Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
miscellany

improvising

While we were getting packed for vacation on the 4th, a storm rolled through and knocked out the power for the better part of the day (12:30pm-10pm). Brian had to hook up the generator so we didn’t lose any food in the fridge and freezer. Good thing the power outage didn’t occur while we were away! The power being out kind of put a damper on packing–we kept putting it off because we thought it would come back on at any minute (and things would be easier to see in the light).

Another problem was that I prepared some sourdough pizza crust before the power went out. Without a stove, I didn’t have a way to cook it. A quick Google search told me that my baking steel would work on the grill, so we tried it out and had pretty good results. I feel like it would have been even better with regular pizza dough, but it certainly did the trick. I think that’s something I will be trying again in the future.

 

books

the outsider

I read this book from Stephen King while we were on vacation. It was quite good. It had a really interesting concept–I don’t want to give anything away so I’m not going to try to explain it. The only negative was that I felt that most of the characters were one-dimensional (I really had problems visualizing them). But, the story more than made up for that.

My rating: 4/5

trips

austin, pa

For vacation this year, we visited Potter County. Specifically, we stayed in the town of Austin, which is near Cherry Springs State Park. The park is known for its dark skies–due to its remote location–and is ideal for star gazing. While we didn’t go to the park, we had our own star gazing field at the cabin. And, the sky was spectacular. Thank goodness for clear weather!

Brian, Jake, Jake’s friend (Tanner), Esme, and I all went on the trip. The boys mostly hung out in their hammocks and slept. Connectivity was sparse, so it was a mostly electronics-free affair. It’s always good to disconnect. We went from Thursday to Tuesday to lessen the amount of days out of the office, which is always a concern when we can’t check in via telephone/internet.

I did a lot of knitting and reading. And, I mean a lot. There wasn’t much to do up that way, but we did visit the Austin Dam Memorial Park and Sinnemahoning State Park one day. Given that we’re from Johnstown, home of the floods, the dam was interesting to see. Unfortunately, we visited the wildlife watching area in the afternoon so there wasn’t anything to see (dawn and dusk are the best times for wildlife viewing), but it still made for a nice walk. Another day, we drove up to Coudersport and visited the Potter County Artisan Center. There, Brian and I picked up some pottery–coffee mugs for each of us and a tea light holder for the living room.

We did the usual campfires and such, but that was really about it. Entertaining Esme took up a lot of time as well, but she was so good–you could just let her out and not have to worry about her running off the property. She got plenty of exercise, but still was not tired by the time we got home. Her store of energy is boundless.

gardening & landscaping, holidays

the 4th

It isn’t the 4th yet, but we went to a 4th of July part at Lish and Brent’s on Saturday. That’s the first one we’ve gotten to in a while, so it was nice to catch up with some people we haven’t seen for a bit.

In other July news, despite all of the rain, my garden is looking pretty good. Some, but not all, of the tomato plants are turning brown like they always do (I think it’s a fungus). I’m pondering whether to pull them out or just let them go. Not a lot to harvest at this point, but in a week or two, some stuff should be ready. Thank goodness we have the CSA to hold us over in the meantime.

celebrations

graduation party

As suspected, the graduation party prep had us so busy that we didn’t make it downtown for Thunder. Neither one of us was fired up for it this year, for whatever reason. I’m sure we will get back on track next year. In related news, someone stopped to look at my bike on Saturday. They seemed really interested and were supposed to come back again yesterday evening, but did not. I guess that’s how that goes.

Anyway, Jake’s party was a success–we had a great turnout and everyone seemed to have a good time. We rented a room at the Community Arts Center due to the number of people invited (there was no way we could accommodate that many people at our house). Everything went smoothly and I was pretty happy to have correctly guesstimated the amount of food needed as I had never fed that large of a crowd before. But, I guess this is the end of celebrating Jake for a while. He had the trifecta this year–Eagle Scout, 18th birthday, and graduation.