park ave fest

i've gone the last couple years and usually only spend and hour or so there, so i was surprised to spend the good part of a day. and i didn't spend the majority of my money on food either! next year i'll know to get the chicken on a stick instead of the wrap.

i was surprised at the number of vendors that had things i actually liked. usually i go to these things and 95% of it is junk...doll clothes, wreathes made out of dried flowers, homemade potpourri...who wants that stuff? but there was some good jewelry, photographers and other artists (though i didn't buy any art). it was a good way to spend the afternoon.

best shortcake ever.

wegman's strawberry shortcake. you could get 8 servings out of it, but we only got 4. it could have used some berries in between the layers. next time i think i'll make it myself.

bike flowers

i'm really surprised these are still alive, since they were picked on the side of the bike trail and rode crunched up in my bike back home on tuesday before they were put in water. next time i'll have to get a bigger bunch.

perfect day...

...for a run

adventure bike

biking today on the lehigh valley trail we saw 2 blackberry bushes, 1 turkey, and 6 (yes, 6) rabbits. the purple loosestrife in the foreground of the picture used to be a big problem. a good ten years ago, it beat out other species and took over ditches, swamps, and any other wet areas. i still see it pretty often, but i don't know if it's still a problem. at least it looks nice.

fighting foo

first of all, charging half the ticket price in extra fees is ridiculous. second, who brings their 5 year old kid to an adult concert? take your kids home and put them to bed where they belong. and third...maybe i'm just getting old, but if they turned the volume down, even just a little, you can actually hear the music better. i'm just disappointed i forgot to bring my ear plugs.

all in all, it was a great show. they were a little harder than i was expecting, but good none the less.

adventure hike

along our hike in perinton, i saw a lot of long johns. not so surprisingly, no one knows what the heck long johns are. they're often mistaken for black raspberries, but they're blackberries. it's pretty easy to tell the difference just by looking at them. raspberries (red and black) are capped. when they fall off the bush in your hand, a cap is left on the bush. blackberries, on the other hand, don't have a cap and come cleanly off the bush. both are seedy, but blackberries tend to be a bit jucier than black raspberries. either way, it doesn' t get better than a handful of nice sweet berries on a hot summer day.