Let's Go Fly A Kite!

P.A and I are at Rehoboth Beach with his family for a few days. We have been enjoying the sun and serf and decided yesterday that we should get ourselves a trick kite. We took it out in the morning, however there wasn't enough wind, but as the day went on the wind picked up and we decided to give it a 2nd go around. The kite we got is a beginners trick kite and we had a great time trying to learn how to fly it. P.A. is the master in our group, followed by his brother and then finally me, however with some practice I am sure I can get better at it.

P.A. really got the hang of making the kite go in circles.

His brother did pretty well himself.

Me on the other hand.....well just watch.

Cookie Problem

Every year I sign up for the Food Networks 12 days of cookies e-mails. As a result every year I pretty much look at the recipes, drool on myself and do nothing about it. This year I decided that wishing and hoping that the cookies would magically appear in a cookie jar at my place was not realistic. So I rolled up my sleeves, pulled out my mixer and turned on the oven. Next thing I knew there were over 4 dozen cookies and only me to eat them. So my lucky friends and family were then force fed cookies. I made 3 types, 2 from scratch and 1 from a mix. The 2 from scratch were Chocolate Covered Snow Peaks a.k.a. Snowman Poop and Paradise Macaroons.

Here are the recipes if you are interested:

SNOWMAN POOP

Ingredients
4 large egg whites at room temperature
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 225 degrees F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg whites on low-medium speed with the whisk attachment until the whites become foamy. Add the cream of tartar and turn speed up to medium, beating until just fluffy. Add the sugar gradually, so it incorporates into the whites slowly without collapsing them. Once all the sugar has been added, add the vanilla and increase the speed to high, whisking until the meringue is firm and glossy, about 5 to 7 minutes.Place meringue mixture into a piping bag with a medium-sized nozzle attached. Pipe 24 bite sized "kiss"-shaped meringues onto the trays and place in the oven. Bake for 1 hour undisturbed then turn off heat and leave in the oven overnight to really dry out.Melt chocolate over a double-boiler or in the microwave on medium power for 30 seconds. Holding each meringue by the peak dip the bases in chocolate so the bottom half of the meringue is coated. Let any excess chocolate drop off before placing on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Allow to set at room temperature – do not put in the fridge. Once set, store in an airtight container.

PARADISE MACAROONS Ingredients
2 (7 to 8 ounce) packages sweetened shredded coconut
2 ounces sweetened condensed milk
Pinch kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large egg whites at room temperature
5 ounces granulated sugar
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 ounce vegetable shortening
2 ounces finely chopped dry-roasted macadamia nuts

Directions
Prepare the oven to 325 degrees F.
Combine the coconut with the sweetened condensed milk, salt and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to whip the whites until medium peaks form, 6 to 7 minutes.

Gently fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture. Scoop tablespoon-sized mounds onto a parchment-lined half sheet pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately transfer the parchment with the macaroons to a cooling rack. Cool completely before topping.

Fill a 4-quart pot with enough water to come 2 inches up the side, set over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Combine the chocolate chips and shortening in a small metal or glass mixing bowl and set over the simmering pot. Stir occasionally until melted, then remove from the heat.
Dip the cooled cookies in the chocolate mixture, sprinkle with the chopped macadamia nuts and place on parchment paper to set, about 30 minutes.

The Great Phone Adventure!

As Many of you know P.A. and I drove up to Canton, NY for my friend Melissa's wedding the weekend of June 28th. The drive up was uneventful, we got decent gas mileage and made great time. When we arrived we immediately headed over to the hall where the reception would be to help finish setting up.

Melissa arranged for all the bridesmaids to stay on the campus of St. Lawrence University, where the wedding was taking place. Brush Alumni House, where we stayed was in walking distance of town, the Chapel and the reception hall. It was such a cute house. I had been to Canton before and knew I loved it, but P.A. seemed to enjoy it as well. As I had bridesmaid duties all weekend P.A. was pretty much left to entertain himself. Luckily, he enjoyed wandering around town seeing all the Amish folk and exploring campus.

On Friday all of the brides party went up to Lake Placid to walk around, have lunch and get our nails done. Lake Placid is one of the cutest places I have ever been. They have wonderful little shops lining the the streets and beautiful views of the lake. It was neat to see the Olympic complex and you can even see the bobsled track running through the trees. I could have spent the whole weekend there.

The adventure started after lunch. We had all had a great time eating at this cute place on the water. They had fantastic homemade granola! As we were leaving I decided to call P.A and see how he was doing. While placing the call I noticed a long hair on the rear side of one of my fellow bridesmaids. I did what any friend would do and decided to reach down and grab the hair. The bad choice was to balance my phone between my shoulder and my ear and then reach forward with that same side. Just picture as the phone slides from my shoulder, bounces on the curb and then bounces through the storm drain grate!
The picture does not do the view justice it was 6 ft down and taunting me. I could call it with my other phone and it would ring and I could see it was just sitting in sand. Had I not been able to see it or had I heard it plop in water I might have been able to let it go. Instead I could see it sitting there just laughing at me.

For a while my friend Shari and I just stood their staring at the phone. We could not lift the grate that it went through for 2 reasons; 1 it was sealed around the edges with asphalt & 2 it has a car resting on it. Behind us there was a manhole cover clearly marked "sewer access" but how would we get it open without a crow bar. About this time came along a strange teenager who apparently just likes to wander the streets of Lake Placid all day. He decided that this was by far the most interesting thing that had happened to him all week and was going to watch the story unfold. His suggestions for getting the phone included using a powerful electromagnet, putting gum on a stick or finding someone who had the force. No, I am not joking.

As we stares down at the phone we began to lose hope as we had spa appointments in an hour and well no one had the force....or so we thought. I saw a verizon truck drive by and figured they usually have tools for pulling phone wires through walls maybe they would have something I could use to grab the phone. I waved them down and they were kind enough to stop but did not have the right equiptment. I guess you only use long hooks to pull wire with. While I was talking to the phone guy, strange teenage probed Shari on how I had magically stopped a person on the street. Shari tried to explain that people are sometimes nice and stop to help when waved down expecially if the person waiving them down happened to be a girl. She was then told that I must indeed have the force. Really?? If I had the force don't you think I would have willed my phone out of the grate by now?

Next idea, go down the street and see if there are any workers who may have a crow bar so I can try to get into the sewer access and thus get my phone. I know gross, but really the phone was fairly new and I didn't want to buy another one at full price. Walking down the street is where I met the wonderful Graham and Andrew. They had a mini crow bar which with a little work allowed us to get the manhole cover off. Down I climbed heals and all to see if I could get to my phone. Once down I discovered a large concreat beam that I had to go under to start climbing through a only slightly visable and really small tunnel. I decided this was not going to happen. My newfriends took a look and decided it wasn't going to happen for them either.
New thought, if we could get some duct tape maybe we could feed that down the hole and use a stick to push it on the phone. Really duct tape sticks to everything, why not. Off go Graham and Andrew to find duct tape. They came back with a large piece of super strong cardboard that was shaped like a "V". Their thought is if we bend the end we can scoop the phone up. Great idea since it was shaped like a "V" the bent end was pretty sturdy. The snag was that this was too big to fit through the holes in the great. :-( We then proceeded to cut the "V" in half. Now the cardboard fit, but due to it's smaller size it was extreamly flimsy.
The bottom is bent so now the pieces look like an "L". We figure that we can use both pieces to scoop under the phone and lift it up. This part wasn't too hard, however the bottom of the "L" would straighten out everytime we lifted up. We needed something to hold the cardboard flat at the bottom. My new job was to hook the end of a measuing tape under the edge of the bottom piece of cardboard. I would then be able to keep our delacate lift from colapsing. It took a while for us to get the hang of this. We would get it part of the way up and the measuring tape would slip or the lift would be slightly uneven and the phone would slide off. Everytime it would get close your heart would race and then down would go the phone again. This only encouraged us more, like those silly crane games in arcades we would get the prize we wanted.















On the 4th time it came close enough for me to reach with the tips of my fingers. So while holding the measuing tape with one hand and reaching with the other I slowly reached through the grate and grabbed it with 2 of my fingers. I was so affraid I would loose it again, but in this story the 4th time is the charm. You would have thought I had just nabbed a gold medal, I wanted to parade that phone around and show everyone what we had done.


























At this point we realized we needed to get to our nail apointments pronto. We couldn't reach the others (we later found out that there was no service at the spa). We saw that the town had a trolley system, but we didn't know where it went or how to use it. So naturally we started asking people on the street. We ran into this great guy, Robert who runs a limo company called Polar Express Transportation Service. He not only told us how to catch the trolly but then gave us a ride so we did not have to. We made it on time and had a great story to tell when we got back.










If you ever get a chance please go to Lake Placid. Not only is it beautiful, but complete strangers will help you in a time of need and make you feel welcome!

Thank you Shari for being the official photographer on this fantastic adventure!

Hiking is a synonym for exhaustion!

For Memorial Day Matt, Janelle and I headed south to Old Rag Mountain. P.A decided to opt out, which I will admit I was envious of as we got into the trek up the mountain. Let me explain yes, I have done this hike before, but it was 12 years ago and apparently my memory has faded or has rewritten history. The hike I remember was filled with lots of chatting with my girlfriend and spectacular views. The views were still there, but there wasn't much chatting from me as that would have required energy, all of which had been stolen from me! I may had mumbled a few choice comments here and there, you know the usual stuff about inhuman people dragging poor me up the mountain.
2 weekends in a row of hiking confirmed P.A.'s comments the week before..."What I learn from that hike is I need to do more hiking." Nothing could be more true, but can we work our way up with some smaller hikes? The top seemed to be always just around one more corner.
At one of the fake tops we met my new favorite dog! When I saw this scruffy animal I was concerned as to where its owners were. So I checked out his collar, it clearly stated that he lived across the street from the parking lot at the base and that he knew how to get home so just let him be. How cool is this dog? He spends his life freely wandering around a beautiful park but still has a family to go home too. It looked to me that he spent most of his days following people up to his summit, which he would then defend from any bird that dared to fly over. Let me point out that this dog was the type of pet I don't mind seeing near the top of a mountain. The type I saw next I couldn't even begin to describe justly.

We were all the way at the top when this man was walking towards one of the edges to take in the view. With every step the t-shirt he had tied around his neck would yowl. You had to think what could a person have put in a sling made from a t- shirt that would make that type of sound? A cat, no really, A CAT! For "safety" the man had attached a 2 foot piece of string to the cat's collar. As soon as he sat him down the cat bolted as far away as it could from the ledge. The guy looked at us and said, "He must not like the sun." Really sir, do you think that is it? Or could it be that kitty isn't much into this hiking thing you are trying to force on it????Despite our never ending entertainment from various people at the top we did sit back, relax and enjoy the view. It was spectacular. I don't think we could have asked for a clearer day. I will admit it was worth the torture of getting there.
My favorite part though was the walk down. First of all it was easier on me, but most of all I got to talk with Janelle and Matt. Since they live so far away it is hard to keep pace with everyone. I love you guys!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend was so nice. Matt and Janelle came to town for a much needed visit. They had a busy day on Saturday, which worked out well as I needed to walk some apartments for work.

On Sunday P.A. and I met them, my parents, my grandma, my Uncle B. Aunt G. and 6 of my cousins for brunch at Ft. Belvoir. It was sooooooo good; I really could eat breakfast food for each and every meal.

Sunday evening Matt and Janelle came over to my place where we packed up the cooler and headed to the metro. Matt and I grew up going to the concerts on the Capitol Steps so it seemed appropriate that we do this again, but this time we brought our significant others along.

I brought my people watching card game "that guy". For anyone who enjoys observing their fellow human beings I highly recommend this. Other than observing our fellow concert goers we also played the more traditional game of Yahtzee. Personally I think Janelle may have some secret way of controlling the die. Basically she creamed us.

The concert was great we were even entertained by the group of high school kids next to us who had a strangely disturbing obsession with one of the singers. Still, I kept saying to myself there are worse things that kids could have hero worship for than a Broadway performer.

Mountain Living

In desperate need of a break from everyday life P.A. and I headed down to the Blue Ridge for a weekend away. He planned everything and it was perfect! We went down with 2 of his friends from college. I fell in love with the Three Sisters Cabin the minute I saw it.

I mean really does it get any cuter than that?

The cabin is estimated at around 170 years old. That would mean it was built in 1838! Thankfully the owners have updated it a little by adding electricity and putting in a small addition in the back that includes a kitchen and a bathroom. I do like to shower every day. In the history of the cabin they said that the first family recorded to live there was German and there were 2 adults and 15 children. We found this entertaining as it was a little crowded with 4 adults!
This was my bedroom. Of course, I had to have the loft just like a little kid.

It did have nice view of the yard.

On Saturday we went and explored some of the nearby parts of George Washington National Forest. It must be butterfly time as they were everywhere! It seemed every time you turned you would see a different type!

We then headed on to Staunton for a trail ride. I love horses and it is always fun to have a chance to go riding! Although I have been to Staunton a number of times I have never ventured too far from I-81. The day was beautiful, and the scenery breathtaking.
We saw lots of animals and plenty of other horses during our ride. I tried taking pictures while we were riding, but it was a little bumpy. Of course since I had the camera mine is a self portrait.

It was pretty windy as you can tell from the pictures we took at the end. My horse was probably pretty annoyed that my hair kept tickling his ears!


That night we headed back to play games and have dinner! P.A. was in charge of all the cooking Saturday and if you haven’t heard me say it before, my man can cook! Saturday morning he made buttermilk biscuits from scratch with country ham. For dinner we had steaks that were grilled and seasoned perfectly, fingerling potatoes and roasted corn with rosemary and garlic, as well as grilled onions, asparagus and broccoli. Afterwards we made s’ mores with Chocolate marshmallows. Yum Yum!
On Sunday, we all had breakfast and headed up to Crabtree Falls. This was so close to the cabin and just beautiful! Crabtree Falls, the highest vertical-drop cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi River. Crabtree Falls features a series of five major cascades and a number of smaller ones that fall a total distance of 1,200 feet. The first overlook is just a few hundred feet from the parking really easy to get to as it was paved. We decided we were adventurous and continued up the 2 1/2 mile Crabtree Falls Trail to four other overlooks that had amazing views of the Crabtree Creek Falls and lovely vistas of the Tye River Valley. We were so glad we had decided to keep going. It was beautiful to be able to just sit there and enjoy nature. It started to rain as we were coming down, but that wasn’t a problem at all. P.A even played Atlas and held up a bolder to let us all come past…lol.














After our hike we headed back to the cabin and said goodbye to our cute little oasis in the woods. It was sad to go, but I know we will be back again! To complete the weekend, we took the longer but more scenic way home on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Happy Mother's Day

The Saturday before Mother’s Day was a day of fun for the Sondrup Ladies. Mom met Angel and I at my place at 8:30 in the morning. The sky was sending down a nice steady stream of light rain, but we headed on down to Bluemont Park for the Animal Welfare League of Arlington’s Walk for the Animals. Together with Angel we walked 3 miles to help raise money. We met our goal of $150 and had a great time. After we finished the walk we watched a demonstration by the police attack dogs. It was amazing!
Afterwards we headed to Guapos in Shirlington and had a nice lunch Followed by some pampering for our tired feet. It was time for pedicures. All around it was a perfect day with my wonderful mother.
Thank you Mom!