Weekend pictures

Ended up with Saturday off..

 So I dragged Curt out to sit in obnoxious bridge traffic (hate the  Mid-Hudson bridge)

 Made some new friends

 It was a gorgeous day!

 Waited in line for probably 40 min for a lamb sandwich that was oh sooo worth it.

Yes, you guessed it- I went to the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Show.  I only bought one skein of yarn (really hadn't been planning to go, so no yarn budget) but I had a fantastic  time !

Big Brew Beer Fest

Went to the Big Brew Beer Fest at the Morristown Armory yesterday.  Actually took public transport!!  (the Angie would be proud) Took a train and then a shuttle bus!!

Forgot all about the pretzel necklace thing - but fortunately there was a table with Food Bloggers that was giving away pretzel necklaces if you liked them on Twitter or Facebook.

I got my picture taken with the Horny Goat!

There was a guy there with a Revolution Brewing t-shirt like mine so yes, I gave a high-five!  We chatted with Chris, the ciccerone from Hot Rods, bought some meat sticks and Jerky to send to the Angie from Mr & Mrs Jerky (also walked around with their stickers on!  The chocolate covered bacon guy wasn't there (sadness) but there was a lady selling

bacon jam (win!) Had a great Guiness cake treat from A Cake and  A Jar - they build on 2 mini cupcakes in a jar. Very Cute. Shared a pork mac n cheese from Morris Tap and Grill with Curt- so yummy!



Discovered some really interesting cherry ciders one was way too sweet, but it's been forever since I've had soda so it might have been me.  There was a competition BBQ booth, and I decided to split an order of bacon wrapped meatballs with Curt.  There was a choice of regular and spicy.  Now, in my defense usually "spicy" really isn't.  Also in my defense, Curt didn't say no, get regular. 

I thought they were really good, actually had a nice kick, good flavours underneath, bacon not overcooked. I ate mine in 3 bites.  Curt popped the whole thing in his mouth  Curt's head just about exploded!  (and there is no milk at a beer fest, I don't think milk stout would work - alcohol usually just spreads the burn) I gave him my two pack of raspberry fig bars- it was a close to bread as I could figure.  I bought some fried cheese curds, but apparently temperature hot is not good when your head is on fire.  He even used his inhaler. It was scary, but now that it's over it's funny. 



I've decided that this guy had the funniest shirt at the fest.

 I also bought a cool license plate plaque, I'll post another day- don't know where Curt has it.

Snow Day!!

Didn't go to work today... wasn't worried about getting to work.. worried about getting home from work.  I took this picture a little over an hour ago..it is windy so part of it is wind -- but that's a six foot fence!!

 

John was in NJ for a couple days!

The Angie and her Uncle John

John with Anna and a squirmy Christopher

As we've gotten over 40 we look less alike..

Christopher

Can someone explain Accuweather?

My accuweather app has been annoying me lately.  Some of it might be my phone not updating the current weather.  But, since winter (and in NJ we had a really rough late winter)  I've been noticing that weather.com's app has been much more acurate.  But this morning it really annoyed me:



If the current temperature at 8:24am is 44 degrees, how is it possible that the low for the day is predicted to be 57???



weather.com also lists the low temperature at 57 - but at 8am it IS 57 degrees.. how can they be 13 degrees apart.  A few minutes after these screen shots I went out to check on my plants in shorts a tank top and bare (not bear) feet.  It was definitely not 44!!  

 

Monday Ramble...

Since my catphew is clearly impatient...  After spending a fun day with the Angie on FRIDAY (must buy Fe a calendar)  we spent the night (Doubletree gives you warm cookies when you check in.... just saying...) and we met Fe's mom for brunch at The Gold Standard Cafe (just imagine snow and ice)

 
Food there is delicious... even if some of the veganish choices scare me a bit...  I had chopped lamb steak with sunny side up eggs... really good!  There was a very bizarre older clearly anti-social couple at the table next to us.  The woman barely got off her phone (they say teenagers and millenials are bad???  OMG)  The grumpy old man next to her mostly just stared out the window.  She had a large glass of orange juice, and then when it was barely 1/4 emptied got another one.  Then she drank about 1/4 of the new glass and tried pouring the old glass into the new glass.. repeatedly.  My theory is the hand we weren't seeing had vodka in it.  (Curt in these situations is very unhelpful) She sent back her plate, it came back looking exactly the same as when it went back.. and she looked seriously put out that she had to put down her phone and use a fork... the HORROR!!!!. By the time they left she had picked all the egg off and left  it in a pile on the plate.  (When the Angie was young she hated eggs... there is a solution .. tell them you don't want the damn egg!!!)

But here's the anti-social part (other than I think they maybe spoke 4 sentences to each other and I'm pretty sure 3 were to bitch about us being happy at brunch)  Now it's brunch... it isn't 5am (although 5am is not a bad time for me..) there weren't a lot of people when we got there, but it filled up quickly ( I almost forgot that Min and I needed to seat ourselves strategically, because Curt is a very unhelpful people noticer)  People are talking and laughing and having fun... it's Saturday Brunch!  Well every time we laughed, the woman turned around and glared at us... we turned it into a drinking game, and Curt ended up imbibing way more coffee than normal!  I think we were at 14? but we weren't sure how to categorize the one really long glare she gave us before she left...

There was man there as well ( well a few but we needed outside help with this one) who came in with 4 boys about the same age - none of whom appeared to own a comb.My best guess is sleepover & Dad either can't or didn't want to cook, or Mom wanted them out. Tue man was wearing a BLACK shirt and on the back in white letters it said MARCH 17.  Since it was 17 days until March 17th, we were trying to figure out why.  Why was it not green? Was he so Irish he celebrated all month? was he confused about the date? was it from a previous year's pub crawl?  Here Curt  proved helpful. After getting a waitress (not ours)  to refill our coffee (woman wouldn't stop glaring!- - come to think of it , it's very rude to force people to drink so much they can barely eat or talk!) Curt got her to go back over to the other table and see what was on the FRONT of his shirt.  Which turned out to be a pub in Boston.

AFTER we finished, we walked back to Min's house to hang out with Felix and exchange Christmas/birthday presents.  Mr Sleepy Head (yes you FE!) didn't want to wake up and then when he saw us, he decided to act all happy... hmmf.   He was VERY interested in sniffing my Barnes and Noble tote (makes me wonder what exactly it was recycled from.. one never thinks to ask that question.  Then claimed all the wrapping & tissue paper and of course the box for himself.  He decidedly DID NOT approve of the Carl head we got his mom.  He seemed disinterested in the cast iron skillets we got her as well  (his grandmother is a retired Home Ec teacher!!  Clearly Home Ec is different in MO. How do you not have a cast iron skillet as required kitchen basics???)  And of course when it was time for us to leave (couldn't stay as long as our normal visit.. it was BOWLING night you know) Fe went in the kitchen and refused to say goodbye.


I guess that was longer than I thought it would be, not a huge amount of time left for my ramble.  I'm in a really, really, really, dark, angry hate everything kind of mood the last couple of days.  I don't like when my head get's this way, but I don't know how to fix my head until it sort of runs its course.  Works been pissing me off, but realistically not more than normal, I'm just reacting to it more, so I really can't blame that.  Knitting isn't relaxing me.  I want something to change, but I don't know what.  It may just be my normal winter is almost over sadness amplified a bit. (yes, I get sad that winter is ending.  I really do love winter. I realize after all the snow and ice we've had for the last 7 weeks - I don't really like the ice and freezing rain and wintry mix part, it ruins the snow - I'm probably the only one who feels this way... but summer... is... hot... yuck) My friends know it's bad when even the fact that my favorite driver is bringing me 4 rolls of carpet on Braun's and 2 need to get racked which means playing with the boom won't cheer me up....     

Fluffy

I'm about a month behind here.  I do have stuff to tell/show you - but some of it will be condensed in the next few days.  I'm hoping a new app I put on my phone might make it easier to blog stuff.  We shall see.. when I was young I wanted to journal and that never worked for me either!

Last night, we had tickets to a comedy concert by Gabriel Iglesias.  He's one of the Angie's favorite comics so when she got out of work at 4:30 - she took 3 trains and made it to Newark Penn Station at 7:52.  We met her outside the station and walked the 4 or 5 blocks to NJPAC and got to our seats just as the opening act was starting. (for those of you who have seen "fluffy" on tv - yes, there is really a Martin, and he is really a f'd up but very funny guy.)



Curt and I got to Newark about 2 hours early.  We left based on the traffic Curt sees heading east while he's driving home west after work, and how long it takes to get parked when I go to the Devils games.   There was barely any traffic - I'm thinking a lot of people may be taking vacation next week for July 4th, and escaped work early.  Or were going away for the weekend and escaped early ( I do encounter more cars on the way home on Fridays in the summer - at 2-3pm - I think for this reason.

We walked around that part of Newark - and we saw them start getting the plaza outside the Prudential Center (the Rock) for the "stronger than the Storm" fan fest to go along with the  NHL draft which is being held at the Rock tomorrow.





We went next door to Dinosaur Bar B Que, which several people have told us was really good. (when I go to hockey games it's really packed).  We split a couple appy's - wings, chicken & sausage gumbo, fried green tomatoes, salmon fritters  - I had  a Guiness, Curt had something else.  The food was excellent, the waitress was dumb as sh*t, she couldn't answer any questions with out checking (not for nothing - but if a place advertises 20 beers on tap - and I want to know what the Sam Adams seasonal is  - the answer isn't seasonal) She wasn't especially fun or friendly either.



As we were leaving the restaurant and heading to the train station, we saw that it had rained pretty hard while we were inside.  There was  a double rainbow in the sky - right over the giant hockey player.  I'm taking it as a positive omen for the Devils' season next year!

Lancaster Beer & Wine Gallery

On our way from Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse to the outlets on Route 30, we passed a winery tasting/store place.  Two weeks ago they opened an upstairs, The Barn Bar, connected to Rumspringa Brewing Co. a Brewery in Bird-In-Hand. We decided to stop in.  We decided to forgo the dessert offerings - although they really looked tempting, since we were planning on dinner at Cracker Barrel.  We ordered the beer sampler - their 4 regular brews and their seasonal offering - a heffeweisen that was a bit on the fruity side.



To go with that we ordered the cheese/sausage/pretzel plate



The golden and the stout were excellent.  the IPA was actually one I would consider drinking, surprising for an IPA.  I really, really liked the Red Caboose Ale so I bought a decorative glass growler - which held over 1/2 a gallon and had it filled with the Red Caboose.



Altogether a perfect lunch for a date day!

Unplanned yarn.

Friday evening, Curt and I decided to go on a quick day trip.  This was inspired earlier in the week when Krissie and Ryan Newman's date night turned into a trip to Bass Pro Shops.  I believe the closest Bass Pro to me is in Harrisburg, PA - about 3 hours away I think.  But a mere 2 hrs + away is Cabella's.  I love Cabella's- and there is a Cracker Barrel right across the street.  Curt needed some unmentionables because I threw a bunch of his away recently.  So, he wanted to head to the outlets outside Lancaster on Route 30 (not the ones in Reading)  These outlets are just about around the corner (ok long corner)  from Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse, PA.  So our plans were made.  The Angie had already made plans for the weekend down the shore with her friends.  It was just Curt and I.

We left at 7am, figuring we would get breakfast around Allentown.  All the way to Bethlehem, there were those signs about what food was at the next exit.  Just before Bethlehem, was even a sign for Waffle House, but I didn't pick it (he drove I had to pick) because we were still some miles before Allentown.  Well, then Allentown came and went. And went, and went, and went.  I don't think any of these people eat breakfast out!  (ok,  there was Mickey D's, Burger King, and the Wendy's served breakfast- but yuck, I don't do them)  So, when Curt saw a sign for the Midway Diner he picked it.  It was a typical truck diner - and I had a lot of fun eavesdropping (although if they talk that loud it shouldn't be considered eavesdropping) on three pretty loud drivers sitting at the counter.  One driver had a dog that was working on exterminating Groundhogs.  Since my father in law is currently losing his war against a groundhog that likes his garden, they caught my attention.

found the pic on line.
 
When we got to Kitchen Kettle Village we stopped at the Lancaster Yarn Shop.  Not a really big LYS, but they had a section of locally raised,spun dyed yarn.  How could I resist??  I needed some sock yarn that would be a stretch from my usual choices for a KAL that starts tomorrow of Honey Badger Socks.   I found Crab Apple Yarns.  Jubilee.  It was way more than I would usually spend on yarn, but I really loved it.



They also had a sparkly yarn - not sure what I'll make from that.  Revival.



Without the Angie - Curt had to be my sampling partner in the jam shop.  We ended up getting 13 jars, a spicy pickle, watermelon rind pickles for my FIL, sugar free apple butter for my mom, 2 things of peach salsa, pineapple jalepeno I plan on using with pork or ham. and 7 of our usuals.  Then it was the smoke house, love the smell in there for cheee & sausage.  I showed amazing restraint by skipping the fudge store.  I realized some time ago that I like buying fudge more than eating it!  The leather shop also is on I never skip.


From there it was on to lunch - but that is a whole post in and of itself!

Beer Fest part 2

Tell me you don't want this outdoor kitchen?  It's the kitchen in the chef's garden (an actual garden- tomatoes and other things from the garden were used in lunch) outside the "biosphere" which is not a sphere by the way.  The chef on the right on his cell phone is Kevin Sbraga ( he was on Top Chef)  His food was nothing short of amazing.

For the Beer Tasting and Seminar, before the actual festival, a 6 course lunch was served with each dish matched to a different beer.  A woman - sorry don't remember her name, who is a judge at craft beer competitions - seriously I need her job, described the flavor notes in each pairing that made them a good match.

A beer I never would have tried out of TX - had ruby red grapefruit and ginger added during the brew Shiner Ruby Redbird went with the first course of lamb kabobs with za'tar and yogurt sauce.  Both were amazing.  I realize I'm going to go nuts trying to find more of this beer!



Course 2 was a SMOKED (as in the whole thing was smoked) turkey rueben with spicy thousand island.  Paired with sierra Nevada Summerfest.  Followed by Carmelized Onion Flatbread with savory peach comfit & foie gras paired with Blue Moon Honeymoon.  Soo good - ask Grace - me and onions usually not going to happen.  Next came Andouille sliders with garden cucumbers and cilantro paired with Sam Adams Summerfest (a beer I already knew I liked) I came to realize I have clearly been hitting the wrong burger joints!  This was followed by the Chef's Garden BLT with Beach House American Pils . interesting for a pilsner, I usually don't care for them but while I won't go out of my way for this, I would drink this again.  The heirloom tomato on the sammie was actually creamy.  It was excellent!  Finally dessert was a Wood roasted Apricot with pomegranate glaze and Cricket Hill Jersey Summer Breakfast Ale.  I had 2!!  The concept of breakfast ale is intriguing isn't it?  And was good - I'll be buying this again.

After this, we went down the hill to the 9th hole for the actual festival.  There were some really good beers there.  There were some really terrible beers there (Lobster ale while intriguing sounding should be dumped into the sea)  And for whatever reason (probably because they make Blue Moon) coors was there with their banquet beer (ok some people may not have had that) but Coors Light?? Seriously - who that drinks beer hasn't had Coors Light at least once??  My favorite and I will definitely be looking for this is a barrel aged ale from Scotland.  Innis - they have regular barrel aged which is good, but OMG their rum barrel aged??  rich, caramel deep dark amazing beer!



The bbq they served was decent - but after lunch it was hard to follow.  They had a really, really, really bad mostly 80's cover band.  What they lacked in talent, ability and musicality they made up for with enough amps and speakers to play a stadium.  Seriously people- if you suck at Springsteen, don't do his covers in NJ in front of a bunch of people drinking unlimited beer tastings, hostility will result. It was so bad I kept having to leave the tent.

Overall - if you like beer and you get the opportunity I would definitely recommend going - but if you do spring the extra $40 and go to the seminar first. 



AND, lest you think I was setting a bad example for the Angie - we didn't drive.  We stayed at a B&B nearby - Alpine Haus and had a car sent from Vernon Taxi to drop us off and come back for us.  The driver was a really nice guy, if you are ever in need of a ride in Sussex county call them. We got back to the B&B around 7, I took a 2 hour nap.  Then we went to the Vernon Diner & Pancake House for a late supper.  AND  got carrot cake to go.   We only missed 100 laps of the truck race- I guess there was a sizeable red flag - so were surprised that we could have dessert with the end of the race.
Alpine Haus was great- I actually want to go back and stay in the carriage house for a weekend in the fall.  I was awake at 5 and amused myself with Ravelry on the tablet, I started a book, and worked on a strip of my chess board project.  We had reserved the 9am breakfast, because Curt just likes to sleep late. I had heard a lot about their breakfast, it did not disappoint.  Great coffee, a blueberry/coconut muffin, baked peach , bacon and upside down french toast.  Even after all we had on Saturday I cleaned my plate.

weekend

This weekend was Curt's father's day getaway gift to the NJ Beer and Food Fest held at Crystal Springs Spa & Resort.  The weather and the venue were gorgeous.  Check out this view!


You can actually see both PA and NY from up there!

We got there a bit early because I had our tickets on will call - turns out no tickets just a list anyway.  There were a bunch of these chair/bed/pod things - I wish I had brought knitting or a book!



And seriously - I need one of these outdoor beds!





to be continued....

ARCA at NJMSP!!

Just a short post today.  Curt and I went down to NJMSP for the ARCA race.  The sun was only out for maybe 45 minutes, the rest of the time was overcast, but other than a few sprinkles, the rainheld off until after we started the drive home.

I have pictures for tomorrow, but for today I have just a few.

Just wondering since it's a Ford from NC- were they unsure if they could make the trip without an extra motor?

Those of you familiar with ARCA would know that one of the Venturini's sponsors is Mike's Hard Lemonade.  So during the 45 minutes of actual sunny time I went in search of some.  I checked the haulers-

No lemonade in the haulers.  So I figured maybe they brought it to the pits??

 There was no lemonade in the pit stall.  I did however have a nice conversation with one of the pit guys - have his picture somewhere -  he was pretty cool - but denied any knowledge of where the Hard Lemonade was being stashed.  So we all know how stock car racing gots it's start right?  From moonshine runners and smugglers?  So I think I figured out where the Lemonade was but couldn't get ahold of any :(

 

Random stuff from the weekend - warning there is some mockery

So here's some random stuff from the weekend.  IF MOCKERY IS GOING TO OFFEND YOU YOU MAY WANT TO CLOSE THIS WINDOW NOW, AND TRY AGAIN TOMORROW!  This is my official disclaimer!  No complaints about the mockery if you actually read the whole post!  Also - NOT EVERYTHING in this post is mocking.  Please be intelligent enough to know the difference.


So on Friday, I got my swap package from my hockey swap.  Apparently I need to wear more green and purple as the last two swap packages I got included green and purple based scarves!

On Saturday, Curt went to one of his computer nerd conferences, so I did a lot of laundry.  Blech, I hate laundry.  I was getting ready to relax and watch the race when a little past 6 our power started blinking. ( Did I mention just how windy it was this weekend?)  then out power went out completely.  Now my laptop battery is kinda shot - and I'm not entirely sure if my woreless would work at the wall without power anyway.   I did use my phone a bit longer online, but decided to shut it off as this new phone of mine seriously sucks power.  I mean my last phone I used constantly and I charged it every 2 or 3 days.  This phone, I think I need a car charger for as it is on yellow or red each day when I get home.  Fortunately, the transformer that our power is on, is also the transformer that runs the traffic light on the corner of Main St and the highway.  SO the cops were directing traffic, which obviously pushed our problem to the top of the power company's list.  I have to give them credit, they had the power back up in under 2 hours, closer to 1.5 hours actually.








Back to Sunday.  The track wasn't very crowded, but there were still a bunch of "don'ts" there.


First, the should be extinct, but is merely just endangered - Mullet



Dude - it's seriously time to cut the tail.


 Pit Lizards?



Finally - this is for "you know who you are"  It is seriously annoying that you read my blog, never deigning to comment on it.  You also don't have the nerves to tell me yourself, your opinion of my blog and/or its contents. Do I actually care?  Do I ever care about any of your "correctness" opinions?  Realistically - you do not need to read my blog.  You can keep up on Angie much more directly if you chose.  but if you do read the blog - please refrain from telling A to tell B to tell me your opinion.  because I don't care.  

If you had actually read Thursday's blog post ( and if you are going to read my blog I would consider the Thunks a surprising choice of posts)  It asked what the oldest picture in my house was.  Not for ALL the old pictures in my house.  Nor did it ask for the oldest picture of my parents in the house.  But to make you happy - Here is a picture of my father, my grandfather and my great grandfather ( whom I called grey grandpa, because I thought it was grey for his hair - yes I was so dumb it could be confused with cute)


  I'm thinking it was around 1938 or so.