beach music

 The band wound up and directed us outside for the fireworks, which were impressive.  We had never been to this venue before for fireworks, so we weren't entirely sure which direction they would come from, so of course we parked ourselves under the only tree that could obscure our view.  But, it wasn't bad and we had a pretty good view of the show anyway.

Overall, a happy fourth.