PSF - BMW Performance Driving School

Wanna know what makes me really happy?  Driving someone else's BMW M3 around an autocross track.  I had the honor and pleasure of taking a course at the BMW Performance Center in Greenville, SC with a bunch of fantastic ladies a couple weeks ago.   Of course it helps to be a BMW enthusiast, but I think just about everyone would enjoy and benefit from this type of event.



"Don't forget to breathe", especially when looking at that beautiful new Z4.  On the other side of these banners were the BMW slogans, "Pure Passion, Pure Performance, Pure Joy".  It truly was.  I was in car heaven.



Besides the autocross track, we also practiced a lane change maneuver.  Here we are checking out the course, by driving slowly through it.



We also drove an off road course with the X5.



By far my favorite course was the skid pad.   Having had some previous automobile and motorcycle courses, the other track work was very similar.  But I had not experienced the skid pad.  Coming from the snowy and icy streets of New England, taking to the skid pad with an instructor in a safe environment was a thrill as well as educational.  Spinning out on a street is deathly scary.  Spinning out on the skid pad is a total rush.  Learning how to gain control of a skid is total enlightenment.

Check out these hot laps around the skid pad with the instructors.  Woo hoo!!!




Hosted by Cecilyand Caitlin

Note: This is not a sponsored post. I paid te big bucks myself to be part of this ultimate BMW experience.

WW - Wisteria and Tulips

At the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, the wisteria was in full bloom. It was gorgeous.



During this time, the tulip garden was also in full bloom.





Instead of taking this shot with my point and shoot, I held up my DSLR with one hand to take it. Quite a feat!

Visit by Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom or 7 Clown Circus (wordful) for more participants.

PSF - Eating Breakfast with Michelle Obama

I was at the Grove Park Inn last weekend when we heard that the Obamas were going to vacation there this weekend.  I was just one week off from hobnobbing with the President and his family!  I happened to have an old issue of Time magazine from last year (hopelessly behind, but I still read them), with this awesome cover photo of Michelle Obama.  So I pretended that we were best buds having breakfast.

Every time I went swimming, I imagined that in one week, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama would be swimming in the exact same waters.  How cool is that?  Hope they have a great vacation.


Hosted by Cecilyand Pam

Happy Earth Day - Get Out Your Bikes!

This post was originally published on BlogHer for Earth Day last year.

When I was a child, biking meant freedom. I could bike within my neighborhood to a friend's house or to the playground without any parental supervision. These days, children are rarely allowed to roam free, but the spring air is enough for me to taste the sweet freedom of biking from my childhood again.



As an adult, I bike for exercise but also as a fun family activity. When our kids were babies, we stuck them in the bike carrier and took them for rides along a nearby rail trail. They always complained in the beginning, but enjoyed the ride as soon as we got moving, and often fell asleep.



As my son got older, he was able to bike along side us, with his baby sister in the bike carrier or trailer.





Now my 8-year-old son loves his bike and flies up and down the driveway any moment he can get. Unfortunately, we don't live in an area where kids can bike on the roads unsupervised, but he is perfectly happy making donuts in our driveway.



This spring before the snow even melted, my 5-year-old daughter couldn't wait to ride her bike.



Before you bring out your bikes, make doubly sure that you are safe! Here are some rules that we always follow:

• Wear a properly fitted helmet. Kids' heads grow, so check their helmet fit every year.
• Inflate tires properly. A bicycle is a vehicle just like a car, and when tires are not properly inflated, accidents can happen.
• Check your brakes. Brake pads dry out over the years and are cheap to replace.
• Always ride with the flow of traffic. This is the opposite rule from walking.
• Always stop at intersections and follow traffic signs. Never assume that cars can see you!
• When biking alone, carry a cell phone. In the days before cell phones, I also carried a spare inner tube, tire irons and a portable pump. I still carry these things because I'm a throwback and like to remember the time when I successfully fixed a flat on the way to work.
• Carry water to stay hydrated.

For a complete list of safety tips, visit the bicycling safety page on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

We are also fortunate to live near a rail trail. A rail trail is a stretch of unused railroad tracks that has been paved or otherwise converted for biking, walking, inline skating and horseback riding as well as cross country skiing and snowshoeing in the winters. It provides a safe and often scenic route away from cars and traffic. The best part of a rail trail is that it is often straight and not very hilly, ideal for beginning cyclists. When I bike alone on the rail trail, I can almost forget that I am exercising and get lost in the music, podcast or audiobook from my MP3 player. And when I'm not engrossed in music, I take in the sights of the nearby river, farms and wildlife. I've seen horses, cows, birds, rabbits and even snakes!

To find a rail trail near you, visit TrailLink, sponsored by the Rails-To-Trails Conservancy. Don't forget, biking is one of the greenest ways to get around. Happy Earth Day everyone!

WW - Grove Park Inn Pool Heaven

When I heard that the Spa at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC cost $44 million to build, I thought that was insane.  How could a bunch of pools and hot tubs could cost so much?  It was money well spent though, especially the  stone work.  My favorite pool was the lap pool, tucked in its own grotto. Right on the heels of my post on lights on the ceilings, this pool had fiber optic lights embedded in the rock ceiling.



Look at that beautiful starry night!  I got this pool mostly to myself because I wore my goggles and scared everyone off.  Most people were there to lounge, but this was a lap pool after all!  I spent an hour and a half  swimming in perfectly heated 84F salt water (my taste buds say isotonic 0.9% salt as opposed to 3% sea salt) with minerals, eucalyptus oil and no chlorine.  And don't forget the soothing underwater music.  It was swimming in heaven.



The view of the waterfalls and skylights in the rest of the spa from the pool with breathtaking as well.  Of course, no photography was allowed, but that usually doesn't stop me.  Thankfully, I managed not to drop camera into the pool either .

Visit by Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom or 7 Clown Circus (wordful) for more participants.

PSF - Under the Milky Way Tonight

I’ve always been fascinated by Christmas lights and look forward to decorating the house in lights every year.  This fascination was also inherited by Dova.  When she was eleven months old, as we carried her around under the icicle lights hanging from the beams, she pointed to the lights and said her first word, “light”. 



Back when I first moved into my home, I had gone mattress shopping at Jordan’s Furniture in Nashua, NH.  In their “sleep lab”, they had painted their ceiling dark blue and had Christmas lights strung all over, simulating a starry sky.  In their newest store in Natick, MA, they go one step further and have fiber optic “stars” on their ceiling.  Oh, to sleep under the stars every night!

 

In my bedroom, I recreated the starry night with a set of Christmas lights.  When the kids were babies, they always calmed down when we held them in our bed looking at the lights.  Eventually, I added lights to each of their bedrooms as well.



  

But outside, there had only been decorative lights around Halloween and Christmas.  No lights in the spring and summer and I wasn’t about to get fake lighted palm trees.  Finally, I bought a set of market umbrella lights.  Using an automatic timer, my deck is magically lit every night. 



I can also see the lights looking out from my bedroom window.

  

They make me sing that Church song, “Under the Milky Way Tonight”.  They make me very happy. 



Hosted by Cecily and Mamarazzi

Dova's Gold Mansion

"One day I found some dinosur fosls.  I brought them to the musem.  I got one million dolrs for them.  I bought a gold manshun."

I love when the kids bring schoolwork that completely cracks us up.  Adam started becoming obsessed with money in Kindergarten and it looks like Dova is following suit.  Good luck with that gold mansion!  What an excellent little writer you are .

WW - Spring

I know it's spring when I take out the telephoto lens to photograph the kids outside in the natural light. It's been so long since I've photographed them just for the sake of photographing them.


Dova blowing a bubble with the wind in her sunlit hair.


Adam looking oh-so-handsome and thoughtful.


Dova running through the yard without a care in the world.


Adam strolling thoughtfully through yard looking like a teenager. He looks much older than nine years old!

Visit by Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom or 7 Clown Circus (wordful) for more participants.

The Art of Bathing

If there's one thing in our house that is less than perfect, it is the bathrooms.  I've always dreamed of renovating the main bathroom by extending it out and putting in a jacuzzi tub with a picture window and skylight.  Unfortunately, I'd have a view of the neighbor's industrial garage.  Not that I care about the privacy, only the view.  It needs to be a sanctuary in the woods.  But would having a nice bathtub make our precious trips to Newport less special?

When Doug and I go away to Newport, I always take the opportunity to have a relaxing bath while Doug sleeps in.  But being a bit Type A, I can't simply relax in the tub.  One year, I brought the laptop to the tub. I  happened upon a post titled "The Art of Bathing" (no longer available) and had to take this iPhone picture to prove it.


"The art of bathing should include towel swans but not laptops."

The laptop obviously did not work well with the bath.  You can't very well hold it over the water, so browsing was pretty difficult leaning over the edge of the bathtub.  And I didn't leave it precariously on the edge of the tub the whole time!

This year, I opted for checking my email on my iPhone, writing in our travel journal, and reading a book.  With morning coffee and grapefruit-cranberry juice (they are so accommodating at the Cliffside Inn).



Here I am trying not to drop the iPhone while I take this shot one-handed.  Another must for writing or reading is a bath pillow so you don't sink into the tub.



For my first baby shower, I received a basket of items to pamper myself.  A gift to take care of the new mother.  In it were candles, bath salts and a basket of tub tea.  Yes, tea bags for your bath.  Ginger peach tub tea smells delicious!



Another of our favorite rooms has the coveted skylight over the bathtub.  Sometimes you can see the crescent moon in the sky above you.



Here I am with the towel swan.  We always think that this faucet looks like an old-fashioned telephone handset.  And that is one happy gal in the bathtub.

I Gave Birth to a Computer Geek

Computer, a poem by Adam

Computer geeks know all about computers
Operating systems interface with a computer
Millions of people are connected to the Internet
Pyrotechnicians use computers to control the sequence of fireworks
Users are people who use computers
Tool bars allow people to get to functions quickly
E-mail is a good way to contact frineds
Rebooting is neccessary [sic] when your computer crashes

Adam wrote an acrostic to be exact, but not exactly in poem verse.  Apparently geeks can't write poems (although I've been known to pull off a poem or three). With this assignment, he also drew this picture.



The things I take from this picture are that he uses Firefox, and he thinks that he has a blog called "Adam bytes". He's been hounding me to help him start his blog. He has friends that are already on facebook and have Blackberries!  These are 9-year-olds in 3rd grade!  What is this world coming to??

I guess it is time for him to at least get an email address.  That way, I can hound him myself.  Do your homework!  Practice your piano!  And maybe I will set up a blog for him too.  He is a computer geek after all.

WW - Tea for Two Encore

As an encore to our visit a couple years ago (who is the guy with the mustache?), we enjoyed a private tea for two in our room during our yearly getaway to Newport, Rhode Island.



My new favorite was scones with clotted cream. Delicious!  The quiche was also fantastic as always. 



And don't forget the exquisite Harney & Sons tea all in front of the fireplace.

Visit by Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom or 7 Clown Circus (wordful) for more participants.

PSF - Meeting Puzzle Master Will Shortz

On April 11, 2010, the second annual Boston Crossword Puzzle Tournament will be held at Harvard University.  Last year, I went and had the privilege of meeting the one and only Will Shortz (yes, this draft nearly a year old), the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle.  I know him best as host of NPR’s Sunday puzzle.

Before I went to last year’s tournament, a co-worker asked me about my plans for the weekend and I answered enthusiastically that I was going to a crossword tournament.  I got a look that said - OMG you are a total geek.  Forget rock concerts or sporting events.  Crosswords for this geek!  Remember, I was on the math team in high school.



And what exactly does a crossword puzzle tournament look like?



It was an extremely quiet geek fest, definitely not like a sporting event. This tournament was held in a lecture hall in the Science Center at Harvard University. People scribbled away on their puzzles, and raised their hands when they were done. The guy standing in the aisle was one of several people who scanned for raised hands and marked the finished puzzles with the time.

I actually arrived late so I didn’t register to compete.  I did try solving a few puzzles, but found myself extremely rusty.  And I was tempted to look up answers on my iPhone.  It's what I do for everything else in my life!  Don’t think I’ll be in shape for this year either, oh well!


Will is funny, humble and incredibly classy.

After the competition, Will took a few minutes to relay some cool stories.  I had previously posted about Will appearing on the Simpsons and in this video, he elaborates on that experience as well as being a video clue on Jeopardy.



Here are links to other videos I took about a wedding proposal, choosing puzzle difficulty for the NY Times, and the 2000 Election Day puzzle.



Look what else I saw when I was there.  A crossword scarf!  I want to knit one of these!  Knitting and crosswords, a perfect match for this geek.


Hosted by Cecily and Life With Kaishon