So, outside of knitting and teaching, what have I been up to?
My roaches in my classroom had more babies this summer. (You can see one next to the water dish.) Plus last springs babies are reaching adult stage, have been molting like crazy, and are starting to breed for still more babies. I think I have about 30+ at this point. I’m excited because that means we will have plenty to use in our investigations this week.
I also have a new kitty. Her name is Mim (as in Mad Madam Mim from Disney’s Sword in the Stone). Isn’t she cute and fluffy?!
Over Labor Day weekend I went to Delaware to visit my grandmother for her birthday. We went shopping at the outlets, during which I carried around my knitting and *gasp* knit in public as we were walking. My sister was embarrassed, but my aunt thought it was awesome that I could do that. I made my grandmother a scarf to go with her hat I made her last year.
(she turned 21, by the way. doesn’t she look great for 21?)
We also went to the beach, made lots of great food (pumpkin coconut bisque. try it, it is heavenly!) And then my uncle flew me back in his plane, which I blogged about earlier.
Then the next weekendI went with my dad, sister, husband, and sisters boyfriend (hereafter referred to as grass boy for my own amusement) backpacking along a section of the Appalacian trail (the part we did was in PA, started near Shippensburg). It was fun, I haven’t been able to go with them in a while, but I have missed it. We made pancakes for breakfast the first morning. Yes, pancakes while hiking.
They stuck to the pan horribly, I burned the first batch because they were on the propane grill which was way too hot, and we ended up for the most part having pancake scramble because I had to scrape them off the pan. This was the picture of the best one that mostly resembled a pancake. (This was my sister’s idea to have pancakes on the trail. If you are considering a hiking trip in the future, trust me that you might be better off just having instant oatmeal or bagels.)
Grass boy apparently has been watching the show Man vs. Wild (personally never seen it). He pointed out ways to survive, and even tried to start a fire using a stick.
“That there is good protein” (thank you, I’ll stick with my pancakes)
Unsuccessful in starting a fire this way. But he did start one the next morning. (What? Oh, the white stuff is a special kind of wood I found over by the tree. No, I haven’t seen the toilet paper, why do you ask?) And promptly settled down to do what all hikers do before breakfast.
Davis, on the other hand, was not so into it. He did not like sleeping on the ground. Plus, he wasn’t too happy with our friendly visitors the next morning. (The second one is bigger than a quarter.)
All in all, it was a good trip. Plus, they really did have more fun than it looks like.
Who Needs Gauge?! 
You really ought to warn people before you post cockroach pictures. I think I swallowed my tongue in horror. I know they’re not the same as the ones that run around in the kitchen (not my kitchen, of course, as that would necessitate burning down the house and leaving the state, but some kitchens), but they’re still roaches. And you breed them? In the name of all that’s holy, why? (And leave my snakes and lizards out of it. That’s not the same. At all.)
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