On Maine and MIT

It's REALLY been a while since I posted, but at least I posted photos from our Maine trip. My mom was really impressed with the quality of the photos I sent her from my Snapfish account, but that's because I have to take at least 4 photos in order to get one decent photo (and why develop the other three?).

Maine, of course, was wonderful. Quite a bit different from our previous trips because we were in the middle of farm country, not by the sea. We had to drive at least an hour to get anywhere interesting, as the nearly 3,000 miles on our car attest. I HATE being in the car, so insisted on resting at the house every other day. Luckily, the house we rented was on a lake, and there were tons of mushrooms within walking distance. Igor gathered so many mushrooms; by the end of the trip, we had 5 cubic feet of cooked, frozen mushrooms. And that's not counting the mushrooms we ate fried or in soups that we ate during the trip.

Other food highlights of the trip:
- blueberry pie and pecan pie from Brookside Diner in Smyrna.
- homemade ice cream from Geoghan's Berry Farm - very creamy
- chocolates from Katie's on the Cove: trust me, these are yummy!
- BBQ chicken bought from the Knights of Columbus in Presque Isle: a quarter of a chicken, corn, and potato chips for $6.
- waffles made from Bouchard Family Farm Ployes Mix (a ploye is an Acadian buckwheat pancake)

I really missed being by the sea, but the lake water was warm enough for swimming. Although we found tons of mushrooms (mainly boletus and chanterelles), we had a tough time finding berries. We did find one source of blackberries, but they were quite tart. Made excellent jam, though. Finally, the quality of hikes in Aroostook county was not up to par. Most of the trails were snowmobile or ATV trails. Walking along ATV trails felt like walking on a road, not a hike.

Igor, however, discovered Spednic Lake Provincial Park in Canada. This park is not maintained by the parks department, but I believe by the St. Croix International Waterway Commission. The lake is a "real" lake, according to Igor, and the park has FREE campsites on the lakefront. Nikita had a wonderful time throwing rocks into the lake (there was no beach by our house). Although the park only had one hike, it was a beautiful hike through mosses and ferns (reminding me of the Pacific NW) - and TONS of mushrooms. It was impossible to walk with Nikita because he kept on wanting to pick up mushrooms, whether or not they were good. Thanks to the book that Igor borrowed from the library, we picked up some unusual specimens such as one that looked like a coral, and another called "Old Man of the Forest": white, with little tufts of black hair!

One odd perk of being in the middle of nowhere was the discount stores. We found a couple of REALLY cheap items in used clothing stores, like a pair of overalls for Nikita for 75 cents. And Igor fell in love with Marden's, a Maine discount store chain. Lots of cheap tools and cheap clothing. I was suprised to find clothing from Target at discount prices!

All in all, a thoroughly relaxing trip. When we drove into Boston, Igor turned into a country bumpkin, exclaiming, "Wow. They have cars here. And people running." It was also quite different waking up to the sound of cars on the street instead of birds and the neighborhood dog.

But Maine seems another lifetime away. I'm thoroughly entrenched with work these days, but enjoying it. I had a really insane week about two weeks after we got back: classes all day on Monday, then a week-long writing workshop (aka boot camp) for MIT students who will be spending their Junior year at Cambridge University. The workshop met every morning from 9-12 for 5 days. Luckily, I didn't have many assignments to grade for my other classes at the time, but I still managed to log in over 50 hours that week.

Life is now more manageable, but I have yet to find the time to resume my knitting. I still have to weave in the ends of my socks and Nikita's sweater (which turned out lovely - and the sleeves are long enough!). My next project is a lace-panelled blouse for my mom, in KnitPicks Shine Worsted (Blush).

I've recently forced myself to read something that's not work-related on the bus ride home; otherwise, it won't happen. I have only 4 chapters left in EH Gombrich's The Story of Art (I'm up to the 19th century!), but I keep forgetting this fact because it's too heavy to take with me, and I've put the book back on the shelf. I've given up listening to War and Peace, and am reading the book instead. That's okay because I only have a little over 100 pages left. However, I started and finished Ruth Reichl's lovely memoir of her days as a NYT food critic, Garlic and Sapphires. Will post a review when (if?) I get a chance.

Finally, in spite my busy schedule, I started swimming again last week. There's no excuse not to swim: I don't even have to leave the building. In addition, I eat lunch catching up with news, thanks to Slate's daily digest and the Christian Science Monitor. I'm particularly pissed off at Congress's recent passage of the military trials bill. Here are two pieces of commentary by the New York Times and the Washington Post.