Disney

Disney World turned out to be much cooler than I'd thought it would be. In an effort to make the most out of the trip we decided to do the Magic Kingdom and Epcot in one day.

To get to the Magic Kingdom we took a ferry across the man-made lake, passing the Grand Floridian Resort, where George's wedding took place.


The Magic Kingdom was all decorated for the fall and Halloween already. But even I had to admit that the Mickey pumpkins were really cool.

Here are Todd and Melissa are in front of the castle:

The first thing we did was to head to the world of tomorrow and go on the space mountain ride:

Then we rode the kiddie rockets which gave us a great aerial view of the park.

 

We all tried to pull the sword out of the stone, but it looks like none of us is the next Arthur.

For fun we saw Mickey's Philharmagic Show. It was a 3D show complete with 3D glasses and lots of other fun sensory effects, like like a spritz of water across the entire crowd when the animated brooms and buckets were washing the floor, and the aroma of food to accompany a dinner banquet. 

We stopped for lunch at a Moroccan restaurant and Todd quickly disguised himself as a native.

One of the coolest things we did was the Behind the Seeds tour. The Behind the Seeds tour in an extension of the Living With the Land exhibit. Disney does a lot of agricultural work and research at their Biotechnology Lab, which is a joint project with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. They do a lot with hydroponic growth techniques, natural pest control and liquid and gel nutrient-delivery mechanisms.

Of course, since it's Disney they have lots of fun with Mickey-shaped stuff. There were pumpkins shaped like Mickey's ears, cucumbers that look like Mickey ears when sliced, and different colored lettuces arranged into Mickey ears.

Another cool thing they grow are tomato and eggplant trees and trellised vegetables.



In addition to the plants, Disney raises animals, including alligators, sturgeon, catfish, carp, shrimp and eels.




They use their liquid nutrient system for both the trellised growing and for vertical gardens.




The day we were at Disney it turned out to be raining and that was great because there were no lines for anything and I think we hit every ride we wanted to in both parks. We got there right when the park opened and stayed all the way until the fireworks show at Epcot at the end of the day. Right before the end of the day we grabbed a quick and delicious meal of bratwurst and beer in German Land of the park.

Then Todd tried on—and almost got—a funny German hat.

NY/NJ/DC adventures

This year for our Jess, Hannah, Todd & Olivia adventure we started out by meeting up in Bayonne. The first day Todd and I had to work so after breakfast Hannah and Jess set off to explore Manhattan. Since no trip is complete without hitting every yarn store possible I pointed them towards the nearest one. There Jess picked up some yarn to make baby booties and when we got home we got out the winding equipment to turn the hanks into balls.
Since winding yarn is Todd's favorite part of knitting except for ripping stuff out I enlisted Todd and Hannah's help to tackle a huge hank of cotton yarn. I'd had a few false starts with it before since I'd gotten twisted somehow, but I was hoping that a group effort would make short work of it.
Here we are at the Bronx Zoo sporting our new koala, tiger, elephant, and lion ear headbands.


A peacock tried to sneak home with the departing zoo visitors at the end of the day.
Buddy was happy to see Jess and Hannah and to let them shower him with attention.
Huzzah! The grey yarn has been turned in to ready to use balls. Thanks Todd and Hannah!
On our last day in NJ we had a terrific time with Todd's uncle Jonathan.
We even got Todd's cousin Whitney knitting!

Swatches lie!

Getting ready for the Knitting Olympics, I thought I'd hedge my bets and do things the right way and actually do a swatch.  Two watches in different colors in fact.  But no worky!  I got about 4 inches in and began to suspect that I had entirely too much sweater.  Turns out I was right and when I measured I discovered that I had about 6 inches too much sweater and every time I measure it stretched out more!  So I gave in and remeasured the gauge and did yet another swatch on smaller needles and did some more math and finally started over with 202 stitches instead of 238 stitches.  Grr.  I wanted to use smaller needles cause the stitches were very loose and the swatch came out much firmer with, so that made me happy, but also worried that I'd go round the bend the other way and end up with a sweater that was too small.  But I just made my best guess and began knitting away on the 202 stitches.  After about 4 inches this time I was relieved to find out that Todd's sweater was actually coming out the right size.  Hooray!   Now I just hope that my false start doesn't mean that I can't finish the sweater on time.

Sofia's Birthday Dinner

For Sofia's Birthday we went to Ricardo's Steak House (http://www.ricardosteakhouse.com/). We were pleasantly surprised. At 2nd Avenue and 110th street it was easy to get to. Clint and I got there super early and waited at the bar. We made bets on the next person to arrive while sampling their sangria and something blue with coconut and rum. While we were at the bar we got to watch the chef work and tried not to drool as the tasty dishes went by. The the staff was nice too and at the end of the meal they brought a cake and sung happy birthday to Sofia.

The swatching has begun...

In preparation for the Knitting Olympics I wanted to get everything ready so that I could just cast on and then knit, knit, knit to the finish line.  The yarn originally used in the pattern is not available any more and I was looking for a cotton and wool blend, with the textured and flecked coloring, and also something that could be machine washed.  It was surprising to find that there aren't really a whole lot of options, but I decided to try the Rowan DK Cashcotton.  Although the cashcotton is still in production it proved impossible to find in any yarn store in Manhattan to see the colors in person so I studied the color card, took my best guess and ordered two different shades online from Jimmy Beans Wool.  As soon as they arrived I actually knitted up two proper 4 by 4 swatches and after careful consideration Todd chose a winner!  We're going with the apple color and as soon as it gets here I'll be ready to cast on as the games begin.