NYC - Part 2

Besides sushi, the other highlight of this trip was the Meat Packing District, Chelsea Market, and of course the High Line.  If you like people watching, High Line is an incredible place, I would avoid it on the weekends as it's way too many people in such a small place. Unless you like that kind of thing and it is New York after all. 

NYC

Traveling in perfect weather is always ideal.  Luckily I had such an opportunity.  Usually when conditions are difficult, the weather makes us miserable, the whole trip can easily been marred.  When the conditions are just right everything is so much more enjoyable and great!  This was one such trip and I had a great time taking photos from it.  It was such a short trip and only wished that it would last a bit longer.  Until next time! 

24 Hours in the Outer Banks

With a very tight schedule and trying to beat traffic I spent a significant amount of time traveling back and forth from N.Va to OBX.  It was about 5 hours drive down with some road construction traffic.  24 hours at the beach house and another 5 hours back with even more road construction late at night.  The family decided to leave early Friday evening because we were trying to beat the usual Saturday rush in and out of OBX.  As there is always traffic to and from this location, as it took the others about 9hours to get down and a repeat of that experience would be a nightmare. Who wants to spend their vacation in traffic for most of the day?

Despite not knowing that my stay would have been so short I still enjoyed myself at the beach. I personally don't like the beach all that much but it's always good to visit and oddly enough I like swimming in the pool on the beach rather than the ocean itself.  This time around the ocean water was really cold due to our unusual mild summer and the pool was warm and refreshing.  I think the really nice thing was the rental house was right on the beach with its own private access and the pool was larger than the previous year.  I think I also realized that I really enjoy having a private pool and not having to worry about other kids and people getting in my way as I get to share it with only friends and family. 

If I had known that I was going to leave so early I would have taken more photos but for now enjoy what I have.

Pick Your Own Blueberry

First time blueberry picking at Butler's Orchard.  Pretty amazing place, large spacious area with acres of blueberry trees/shrubs to choose from.  Best of it all it was relatively in-expensive.  I enjoyed eating as I pick and photographing a few of the berries before I consumed them.

The cutest blueberry bandit I've ever met. She appeared from nowhere and picked at our container and then walked away with a handful of berries in her mouth as her mother calls for her. The only time I was happy to have been a victim of thievery.

South Riding Virginia Sunset

Almost everyday as I drive home I'm usually watching the sunset.  Chasing it down along the horizon and always marveling at how I've usually failed to capture it properly or wished I had my camera on me.  It usually brings me back to driving on Honoapiilani Hwy in Maui and imaging the bright blue waters of the ocean and the orange glow of the sky.  For now I'll enjoy the rustic stale air of a stagnant neighborhood pond with a slight glow of paradise sun.

Shingles - Day 14

It's been about two weeks since I've infected with Shingles. Give or take a few days as I did not remember when exactly it all started as the initial rash was just a few bumps.  At the beginning I made the rash worse by scratching constantly, damn thing itched like hell.  I lathered on anti-itch cream for a few days which only made it spread even more.  Then 6 days into the whole rash thing finally diagnose with Shingles.  Confirmed by the Docotor's office with skin culture and note of "Finish your Valtrex, repeat you have Shingles, please complete your prescribed medication."

My back acne won't go away, wth? It's been almost 4 days like this!

The teenage face pimples are drying up but will it scar?

Great Pickpocket Documentary

There are few documentaries that I've seen from National Geographic that I've found exciting and extremely interesting.  This is by far one of the best I've seen in a long time.

How to open a caulk tube

I'm not a handy person, but I had a need to caulk up one of my opened frames.  There is a huge gap between the window sill and the window itself, letting in cold air.  I have a caulk gun and caulking but had no clue now to open the tube.  I did a simple search on YouTube and this amazing result came in.  All my questions answered!



Who knew the caulk gun was so well designed and thought out.  I was happily surprised that my caulk gun had everything featured in this video.  Now to actually doing patch work correctly ....

Paw Paw & Family Fruits

One of the few things that I actually enjoy during the summer season is fruit picking.  In my opinion the best fruit and the hardest to come by is the native Paw Paw fruit (click link to learn more).  An indigenous custard-apple like fruit that quite delectable and very hard to find.  Although, once you know where to find it you will easily find it everywhere.  The difficult part is finding them in season before it's all gone, as they ripen very quickly and bruise easily once harvested.  The other thing I've done almost every summer at my current residence is grow habaneros.

This year I have other family members that wanted to experiment and grow a variety of other plants.  During much of planting season we were plagued with a gopher eating most of our young plants.  Even when we fenced off the yard it somehow still managed to get in.  I'm not sure if it's karma but one day during the beginning of fall when I drove home I saw a huge dead animal on the road near the house.  It wasn't a skunk or raccoon but a gopher.  Apparently hit by a car, but how?  It was broad daylight, clear large road with no obstructions, and this thing is huge and surely can't run that fast.  Some birdbrain unaware of the road must have drove right over the poor animal.  I would understand if it was a squirrel since those damn things are terrible at crossing the street and they tend to always head for your wheels anyways.  But this was the very gopher I was fighting off all summer.  It had gotten fat from all the summer foraging and died a very sad death.  I felt bad for the animal and I did the next best thing, I went home, took a shovel and a recycling bin.  Went to the street, carefully put its lifeless body into the bin and carried it into a grassy field as a form of a burial.  I never wanted to harm the thing but it was sad seeing it die because some idiot had to speed through a neighborhood road.

The new planting season will be here soon. I have started germinating my seeds.  I hope no new varmint surprises this year and if there is, I'll be happy to give it a name and hope for the best.  Here are the fruits of my labor from last year!