Monthly Archives: May 2011

EVERYONE has a picnic on Memorial Day, right? I mean, there's nothing more American than burgers and dogs on the grill and lots of fixin's to go with. Well, for some folks, it's just about the dogs. Nathan's Famous dogs, to be more precise.

On Saturday, we all (Bill, my DD, her BF and I) packed in the car and headed for the beach. NOT for the reasons most people go to the beach. Well, yeah, for that reason, but the primary reason was to attend the Nathan’s Hot Dog Atlantic City qualifier.

See, on July 4 at noon, the National Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest is held at Nathan’s Famous flagship store on Coney Island. And it’s televised (on ESPN of all places). But to get there, each of the eaters you see had to win a qualifier held at one of 14 locations around the US. Each eater can enter up to 3, and you have to win – yes, come in first – to go to Coney Island. Some eaters get in on their first outing. Some don’t. Some make it in on the second or third round, because, depending on the date, all the top eaters have already qualified in earlier competitions. There’s much planning and thinking about which 3 are the best for each to attend. Not publicly – each eater must for himself decide. They need to look at who they think is going where and whether or not they have a chance to win against that field. Entrants are not published, so there’s no real science to it unless you’ve been doing it a while and can use past history to figure out the patterns.

SO. Bill signed up for Atlantic City, Pittsburgh and someplace in New York. Fishkill, I think. On Saturday, May 28, we ventured to Atlantic City for his first qualifier. It was held at the Trump Plaza Beach Bar. And it was blazing hot.

It started out the same as any other contest – meet and greet amongst the eaters. Despite the competition, most of them get along like frat brothers.



Most of the guys were fairly local. PA, NJ, NY – Sonya was at this one and she’s from Virginia. But THIS guy…this guy came a LONG LONG WAY to eat hot dogs in Atlantic City.



He’s Tangiz from Azerbaijian. It took me 3 days to learn how to spell that. He at 4 hot dogs and buns and came in dead last. But hey – now he can say he did it. In the process, he splattered mustard all over at least 2 other eaters. But again – now he can say he did it.

One of my favorite parts of the Nathan’s spectacle is the neat eating contest. Probably because it’s kids, and they don’t have to cram their faces. Quite the opposite. They must eat one hot dog without getting any bit of food or condiment on themselves. And you know what? They all win.



Quite a difference from this:




The crowd is often as interesting as the contest.



This is Baby Flash. His dad’s competitive eater Sean “Flash” Gordon, and he’s already won his seat at Coney. He was a judge for the contest.



Clearly, we enjoy watching the kids – who just as clearly really don’t care much about what’s going on up there.



Long story short, Sonya Thomas won the day with 34 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes.


This means she goes to Coney for the (first ever) women’s only contest. She’s a shoo-in to win; I don’t know why any other woman on the planet would even try to get in except that money goes to 3rd place, I think.

Pat Philbin – “Pat from Moonachie” came in 2nd, but first for the men’s, so he’s going to Coney Island, too. He ate 27.



Bill ate 14.5, which was not quite his personal best, but his best since 2010. He’s got 2 more qualifiers to better himself and maybe…just maybe…we’ll see you at Coney!

Things I Learned from the Garden


1) One really should take care of the beds EVERY year, not just when they get out of hand.

This, I guess, is a given. I love my front yard flowerbed. But here’s the thing – I hate the WORK of the front yard flowerbed. I grow perennials for a reason – all you have to do is plant them, and Mother Nature does the rest. But it’s been 2 years since I’ve done anything with this bed, and DANG, did it show!



That’s two bleeding heart plants and a newly risen hosta. And whatever else junk’s in the bed between them.



That’s the middle of the bed. There’s a plant there that I can’t identify. The daffodils against the brick wall, and the hosta I got from a friend at Shearing Day that I hadn’t planted yet. Some rodent ate the other 2 all-green ones I had growing, and Anna was generous enough to bring me some from her garden to replace mine. LOVE the variegated, but should have moved the all-green to the center. Oh, well.



And that’s the end of the bed. Yep. That’s a sumac tree in the back. We’ve tried to pull it out for 2 years now, so guess what? It’s getting clipped to the ground, since that’s the best I can do right now. You can see the second of Anna’s hostas there, still in the baggie she gave them to me in. And miscellaneous weeds and such.

2) 120 pounds of topsoil does not go as far as one would think/hope/like

So the idea was to clear out the weeds, the tree, the old mulch, the dead and decayed hosta and daffodil leaves and the old stems of bleeding heart gone-by. To turn over what little soil still remained in the bed and to add the 120 pounds of lovely, dark topsoil I’d bought earlier. I was SURE I’d fill up the bed and have a beautiful new home for Anna’s hostas and the lovely lily of the valley my friend Julie from Ravelry sent me. This is going to be awesome, right? It’s going to be a gorgeous shade garden.



This is how far the first bag of topsoil got.



And the second.



The third went to the end.

It took several hours to get everything where I wanted it and looking the way I’d hoped. But it was a good several hours. All I need now is mulch, which Bill is bringing this weekend. I can’t wait.

3) Acrylic nails are NOT invincible. I cracked one when I “found” the metal stake that supports our Christmas decoration. Yeah. Felt awesome.

4) It takes several washes before the dirt comes out from under your nails and the grooves in your knees. The shower took half an hour and 3 rounds with the soap.

It doesn’t look like much from a distance, but once it all grows up, it’s gonna be awesome. So lesson 5?

5) Hard work and patience pay off in the long run.

Remember that old Carly Simon song? If you don't remember it on its own, you probably remember the Heinz ketchup commercial that used it. The idea was that Heinz ketchup was super thick and took forever to come out of the bottle, but anything *THAT* good was worth waiting for.

True story, right?

I ordered my spinning wheel on Wednesday. It was shipped on Wednesday.

Thing is...Monday is Memorial Day, so guess what?

I'm not getting it until Tuesday.

I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas. Or her birthday. Or both on the same day.

Thing is, I put off the purchase for awhile because I was warned not to jump right into buying one that I had only seen on the internet. But I'd been researching them for WEEKS. I had three on my watchlist on Ebay. I looked at them every day. But I held off on buying the one I thought I wanted and went to the local spinner's guild meeting to look (read GAWK) at the wheels the women brought.

Oh.

My.

God.

They were beautiful. I saw several different kinds, but the wheel of choice seemed to be from the Ashford line. Several women had the Traditional, and one had the Joy. Poetry in motion, all of them. Considering I'd been coveting the Ashford Traveller, I was certain now that I'd made the right choice.



Until I saw the Kromski. And tried it, at the insistence of her owner. Oh goodness. It was instant love. Back to the internet research.

Long story short, I've ordered a Kromski Minstrel from a shop called Copper Moose. They're in Georgia. But the guy who owns the shop grew up in my area of Pennsylvania. Small world, isn't it? He was very pleasant and I enjoyed speaking with him even though I stuttered like a fool in my excitement to get my order placed.



SO...on Tuesday, I'm getting my new baby and 2 pounds of fiber to start working with her. After I assemble her and set her up. Which, you know...being not so mechanically inclined...could take a while, leaving you in...

Anticipation.

Remember that old Carly Simon song? If you don't remember it on its own, you probably remember the Heinz ketchup commercial that used it. The idea was that Heinz ketchup was super thick and took forever to come out of the bottle, but anything *THAT* good was worth waiting for.

True story, right?

I ordered my spinning wheel on Wednesday. It was shipped on Wednesday.

Thing is...Monday is Memorial Day, so guess what?

I'm not getting it until Tuesday.

I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas. Or her birthday. Or both on the same day.

Thing is, I put off the purchase for awhile because I was warned not to jump right into buying one that I had only seen on the internet. But I'd been researching them for WEEKS. I had three on my watchlist on Ebay. I looked at them every day. But I held off on buying the one I thought I wanted and went to the local spinner's guild meeting to look (read GAWK) at the wheels the women brought.

Oh.

My.

God.

They were beautiful. I saw several different kinds, but the wheel of choice seemed to be from the Ashford line. Several women had the Traditional, and one had the Joy. Poetry in motion, all of them. Considering I'd been coveting the Ashford Traveller, I was certain now that I'd made the right choice.



Until I saw the Kromski. And tried it, at the insistence of her owner. Oh goodness. It was instant love. Back to the internet research.

Long story short, I've ordered a Kromski Minstrel from a shop called Copper Moose. They're in Georgia. But the guy who owns the shop grew up in my area of Pennsylvania. Small world, isn't it? He was very pleasant and I enjoyed speaking with him even though I stuttered like a fool in my excitement to get my order placed.



SO...on Tuesday, I'm getting my new baby and 2 pounds of fiber to start working with her. After I assemble her and set her up. Which, you know...being not so mechanically inclined...could take a while, leaving you in...

Anticipation.

This is where the "Competitive Eating Groupie" part of the title of my blog comes in. Although I am FAR from a groupie. I'm not even an uber-fan. But if you know me, you know I'm engaged to competitive eater "Wild Bill" Myers. He's been on the circuit (as they say) for 7 years now, and I've been to more contests than I can count. I've watched people eat hot dogs, ribs, shoo-fly pie, french fries and who-all knows what else in pursuit of some pretty large prize purses. Let's just say that the #1 eater in the country made $62,000 in contest winnings alone last year. I don't make that much money at my full-time job, and this is just what the dude does on weekends, ok??

That said, on May 21, we went to the IFOCE (International Federation of Competitive Eaters)'s sponsored World Championship Cheeseteak Eating Contest. Yeah, it's a mouthful - in more ways than one.

Bill's (admittedly) not that good at this competitive eating thing, but his goal usually isn't to take the contest. It'd be nice if he'd place in the money, but he generally has a personal goal. It's to beat a specific eater or to best his last performance. It makes for less stress, I think. Like I said, sure -- it'd be nice for him to win some money, but that'll happen when it happens. Meanwhile, it's fun. I am hoping, for him, that eventually he'll get to eat Nathan's at Coney Island, because that's reserved for the folks who win the qualifying contests that are held around the country beginning in early May.

So cheesesteaks. The contest was sponsored by Subway, so each sandwich was 6" long. I've no idea what they weighed, nor does Bill because in the excitement of being there, we neglected to break out the scale. But no matter...winner was determined by the number of sandwiches eaten, not the weight of said sandwiches. The field was packed with professional eaters...#1 in the world, Joey Chestnut. #3, Bob Shoudt. #10, 11, 12 & 13 Juliet Lee, Eric "Badlands" Booker, Sean "Flash" Gordon and Micah Collins. # 17 and 18, Crazy Legs Conti and Pat Philbin. #22, Brian Dudzinski. #25, Eric "Steakbellie" Livingston. #27, 37, 40 and 43, Brian Subich, Larell Marie, Brian Seiken and Bill Myers. If that doesn't come to 15, I forgot Andrew Kossuth, who's not ranked yet, I don't think. (http://www.ifoce.com/rankings)













Of course, Joey Chestnut won. This is the guy who ate 68 hot dogs and buns on live TV in Coney Island on the 4th of July last year. If there's a contest he's in that he doesn't win, it's an upset. He's THAT good. Second was Bob Shoudt and third was Sean Gordon. How many sandwiches did they eat? Joey ate 23. Bob ate 19. Sean ate 18 (and change, I think). In 10 minutes.

I have to be honest and tell you that what I love about the contests is the camaraderie amongst the eaters.



Because it's certainly not the eating itself. That's like a train wreck. As appalling as it is, it's hard to look away.





The next best part of the contest, after the eaters being together and having fun, is the showmanship of George Shea. You simply MUST attend at least one contest and listen to George's introduction to the show itself, and then each eater's individual intro. He draws you in like a fly fisherman draws that big fish he's been trying to catch all season.



You're reeled in, slowly at first, and then WHAM!



You're hooked.

From there, it's all downhill, and the next thing you know, you're a groupie like me. See you next week in Atlantic City at the Nathan's qualifier!

As you're aware by now, my life is all about my family and my fiber art, and the next logical step on the fiber side was to learn how to spin.

Yes, spin. Because as the button says “Spinning – because knitting isn’t weird enough.” I think I said that in an earlier blog post.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to learn spin. I have always been fascinated by spinners when I’ve seen them at the Farmer’s Market, or re-enactment events. Hand spinning by drop spindle or wheel spinning, I’m fascinated (there’s that word again) by it all. That you can take this:



And get this:



just amazes me. So I wanted to learn. I wanted to be awesone like that. I bought what’s called a “drop spindle” – it’s the most basic of spinning implements; there’s nothing electronic or mechanical about it. It’s a simple dowel with a weight (whorl) at the end and a hook. That’s it.

This one’s not mine, but this is what I’m talking about:



It’s not as easy as I thought it would be, but then again, what is it “they” say? Nothing worth doing is ever easy?

So let’s backtrack. I decided I wanted to learn how to spin. I bought the drop spindle (not that gorgeous one in the photo, but another). I needed fiber next. So what did I do? What ANY good fiber addict does! I dragged my family to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (http://www.sheepandwool.org/) in West Friendship, MD. I’d been told that there was no better place to go see, touch and smell (yes, smell) fibery goodness than MDSW. I was pumped. I exercised the “power of the mom” and told the family this is what I wanted to do for Mother’s Day. So guess where my daughter and I spent Mother’s Day?



Three guesses…the first two don’t count.





I won’t lie…I looked at spinning wheels. I didn’t try them out – even though I should have, but I was obsessed with my drop spindle and that I was going to learn to do this BY HAND!

I bought roving that my daughter chose. It’s beautiful. It’s a superwash merino (which means you can wash it in a washing machine), but it’s also what’s called “combed top.” This means that all the fibers are perfectly aligned (like the hair on your head on a good day), and it’s really, really, really soft.



Which sounds perfect, right? Not so much for a beginning spinner. Which I didn’t know and learned when I began to spin.

When I went to the farm for Shearing Day (see last blog post), a lovely woman named Erin taught me to use my spindle. The concept is simple – you’re adding twist to raw fiber to make yarn. In practice? Not so much. There’s a lot to remember.

Let's start with this - letting the fiber out of your hand is called drafting. It's the process by which you separate the fiber into the thickness you want to twist from rest of the pile of fiber. I only mention it because I'm going to use this word alot in the next couple rules.

Rule #1 – remember which way you’re turning your spindle, or you’ll untwist all the twist you just added. Frustrating, but not a disaster.

Rule #2 - don't let go. If you do, the yarn untwists and you have to start all over again. Frustrating, but not a disaster.

Rule #3 - don't overtwist and let it run up into the drafting fiber (the wad of fiber you're holding in your hand to spin next). OH - and don't let the tail of the fiber you're drafting get too close to the yarn you're spinning. Don't ask why...just don't. Again...frustrating. (see the trend?)

Rule #4 – you have to kind of let an even amount of fiber out of your hand so that the finished yarn isn’t all bumpy in some places and thread-thin in others. This was not my strong suit. At all. I made some really um...arty...(because I was told I wasn't allowed to call it ugly) yarn. I got better over time. It’s still not gorgeous, but it’s not as messy. If you're a semi-perfectionist like me, this is...yep...you remember. Say it with me. FRUSTRATING!

Toldja it wasn't easy.

After my impromptu class at Shearing and working some on it at home, this is my first finished product:



You can see it doesn’t look like anything you’d likely see in the store, unless you’re specifically looking for art or novelty yarn. But hey…I’m told there’s a market for that.

Next? I’m buying a spinning wheel. Drop spindle just isn’t for me – it’s a lot of (frustrating) work, and I’d rather it feel like a hobby than a chore. Besides…wouldn’t this look really cool in my living room?

For those of you who don’t know, I have a serious addiction to wool and fiber. I am a shareholder in the first Fiber CSA in the US – Juniper Moon Farm (which started as Hudson Valley Fiber Farm and Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm).

The benefits include regular updates via the farm’s blog (www.fiberfarm.com/blog), and if you’re a Ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/) member, interaction with other shareholders via the JMFVF (Juniper Moon Farm Virtual Flock) message boards. There’s also lambcam (accessible from the JMF website), where you can watch (and hear) the sheep and goats (and roosters), which is especially exciting during lambing season which runs through the end of April and early May.

The uber-benefit is the annual Shearing parties. Every Spring, the sheep and goats are shorn, and each Fall, the goats are done again. I’m sure to some of you, it doesn’t sound like much, but honestly? There’s no party like a JMF shearing party!

This year, Susie (owner of Juniper Moon Farm and Shepherdess Extraordinaire) decided on a Country Fair theme, and it was incredible! There were balloons, face painting, square dancing, contests for all manner of things (best crocheted item (I won 3rd!), best knitted item, best quilt, best handspun yarn, best pie), and FOOD!! Each person who attended was asked to bring a dish for the potluck. And bring dishes we did! There were so many amazing food choices! NOT TO MENTION the maple sugar cotton candy and the fresh popped popcorn. I have only 2 words to describe the best thing I ate – salted caramels. Homemade. Yes, you read that correctly -- salted caramels. And you absolutely can’t knock it until you’ve tried it.



There were all kinds of things for sale, too. “Mighty Skeins” of about 900 yards of beautiful aran weight pure Cormo wool yarn, dyed only with natural products. Loads and loads of JMF yarn in other lovely weights. Roving (fleece used to spin yarn) in gorgeous shades. Anna Branner of Anna Branner’s Cloth and Clay makes some of the most ADORABLE farm- and fiber- related pottery – yarn bowls with the JMF logo and a cute little scene from the farm on the other side, branded coffee mugs (for the awesome JMF Farmhouse Blend coffee!). From her own shop, sheep and chicken and cow banks, sheep figurines, lovely strong cups (I bought one for my crochet hooks), and just, well… look here:







Quite a few of these things are now mine.

There’s an aura of peace around the farm. Even with the hectic goings-on of Shearing Day, moments like these







are abundant.

And how can you not love someplace that looks like this?









The generosity and friendship I encountered was simply beautiful. I now have some of the most interesting and beautiful geranium cuttings and some lovely new variegated hosta, thanks to two women whom I’d never met in person before Shearing Day. I am honored to count them among my friends now. Anna, whose pottery I’ve already extolled the virtue of; Erin, who patiently taught me to use a drop spindle and told me my yarn wasn’t ugly, it was art  (it is UGLY…TRUST ME!), Libby, who learned to spin with me (and made prettier yarn than me!); Judy, who makes a mean maple cotton candy and who is just lovely; Nancy, who yarnstorms those in need and untangles huge balls of yarn for fun; Muffinista, who shears sheep and also helped me learn to spin; Tonya, who tirelessly worked in the kitchen and gave us all a great laugh over asparagus (she makes a mean potato, too!); and there are so many others I haven’t mentioned.

And of course, Jenny and Susie, who put it all together and kept it all going. Without you, there's no us.

So with that all said, I have a lovely group of new friends, I’ve found a little bit of heaven on earth, and I am rested from simply absorbing the energy of the farm.

There’s a Fall Shearing Day coming up. I hope to be there to share with all my “Auntie” friends again. I miss y’all.