Sunday, August 31, 2008

Squid On Wheels -- 2008 Mileage Contest

It's that time of year again. Time to guess how many miles we Squid will ride by October 31, 2008. Current and past totals are posted in the sidebar.

Contest entries must be posted in the comments section to this post by 11:00 P.M. Saturday, September 6, 2008. Prizes include sock yarn, chocolate and assorted swag.

Remember, these are miles ridden as a family and do not count miles ridden by the adults alone. Mileage may include those ridden as one adult and two kids.

Contest is open to family members with the understanding that the prizes may be altered to suit the needs of the winner. Feel free to enter even if you do not knit.

Regular blogging, of a sort, should resume tomorrow.

That is all.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Let Them Eat Cake

The prototype ...

This, naturally, left us with a whole lot of cake. What to do? What to do?

First we hit all of the neighbors on our floor. Then we took the top layer to the lobby and sat for an hour and gave out cake.
It was fun. We made lots of people happy and now only have the two 9 inch layers to "dispose" of. (The remaining top layer is going to another family on our floor as soon as they get home.)

Now ... I think I need some cake ...

Ready ...

It's still 4 weeks away but we are getting ready. I may be in charge of the knit goods but that all pales in comparisson to what Mike is in charge of ...

the baked goods. This is the start of the trial run.

(That's a 16 inch cake next to two nines and an eight.)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Squid on Wheels -- International Edition -- The Food

As you well know, we squid take our food very seriously. While traveling, we do our best to partake of local cuisine. We even go to the extreme of trying to track down good local food on the road.

Our first food foray of the trip was to the Main Street Ice Cream Parlor in Chestertown, New York.Wonderful food in a homey setting. We did not indulge in ice cream since we wanted to get back on the road fairly quickly.

On our first full day in Montreal, we did quite a bit of biking and needed to refuel before our attempt on Mount Royal. Serious exercise calls for serious food, in this case smoked meat sandwiches from Schwartz's Deli.
We did take out and dined al fresco at the base of Mount Royal.


And then comes the question -- why does one climb a mountain? The answer, supplied by my husband, "for the ice cream of course!" No pictures of that indulgence. We ate while walking back up to the peak because Little Squid and I felt that the point of riding a bike up the mountain was to get to the peak -- which Mike bypassed after toping out on the trail just meters below the peak. Silly us, we followed. Do'h! We then had to reascend about half a kilometer to get to the actual summit.

Lunch the next day was at a diner and included a plate of poutine. That's french fries covered in gravy and cheese curd to you Americans. It was surprisingly addicting. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised since there was a serious poutine following before we joined the bandwagon. I just didn't expect to really, really like it!

Dinners were fantastic though not photographed. We had lots of French, some Polish and some touristy food, including crepes and fondue in Quebec City.
A little chocolate fondue to end the meal


Midday snacks were plentiful and consisted mostly of ice cream,


Maple Ice Cream!!! With maple sugar bits in it!!!


but had the occasional local specialty thrown in to mix it up. (No picture of the maple coronets consumed in Quebec City.) Keep in mind that the maple ice cream was local, so it counts.
And once we reached New Hampshire ... there were blackberries!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Squid on Wheels -- International Edition

These little booklets were obtained 3 years ago in anticipation of a trip that did not happen. They have finally been used.We took the kids out of the country using the second lamest method. We went to Canada. (Canadians, read on -- I am NOT dissing your country, great place, watch me rave)

What's the first lamest method, you ask?





(wait for it)





(wait some more)




(a little more won't hurt you)




The first lamest method of getting out of the country is ...



walking across town and taking a tour of the United Nations. Which we really should do.

But seriously, Canada is not at all lame. It's got wonder food, great history, mountains to climb and of course some of the most "famous" bloggers of the knit blogging world. You know who they are, I don't have to link. And if you don't know then you probably don't care.

What did we do in Canada?

Well, we did what we Squid do best -- we rode our bikes. At least in Montreal.

We rode on the waterfront.

We rode on greenways.

We rode in the streets. (In really well delineated bike paths.)

And we rode up the mountain.
Look! We made it all the way to the peak without stopping!

We got rained on at the top and descended on a rather muddy path. No pictures of the kids with their backs spattered in muck. (The parents were mostly spared as we have racks on the back of our bikes which protect us from the spray from the back tire.)

There's more but you will just have to wait for me to put it all together. We're back now and gearing up for another school year. And a big party in just over a month. Lots to do!

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Blog Vacation

We interrupt this blog vacation to bring you this.

We Squid would also like to wish a very Happy Birthday to Lil' Bro, Josh. It's a little belated but I did call ... Josh, from all of us here in the Squid home, may this year be as wonderful as the last and may your new home suit you and Jaye to a T. Love you!

We now resume this blog vacation.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Squid on Wheels -- A Ride to Bayside

This morning we set out to ride to the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Flushing Meadow - Corona Park.
No one was actually racing when we got there but we did get to circle the Unisphere.

To get to the races / park, we had to first navigate our way across Manhattan and into Queens via the famed Queensboro / 59th Street Bridge and then wend our way across Queens.

The trip out took a good two hours to go about 18 miles but we had to keep stopping to consult the map. If we do it again, it will go a lot faster.

After seeing what there was to see, we continued Northeast to my parent's apartment in Bayside. My kid brother and his wife were in town so we all visited for a few hours, swam a bit, ate some pizza and then headed home. We did not ride home, but rather rode to the terminus of the 7 train and took the subway back into Manhattan.

The 7 is my favorite train. The views of Manhattan are fantastic -- especially if you can see out the front of the train. Sadly, however, the new subway cars do not have the large windows at the front that the old ones used to. So, we had to settle for the view out the side windows instead. I tried to get some good shots but the window glass was really dirty. If you ever have a chance, take the 7 from Main Street to at least Queensboro Plaza and look out the windows facing North. You will see New York as you have never seen it before.

Today's ride: 30.7 miles.


Thanks to Dee for nominating me for a Arte y Pico award. I know that I am supposed to nominate a few blogs but my brain is a bit fried right now from the ride. I'll get back to you in a few days. Thanks, Dee!