oh. now I remember.

Remember how I killed the blog as a means of simplifying? Well, I forgot that blogging actually IS simplifying for me. I got slapped upside the head with a reminder of this over the past couple of days, as Jesse and I went on a trip and enough people have since written to me to ask how that trip went that I might as well just blog it, rather than send individual emails in response.

First, let's back up a week. Jesse and I hit the road for the Maryland Delaware Rocket Association's 3-day rocket-launching event, Red Glare. Translation for the yarnies: This is Rhinebeck for rocket scientists.

There were rocket drag races, vendors, experimental rockets, chemicals, charity fundraising, camaraderie, and plenty of sunshine on the most enormous wide open, flat expanses of soybean fields I've ever seen. I took this pic, with my newest lacy baktus in the corner, to send to the Knitwits podcast because I've recently become a fan and they mentioned getting a kick out of knowing what people are doing while they listen to the show.

Next, we headed to DC for a few days. Since it was just the two of us (Scott home to work, Leah still happily doing that silly school thang), Jesse got to choose the itinerary. The best part was that these places were of such high quality that I was every bit as enthusiastic about them as he was. After hitting up the Air and Space Museum and the Spy Museum, we stopped for a self-portrait in front of the Capitol.


The junk behind us is leftovers from the engineering and science expo held there the day before. We were hoping to make it to that, but a dead car battery stole a few hours out from under us, so we shifted to Plan B for that day. Still, I was pretty happy with this pic. Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a pic of two people (one of whom has minimal tolerance for the mom's self-portrait efforts, preferably not looking like they're in pain or camera pointing directly up nostrils) AND a building in the background without actually being able to see what's in the shot?

Another day, another couple of amazing museums, this time the Smithsonian's Museums of American History and Natural History. I had to laugh out loud when we arrived at the latter and there was a big banner announcing that the Crocheted Coral Reef was currently on display.

Seriously, a CROCHETED exhibit in the Smithsonian? How could I not blog this?! My little iPhone pic doesn't even begin to do it justice, but browse this Flickr pool for better ones, especially this pic to get an idea of the scale. It's huge, it's colorful, it's a textural bonanza. There were LOTS of people gathered around, admiring it. Totally unexpected and totally cool.

Our last little jaunt was over to the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport (related to but separate from the one in DC). This pic shows a fraction of one of the two ginormous hangars full of flying contraptions of all shapes and sizes.


One of the rocket dudes mentioned this as a must-see a few days earlier, so we squeezed it in on our last day and I am so glad we did. It was entirely fascinating for both of us and we could've both enjoyed a few more hours there. It just blows my mind how much interesting stuff is out there for the learning.

Okay, so now be prepared for a flurry of catch-up posts, especially since so much yarny goodness continues to happen all around us.

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ha ha ha. And then Blogger imploded and politely stated that it could not complete my request (um, to post to my blog) at this time. I'm going to make it post my words and pics from a diff. direction, but ha ha ha, Blogger, you're too funny and the timing is impeccable.