Weekend, new boots, books and cooking
I had a pretty good weekend. Saturday started out slow but in the (gorgeous) afternoon I took my brand-new winter hiking boots out for their maiden voyage and introduced them to their natural habitat, in this case Highbanks Metropark.
They did very well. So well, in fact, that I extended my planned 2.5 mile hike to 5 miles. The footbeds felt great, no hot spots. My only point of contention was that they rise higher than my other boots and the tops of the cuffs were a tad snug but I can contend with that via lacing.
That evening I had dinner with Brian and baked some COOKIES OF FAIL. I'm taking some food to a friend who just had a baby and I found a recipe for healthy, high-protein oatmeal cookies so I gave it a shot. They literally had no flavor. It was like chewing on drywall. But I also made a big batch of my favorite pasta salad, and last night I made stew.
Yesterday I had a hike with the Babes. It was very pleasant, some of my favorite Babes were on the walk, and we went out to the field where they keep the bison! I saw bison!
Last night I finished Ann Patchett's State of Wonder just in time to get it back to the library by the due date. It was...meh. I didn't have any trouble finishing it but I felt that Ann copped out a bit on the ending and certain things were left hanging. Some things came out of left field and felt pointless, and the ending was extremely rushed. Given that she spent half the book setting up extensive character/setting set pieces before relocating the story into the jungle where all the exciting stuff happened, I was very befuddled by how quickly the story wrapped up after the climactic moment. She'd earned a little more denouement than she gave herself. Pacing issues. Good to know even pros have them.
They did very well. So well, in fact, that I extended my planned 2.5 mile hike to 5 miles. The footbeds felt great, no hot spots. My only point of contention was that they rise higher than my other boots and the tops of the cuffs were a tad snug but I can contend with that via lacing.
That evening I had dinner with Brian and baked some COOKIES OF FAIL. I'm taking some food to a friend who just had a baby and I found a recipe for healthy, high-protein oatmeal cookies so I gave it a shot. They literally had no flavor. It was like chewing on drywall. But I also made a big batch of my favorite pasta salad, and last night I made stew.
Yesterday I had a hike with the Babes. It was very pleasant, some of my favorite Babes were on the walk, and we went out to the field where they keep the bison! I saw bison!
Last night I finished Ann Patchett's State of Wonder just in time to get it back to the library by the due date. It was...meh. I didn't have any trouble finishing it but I felt that Ann copped out a bit on the ending and certain things were left hanging. Some things came out of left field and felt pointless, and the ending was extremely rushed. Given that she spent half the book setting up extensive character/setting set pieces before relocating the story into the jungle where all the exciting stuff happened, I was very befuddled by how quickly the story wrapped up after the climactic moment. She'd earned a little more denouement than she gave herself. Pacing issues. Good to know even pros have them.