Letterboxing Fun

I'm so happy, I figured out now to open a new window, use Command N. Also, I downloaded some kind of software that was available from flickr, which fixed the problem I was having downloading photos into blogger too. I have no idea how it happened, but it's working now.

I've been doing a lot of letterboxing this month. The weather has been perfect and there are lots of boxes in my town, although I've found almost all of them now, so I'm going to start working on the next town over.


There is a letterbox hidden under this ship, which is in a local miniature golf course. That was a fun outing for us.



These two carvings are in a park the next town over. I was looking for a letterbox hidden next to a stump with a similar carving, but I didn't find it. I'll have to go back to that one, it's near my dentist's office, so it was a handy stop to check it out.


A beaver at the nature center, he's lying on his tail. We found 5 boxes at the nature center, what a great day. . .

Azalea at the nature center, amazing color. . .

The heat, poison ivy, and bugs are all coming out, so I won't be letterboxing as much. It's time to garden. I went to the farmer's market today and got some plants. I still need to set out some herbs, flowers and strawberries. The only local produce that could be had this early was lettuce, green onions and radishes, so I made a wonderful potato salad from this recipe. I added the onions to it, and made a dressing from chives instead of tarragon, since that was on hand. I ate it over a bed of the lettuce for lunch, fantastic. Have a great weekend, y'all.

Mac Attack

I know my posting is getting sparse, but it's that time of year.

Dh got us a new Mac this weekend. He bought a huge book called *Switching to the Mac* and throws it on the bed and tells me to get on it. ha!

I just downloaded about 500 photos onto said computer, thinking I would use the iPhoto software, instead of my Canon software. Now, when I try to add a picture to this post, the iPhoto shows as grey on the menu so I can't select it. Hmmm.

It is a bit of a problem when you realize that you can't cut and paste a URL, you can't logout other users in your family so you can use the thing, and all your bookmarks (15 years worth y'all) are gone. . . I can live with it, I think, this machine is so fast.

Today I planted my vegetable garden, so I was going to do a nice *late Earth Day* post, with a few garden photos. But really, there's not much to see yet anyhow.

I just now discovered that I don't know how to open another window to go to Amazon and link a gardening book that I'm enjoying right now, sigh. . . Thank goodness Blogger has the auto save feature or I would have lost this post. . .

I promise to get that book out and look up all of these problems. . . sigh. . .

Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies

Micki commented about New York:

Wow, what a fun time you had! The last time I went to NYC was last summer for a fabric buying trip with my ASG group. We were only there for the day and then came back home.

Been twice before that for fun, but again, only for the day with my dh and that was before 9/11. It's weird to see pictures of my dh and me with the towers behind us (we were at the Statue of Liberty I think) I've never been with my kids. Something to look forward to in the future, husband goes for work occasionally. My son would like it I think!

I would have loved to go into the Garment District for some fabric shopping. I would have loved to visit some NYC yarn shops. But, this was a family-oriented trip and my hobby insanity has to take a back seat. One of these days!

I think my kids are the perfect age to enjoy it (7 and 11). We last went when my youngest was 4 and the walking was really too much for him. He fell asleep on the sightseeing bus, worn out. I didn't feel like he could sit through a Broadway show at age 4, so we didn't try it, but he was great being still and watching at age 7.

Yesterday's Project:
Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies. This was the winning recipe in the Pillsbury Bakeoff. When I saw it, I was disappointed that it uses premade dough, but you have to remember the goal of this contest is to use Pillsbury's products in a creative and delicious way.

First you mix up peanut butter and confectioner's sugar into little balls.

The peanut/sugar balls are then wrapped in the premade cookie dough. Here's my sliced-up log.

You form the dough around the peanut/sugar balls and then roll them in a mixture of granulated sugar, cinnamon, and finely chopped dry roasted peanuts. I used a food processor to chop my peanuts.

Flatten the dough balls with a glass sprayed with non-stick spray.

The finished cookie! Let me just say. O. M. G. they are so good. . . The tiny bit of cinnamon gives them an interesting taste on top of the peanut butter. The center is gooey with the soft peanut butter. Wonderful.

New York

We had a really fun and busy week.


We found a letterbox in Central Park near this.


At the Natural History Museum. I doubt I could have talked them into this if it weren't for the movie *Night at the Museum.* The dinosaur fossils were amazing. We only covered about half of it, and there were way too many field-tripping school kids in some areas to really enjoy it (enormous spaces with hundreds of echoing voices).

View looking south (I think) from the Empire State Building.

The Naked Cowboy. I couldn't get dd to pose with him (three years ago when she was 8, she was willing, but at 11, it's too embarrassing). Our hotel was right on Times Square.

The piano at FAO Schwartz from the movie *Big*.

We went to see The Lion King and Legally Blonde. I'm not a big show person generally, but the kids really loved it. Thursday was warm and sunny, so we went to the zoo in Central Park.

Tuesday afternoon dh had to work, and we went out to New Jersey to my brother's house, which is being renovated. Hiked down the Passaic River and had a picnic. It was a nice getaway. . .

Spring Things

I finally finished some socks! These are the Crosshatch lace socks from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. Now I can feel less guilty about paying full price for this book (I saw it at Hobby Lobby and bought it on impulse). Like the first book, this is a sock formula book, where you plug in your gauge and measurements to make a custom-fit sock. You can knit them toe up, top down, short row heel, flap heel, etc.

I used Knitpicks Risata yarn in cocoa. I wore them yesterday and they fit great, but weren't quite as soft as mostly wool socks. (This yarn is a blend of cotton/wool/nylon/elastic.) I'm going to reserve judgment on them until I've washed and worn them some.


It cracks me up to see Vanna's lovely mug on these skein labels. Can anyone guess what I'm making next?

I'll close with a few nature shots (yes, I letterboxed some this week):


Wild flowers (I have no idea what they are)

Cherry blossoms in my back yard (who needs D.C.?).

View of backyard from sewing room window.

I'm going to take a week off for spring break. We are going to NYC to visit my brother for a few days. See ya!