You know how weather tends to ruin outdoor events. I didn’t think it would happen this Saturday. The sky was clear, the wind was calm, I thought it was a perfect day to drive out to the Pittsfield Balloon Rally. I was excited to see a dozen hot air balloons lift up into the sky. I was going to take great pictures!

But I arrived to find that The Rally was most likely not to happen. The wind was perfect, it was only about 1 mph. Only problem was, it was in the very wrong direction. The wind would carry the hot air balloons directly into a small but very wooden mountain.

They did launch a balloon called the Irish Rover.

But then they decided that it was too risky and just tethered the ReMax Balloon so that spectators could be given rides at $10 a head.

The ride was so popular that they inflated my favorite Balloon of the evening, Wild Ride. It had silhouettes of Giraffes and elephants on it. And it was just a really pretty hot air balloon.

They had better luck on Saturday morning, watch the video here

The hot air balloon festival is an important fundraiser for the Rotary club and it certainly attracts a crowd. I couldn’t get over the commercial aspects of the festival. Complete with greasy food vendors (major tummy ache from the fried dough) and a small midway section.

The commercial aspect of the festival bothered me a little. I wish it could have been a family event with the focus mostly on the hot air balloons. I didn’t mind the craft fair, or the rotary club booths, but I hate to see teenagers spending money they should be saving for college on overpriced oversized stuffed animals for their girlfriends. Goodness I sound old.

My full set on Flickr can be found here.

When I get inspired to blog and have great posts all lined up, my computers seem to kick the bucket. Last time my Dell stopped working, my dad gave me his old laptop so I could still type (ok it was for homework not for blogging but who is counting). Now that laptop seems to be refusing to power up.

And while the Dell works for browsing, typing on it is difficult. I have no space or backspace key.

I’m trying to figure out what happened to my dad’s old Compaq Evo 610c. My previous laptop happened to be of the same model and died of the same fate. I also happened to still be in my closet.

Because I’m broke and because I’m a nerd, I spent a good part of the day disassembling the laptop trying to find a failure point. No such luck.

In the meantime I’m posting this from my cell phone. I’m sure I’ll do more nerdy investigations tommorrow.

Have you ever had to disassemble a computer?

I love listening to audiobooks that I download from our local library. The library has a huge selection of books available. I often pick young adult and children books because the drama is usually less intense and they are often shorter quicker reads.

Another aspect I love about Young Adult books is that they are often written as a series. When you fall in love with the characters you get to continue following their stories.

I’ve recently started blogging book reviews of books I’ve been reading in a subsection of this blog.

Everyone who has not been hiding under a rock has heard about the Twilight Series. But here are a few of my favorite book series. Some are more successful than others.

Favorite Young Adult/Children Series

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Author: Rick Riordan

Official Site | Wikipedia Article | Movie Site

Percy Jackson is a demi-god and discovers this fact in the first book when strange things start happening. He realizes that the Greek Gods are real and that they are alive and well. He gets drawn into their world just like the original Perseus did.

It may be a book about adventure and history, but it is also a book about a bunch of misfit children who find friendship and their way in the world after a lifetime of being different.

This is a great series reminding us of the stories of Greek mythology. It is full of characters from legends of old and adventures set in modern times. For example, God of War Ares is a leather wearing motorcycle tough guy.

Start with: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Books currently in Series: 5 (4 companion books)

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The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Author: Carrie Ryan

Official Site | Wikipedia Article

Mary is a teenage girl living in a Post Apocalyptic World. She lives in a fenced in colony surrounded by a mob of Zombies. She longs for a world where she can be free.

This is also an epic story of a love quadrangle with two best friends fighting over two brothers. Move over Twilight, these kids know how to long for each other.

Written beautifully I’ve only read the first book of the series. But I look forward to reading The Death Tossed Waves as soon as it becomes available.

It does deal with some more mature aspects of life (love, death, marriage), so I would recommend the series to older teens and adults.

Start with: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Books in Series: 2 (3rd releasing March 2011)

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Gallagher Girls

Author: Ally Carter

Official Site | Wikipedia Article

Cammie Morgan is what is a known as a pavement artist. It’s a spy term for someone  who blends in so well to a crowd that no one notices them. Why would a teenage girl be described in Spy terms? Because she attends an elite school for young girls who will become the worlds most advanced Spies.

I have to admit, I fell in love with the first book I’d tell you I love you, but then I would have to kill you the moment I picked it up. The story is engaging, captivating and not at all believable. It has it’s fair share of humor and I adore Cammie and her classmates. This is book that was meant to be put on the big screen for kids to enjoy.

I would encourage this book to middle school girls. To show them that being smart can get you places when you get older.

Start with: I’d tell you I love you, but then I would have to kill you
Books currently in Series: 4

As a young child, living the the greater Toronto Area, I decided to go sledding on the snowbanks by my tiny suburban driveway before school one morning. The snowbank was steep and I smashed my face into the driveway. I cracked my brand new front tooth diagonally, starting a drama that has recently had another chapter.

But this new chapter gave me a glimpse at some amazing technology. Over 10 years ago I had the tooth crowned (without root canal).

On Friday afternoon, I bit into an ice cream sandwich and found my crown in my mouth. I looked like a hillbilly. It was awful. I’m currently looking for employment and I couldn’t exactly go to an interview with a single front tooth. If you want a picture of the hilarity I placed a picture on flickr here.

I called my dentist’s office (The same place that told me not to worry about it when I still had dental insurance) to find that their office isn’t open on Fridays.

So I went next door to the Amoskeag Urgent Dental Clinic. I was amazed by some of the technology now available to make crowns.

Last time I had a crown made, I went into the dentist’s office and he took tooth impressions, shaved down my tooth stump, tooth a tooth stump impression and made a temporary. When the Crown came back from the lab we took off the temporary crown to find that my crown didn’t fit correctly. A new temporary had to be created while we waited for the lab to create a crown that didn’t look ridiculous.

The process was much more streamlined in Dr. Adam Salem’s office. My crown was created in office while I waited. And understood my nerdy nature enough that he asked the technician to explain to me how they were making my new tooth.

Step 1: Yep, tooth impressions. They took a tooth impression of the broken crown stuck back together. Then Dr. Salem removed the rest of the original crown and we took a tooth impression of the tooth stub.

Step 2: The tooth impressions are scanned into a CAD software and the technician smooths out the scan and fixes places that would interfere.

It’s amazing how much a computer software can make a difference.

Step 3: The crown design is sent to a rapid machining machine that is small enough to be on the dentist’s benchtop. A small block of the desired tooth color is placed in the machine and the computer program does the rest.

The tooth took about 25 minutes to fabricate. I guess it’s longer than usual, but it gave me a chance to talk to Dr. Salem in french.

Step 4: Prepared tooth is fit tested.

Step 5: The crown is additionally coloured with paints and glazed. Glaze is then cured in this little machine.

Step 6: The Crown is installed.

Except I didn’t make it to step 6. Dr. Salem was not satisfied with the tooth colour, and it was late on a Friday afternoon. He wanted to make a new tooth with a different base colour. He glued the crown down with temporary glue and sent me on my way. I wasn’t supposed to return until Wednesday or so.

But my luck with that tooth has never been great.

I found myself back at Dr. Salem’s on Saturday morning. The temporary glue was a little too temporary and the crown came out overnight. He gave me a temporary crown and sent my fabricated crown out to a lab for professional painting.

Overall, it sucks to have to deal with dental work when we don’t have the money to waste, but it was very interesting to this little engineering nerd to see some of the new dental capabilities thanks to new technologies.

I would also recommend the Amoskeag Urgent Care Dental clinic if you ever find yourself in a bind. Everyone was super friendly. I really liked Dr. Salem and his technicians.  His receptionist is exceptional, I really felt like she understood my problem.

As a freckled skin, heat sensitive person I’m not generally a summer person. I chose to stay in an area that gets snow because I like the cold. But there are some things I love about summer in New Hampshire (although I’m sure I could get the same things in plenty of places).

The availability of fresh berries right off the bush in my yard (and a poodle that steals said berries from the bush)

Flowers after months of bleak.

Farmer’s Markets full of fresh veggies. Especially veggies I’m not familiar with. Ready for experimentation.

Summer evening skies although I grew up on the other side of the same time zone and the sun sets almost an hour later over there.

And last but not least swimming in little lakes and ponds. (I just wish the most local ones were not part of Manchester’s water supply)

Women’s Rowing as an NCAA sport was created to help meet the requirements of title 9. Many schools added programs to help compensate for the vast amounts of money being poured into the football programs.

So when places with huge expensive football programs like Texas – Austin and University of Miami came a courting I should have been interested. But I couldn’t imagine living somewhere THAT warm.

And this weekend reminded me why I chose not to live in Southern States. I was miserable in the heat and lack of air conditioning.

With temperatures reaching 95F (not including humidity), even the hydrangea bush was wilting away.

Heat by candiacrew

When the heat is this bad, it’s even too hot for ice cream. So we have to resort to Sherbet instead. Good thing Friendly’s makes a Wattamelon cake.

How do you deal with the heat?

Mount Lafayette is one of the tallest mountains in NH. At 5249 feet it is the tallest mountain that is not part of the Mount Washington Massif. And it’s location next to interstate 93, AMC hut and 360 views makes it a popular hiking destination.

She is the crown jewel of the Pemi loop. An impressive peak of the beautiful Franconia ridge. And a summit with a great deal of interesting history of her own.

Despite the fact that I would not name Mount Lafayette as one of my favorite mountains, my history with her is long and I respect and love her rocky summit.

I first met Mount Lafayette in September 2001. My crew team did a team bonding exercise and hiked the New Hampshire peak. It was my first time on a mountain with intention to scale it (instead of skiing it) and most likely my first time in what is now my home state. Several members of my team had to stop at Greenleaf hut because of various aches and pains. But I was part of the group that pushed for the summit. I loved being on top of that mountain.

Many months later I was driving through Franconia Notch, the gap between Mount Lafayette and Mount Cannon, when I saw my first live wild moose (and tourists getting out of their cars to take pictures).

I would have a much scarier experience in the notch years later when I crashed and spun a school van by slipping on black ice and ping ponging on the guard rails. It remains the only time I was in an accident that caused injury to myself (it was a concussion, but still memorable to me).

As for hiking, I’ve been on Lafayette on gorgeous blue bird days, I’ve been on her in winter. I once bailed on a Pemi loop because I was on her summit as a thunderstorm gathered around her.

Lafayette has also been my beacon. I’ve seen her distinctive summit from so many other peaks. I once even tried to catch the sunrise from Kinsman in hopes of catching a view of the sun rising in the col between Lafayette and her brother Lincoln. It ended up being a cloudy sunrise.

She’s also been a beacon on my drives home. On countless trips back from Quebec, Lafayette has let me know that yes indeed I was back in New Hampshire and solidly on my way home.

And perhaps this post is a bit of a love song for the mountain, but Lafayette’s popularity also upsets me sometimes.

There is a huge parking area at her base that is often overflowing. Leading to people parking along the side of the highway. I think it’s enough of an overflow issue that a parking garage could almost be justified.

The ease of reaching the trailhead from both Boston and Southern Quebec attracts a lot of inexperienced hikers and large groups. The stunning viewpoints and great trails also mean that some never branch out to other mountains. The White mountains have so many incredible mountains to explore that this is a shame.

But this crowding issues is probably why I don’t visit Lafayette more often and why I don’t count her as a favorite summit.

But one thing is for sure, my history will continue to cross paths with this gem of geology.

I’ve always been a little slow to adapt to technology. Why would I need the latest and greatest toys? The “old fashioned” way is good enough for me. And the cost is always prohibitive.

Once I get the new technology I quickly adapt. I enter a mode that questions how I ever lived without the object. It’s a pattern of mine.

When I was 14, and we moved to a new town, my dad gave us the option of cable television or internet. I wanted TV, my brother wanted internet. I was the one monopolizing the internet as soon as it was hooked up.

I didn’t get a cell phone until I was 20. The only reason I got it was that the plan included long distance to Canada for a fixed price. My mother and I are both gabby, so the cell phone was a price saver. Now I’m not sure how I ever got around to contacting friends and family only from home.

A couple years ago I started text messaging. I used to think: Why text message when I could just call people. Soon I was justifying the value of sending brief messages that one could read at their leisure.

Same concept with the GPS unit generously given to me by my parents for my birthday last year. A luxury item, until I needed it to navigate the back road of rural Virginia.

My latest fanciful purchase was a difficult one for my own internal justification. I got myself an Android based phone. It’s the closest phone to an iphone on my carrier’s network and the phone was free. The increased cost comes in the form of a data package that Verizon requires me to purchase.

I told myself that I could blog from the phone, that the phone would be more useful. I resolved to pack my lunch more often, to buy less junk. I wanted the phone that’s the truth. I hadn’t wanted to replace my old phone, but because it was broken why not upgrade.

Since I’ve plugged in the phone I’ve been nothing but enchanted. I can check my e-mail, facebook, twitter, the weather from anywhere. I know to most this would not be novel, but to me its fantastic. I tracked my calories eaten today on the Sparkpeople application. I wrote the draft to this blog post entirely on the phone.

How did I live without apps before? I’m sure someday it will be like living without the internet, without a cell phone.

How are you with technology? Are you a techology wizard or a technology holdout?

At 28 years old I am no longer dying my hair.

At 28 years old I am starting to notice stray grays here and there.

I spent 12 years of my life bouncing around from red to blond to dark brunette to caramel to strawberry blond. I spent years unsure what my natural colour was. As soon as I had a root I would get bored and want to dye my hair (or cut it drastically) immediately.

This left me with way too many bad dye jobs and way too many colours in my hair.

So I quit.

I didn’t quit cold turkey. I started by throwing in some highlights, hoping the strands would approach my natural dark blond. But eventually I just stopped.

It wasn’t because my mother always tells me that she loved my natural colour. It wasn’t anything Adam said. I just wanted to see if my hair could be healthier on it’s own.

But those grays are now visible. Maybe not to most. They are at the very top of my crown, but they worry me a little. Wait, doesn’t worry cause hairs to turn gray. Deep yoga breaths Miriam.

My husband doesn’t seem to mind the lack of dye. I’m not sure if he stole this from a stand up artist but he always tells me that all women are liars; “You’re hair isn’t that colour, you aren’t that tall, you’re eyelashes aren’t that thick”.

So should we be honest about our appearance?

I’ll admit something that perhaps will upset some. I think gray hair is beautiful. There is nothing more distinguished than a lady of a certain age with a classy chin length bob of silvery white.

Salt and pepper looks great on men.

But on women, the combination of many gray hairs in a mane of mostly coloured hair (especially brown hair) makes me think that that woman isn’t taking care of her appearance. I know it’s an unfair assumption, a negative stereotype that I should not be reinforcing. But I can’t help thinking it whenever I see a woman letting silvery grays take over  the rest of her head.

Perhaps it doesn’t help that as I envision this appearance I also think of a woman who’s hair is frizzy, unkempt. Perhaps she is wearing unfashionable glasses, frumpy clothes. I picture a woman with “salt and pepper” hair as being the mom who has given up on her appearance and wanting to be desirable.

And perhaps it’s an inappropriate assumption. But I’ve very rarely seen women in an in-between stage. Nora Ephron talks about how it’s impossible to tell how old a woman is anymore because of hair dye.

“There’s a reason why forty, fifty, and sixty don’t look the way they used to, and it’s not because of feminism, or better living through exercise. It’s because of hair dye. In the 1950′s only 7 percent of American women dyed their hair; today there are parts of Manhattan and Los Angeles where there are no gray-haired women at all.”
— Nora Ephron

So as my gray hairs multiply, I fear I will have to return to being a liar about my hair colour. If only to allow myself to feel like I am still making an effort about my appearance.

What do you think about women dying their hair? Is it a lie? A confidence booster? Something that empowers women?