Weekend
It was a pretty good long weekend.
On Saturday we got up early and drove out to Starved Rock for some hiking. We hiked most of the trails that we didn't cover when we took the group trip out earlier this summer. The waterfalls were dreadful short on water again... mostly dried up that is, but the scenery was cool anyway, and the hiking was good. I want to go back sometime when there is more water. While Josh got our food ready that morning, I finished getting our new modular hip packs ready for their first trial. They still need a bit of work, but I'm reasonably happy with how they performed.
On Sunday we gave the public areas of our apartment a much needed, and reasonably complete cleaning. The bedroom and our bathroom still desparately need to be cleaned up though... I guess that's a project for this week or next weekend. Josh also repaired his bike, which mainly entailed replacing a busted tube in the back tire. We had to go to REI to pick up the new tube, and while we were there, we also picked up a JetBoil camp-stove/pans cooking set for my parents. I am very impressed by the JetBoil stuff... it makes me wonder if Josh and I got the wrong stove last spring. Oh well... if we end up making the kind of long backpacking trip where the difference would really matter after we move back to the Pacific Northwest, we will probably be able to borrow the stove from my parents or from the Parkerslices (who have the one that my parents were so impressed by). Also, we did research on digital cameras. We aren't too happy with my camera anymore... it still takes amazing super-close-up shots, but it feels like more often than not, everything else is out of focus or blurry. We're looking at replacing it with a Canon A710 IS, but it's a brand new camera (actually, we can order it from Amazon any time but it's not supposed to ship until the Oct. 15 release date), so naturally there are no reviews of it available as of yet... but it looks really awesome.
On Monday we had the Hyde Park contingent up to our apartment for games at whatnot. Ariel and I spent much of the time working on our craft projects (Ariel knitting, me sewing) while the others played bridge. I was a little sad to miss out on a rare opportunity to play bridge because I don't get to play bridge very often... but I was also anxious to work on my sewing project, because I don't get to sew as often as I want either. I was working on a pattern for zip off pants. I purchased a pattern, but it is for unisex zip offs with a draw string waste band, so it needed some serious altering to become a somewhat more fitted and feminine pair of zip offs with a normal fly. Unfortunately I still do not have tracing paper or pattern paper, so I was mostly just drawing yesterday, but tonight I hope to pick up some pattern or tracing paper on my way home from work so that I can get a move on this project.
On Saturday we got up early and drove out to Starved Rock for some hiking. We hiked most of the trails that we didn't cover when we took the group trip out earlier this summer. The waterfalls were dreadful short on water again... mostly dried up that is, but the scenery was cool anyway, and the hiking was good. I want to go back sometime when there is more water. While Josh got our food ready that morning, I finished getting our new modular hip packs ready for their first trial. They still need a bit of work, but I'm reasonably happy with how they performed.
On Sunday we gave the public areas of our apartment a much needed, and reasonably complete cleaning. The bedroom and our bathroom still desparately need to be cleaned up though... I guess that's a project for this week or next weekend. Josh also repaired his bike, which mainly entailed replacing a busted tube in the back tire. We had to go to REI to pick up the new tube, and while we were there, we also picked up a JetBoil camp-stove/pans cooking set for my parents. I am very impressed by the JetBoil stuff... it makes me wonder if Josh and I got the wrong stove last spring. Oh well... if we end up making the kind of long backpacking trip where the difference would really matter after we move back to the Pacific Northwest, we will probably be able to borrow the stove from my parents or from the Parkerslices (who have the one that my parents were so impressed by). Also, we did research on digital cameras. We aren't too happy with my camera anymore... it still takes amazing super-close-up shots, but it feels like more often than not, everything else is out of focus or blurry. We're looking at replacing it with a Canon A710 IS, but it's a brand new camera (actually, we can order it from Amazon any time but it's not supposed to ship until the Oct. 15 release date), so naturally there are no reviews of it available as of yet... but it looks really awesome.
On Monday we had the Hyde Park contingent up to our apartment for games at whatnot. Ariel and I spent much of the time working on our craft projects (Ariel knitting, me sewing) while the others played bridge. I was a little sad to miss out on a rare opportunity to play bridge because I don't get to play bridge very often... but I was also anxious to work on my sewing project, because I don't get to sew as often as I want either. I was working on a pattern for zip off pants. I purchased a pattern, but it is for unisex zip offs with a draw string waste band, so it needed some serious altering to become a somewhat more fitted and feminine pair of zip offs with a normal fly. Unfortunately I still do not have tracing paper or pattern paper, so I was mostly just drawing yesterday, but tonight I hope to pick up some pattern or tracing paper on my way home from work so that I can get a move on this project.