Fartnado: it’s like a tornado, but farts
Old Sturbridge (April 2014)
It’s been a beautiful spring weekend after a stormy March. A trip to Old Sturbridge Village is in order. Its the last day we can bring Butter the dog until autumn.
The Quinebaug River is pretty full after all the storms:
Some of the fields are flooding too. Fortunately the flooded parts aren’t regular exhibits.
Of course, we’re expecting another inch of rain tomorrow night, so this might be even more flooding in a couple of days. Sadly we won’t be around to enjoy the carnage.
We went with our friends Sam and Joanne, and their son. The kids tire each other out quite effectively. I didn’t get a photo of them playing in the dirt.
While there, we accidentally ran into our friends Pat and Kelly. We haven’t seen them since before we moved, so we skipped lunch and caught up instead. Afterwards, when we finally got food, the kids were clearly hungrier than we were but they hadn’t complained while the Pothiers were around – too much fun to notice little things like your stomach gnawing on your backbone.
Alpha and Alpha-Pothier played like it hadn’t been five minutes since the last time they saw each other – they’ve known each other pretty much since birth.
We did get the children to sit still for a couple of seconds to take a group photo. This is the only ‘straight’ photo, the dozen or so others have various rabbit ears and everyone cutting up.
Hello World!
I got my first two programs to run! Now – to do the homework. I can so totally do this. Chart tracker, here I come!
The Hand
Visiting the USS Albacore
My earlier plan to hide under the bed not-withstanding, we decided to head out into the weather to do something fun today. What to do?
We could have gone to the Science Museum, or the Aquarium. We could have gone to see the Constitution and the Bunker Hill Memorial (on Breed’s Hill, but who’s keeping track). Nope. We have several submariners in the family, and there is a submarine open to the public in New Hampshire. Here we come, USS Albacore!
The guys running the museum are fantastic. They clearly like well-behaved kids. The girls were told they could touch everything, get into the bunks, and drive the boat (who, apparently will veer towards dives).
And touch and drive and try out the bunks they did!
According to both Dad and the girls, this is a much better submarine to visit than the USS Nautilus. The guys working the museum agreed. “We don’t talk about that other boat down in Groton. We clearly have the better boat.” We happily spent well over half an hour poking around, trying out bunks, and getting into mischief in the galley. It was just a fantastic day over all.
And we accidentally visited Kittery, Maine. Not many places you can say you accidentally visited a state just by taking the wrong bridge…
AGSS Albacore
When the weather outside is rotten, the logical thing to do is find some indoor activities. Today was such a day so we went to visit AGSS Albacore, an experimental research submarine, in Portsmouth, NH.
The main museum is the submarine, with a nearly-full-access self-guided audio tour. By full-access I mean lying in the bunks, playing with the dive-plane controls, flipping switches, and turning dials. The engine room is completely open (visually, if not physically, since some of the more dangerous bits have barriers).
It was cool because it gave an idea of how the crew lived. Tight quarters everywhere and no wasted space. Fifty guys shared a couple of toilets; I can’t imagine the smell.
The submarine itself was an experiment and was refit several times over its lifetime with enhancements like new propulsion, including an uncommon twin screw design.
The experience is much better than touring the USS Nautilus. The Nautilus is ok if you’ve never seen the inside of a submarine, but everything is off-limits so the tour takes five minutes (or less if you have small children). The guys in the museum office “don’t talk about the Nautilus” and felt quite a bit of pride in the openness of the Albacore vs. the Nautilus. We were in there for nearly three-quarters of an hour, and another half hour in the museum shop (including a video of how the got the submarine to it’s present location).
I’m gonna hide under the covers
I made bacon and eggs for breakfast on our awesome cast iron griddle. It works wonderfully well, and the eggs are delicious.
I had an egg flow right over the side of the griddle. My stove is now covered in raw egg. I can’t clean it until the griddle cools enough for me to move it. sigh.
Not an auspicious start to the day.
My Dream App
So, you may know that I’m a knitter. And I’m addicted to my phone, tablet, etc. These things are largely compatible.
As a knitter, I print many patterns. Patterns from Ravelry. Patterns from Knitty (did you see that the new issue is up? YAY!). I think my pattern printing is responsible for at least one tree. And the only thing I really need the printouts for are the charts. Those lovely, complex lace charts. Set up, transitioning, number of repeats, all that can be found online, anytime. The charts must be printed so I can track what row I’m on. I usually use a highlighter, but any writing instrument will do in a pinch. And if I forget my chart? Forget any knitting until I get home. ARG!
There are many fine apps out there as row counters. That’s not what I want. I want an app that will display my chart, with the rows I’ve already done, highlighted. Just like my lovely paper chart, but less likely to be left at home.
So, I have the Android SDK, Java 7, and no real idea what I’m doing. This is going to be great. 🙂
More Hiking at Harold Parker
Cash
Quinn: “Did you take out cash when you deposited that check?”
Megh: “Yeah, I wanted some in case you asked if I had any cash.”
Quinn: “I ask you if you have cash so I can buy something off-the-books, which I shouldn’t do.”
Megh: “I get cash so I can buy things off-the-books, too.”