Visiting NYC!

        NYC was great to visit for a couple days.  It didn't snow, and rained instead but maybe next year!  I was excited to take photos of the city being more photomistic.  I would have liked to take more than I did and can post here but instead of writing since photos tell 1000 words here are just a few of the photos I had taken:

Morning the day after Christmas not much traffic along the way.

In some cafe, taken with my new fisheye lens!

The 5th Ave. Apple Store, of course stopping here is a must!

In The American Museum of Natural History. Awesome
dino, same  one as filmed in the Night at The Museum!

Times Square

A map in Central Park of Central Park,
don't ask, I was bored!

The Dakota apartments, where John Lennon lived, taken from the
Strawberry Fields by John Lennon's Memorial

John Lennon's Imagine Memorial in the Strawberry Fields
of Central Park's Upper West Side across the street from the Dakota

Cafe Frida Mexican Restaurant for lunch

Dessert Crepes!!!

Kicking Off The Winter Swim Season

        So yes, Sherwood winter swimming has begun and is official!  We have two practices a week, one on Tuesday mornings at 5:00 and the other Friday afternoons.  Coming up in about a week is the first meet.  I'm looking forward to that and hoping that I will be swimming either a 50 back in a medley relay, or 100 free.  Swim is off to a great start and I'm hoping to have a fun season!

Recipe of the Week!

        Don't forget to check out the recipe posts on the cattail creek cafe. http://cattailcreekcafe.blogspot.com/  I'm now revealing some of the hit recipes of the products that sold well at the coffee stand.  I will continue with Lemon Poppy:

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Preheat oven 325*

Bake time 12-15 mins.

Ingredients

-3 c. flour

-1 T + 1 1/2 t. baking powder

-1 1/2 t. salt

-2 1/2 c. sugar

-3 eggs

-1 1/8 c. oil

-1 1/2 t. vanilla

-1 1/2 t. almond extract

-1 1/2 t. butter flavor

-1 1/2 c. milk

-1 1/2 T poppy seed

Ingredients for the Glaze

-1/2 t. vanilla

-1/2 t. almond

-1/2 t. butter

-1/2 c. orange juice

-3/4 c. sugar

Directions

1. Combine the first four ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, & sugar) in a large mixing bowl

2. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, almond, vanilla, and butter flavor

3. Then add the oil mixture and eggs into the large mixing bowl

4. Slowly add the milk and poppy seed

5. Pour the batter into the tins and bake

6. Make the glaze while the muffins are baking by simply combining all ingredients together

7. Let muffins cool for about 5 minutes before brushing on the glaze

8. Enjoy!

First Swim & Dive Practice Soon

        The winter swim season is starting soon.  I joined the Sherwood swim team.  The first practice is in 11 days!  And practice is early at 5am once a week, and then Friday afternoon, thats all our swim team is allowed to practice in this county.  I'm really excited to be swimming over the winter!

My Halloween Carving

        I know it's after Halloween posting this but just thought i'd share my awesome Halloween pumpkin!!

XC Counties

        On Saturday was my last meet for the 2011 Cross Country season.  I thought the meet was great.  The course seemed faster than normal along with a lot of training over the season.  My time was 22:39 which was 2 1/2 mins less than my previous record!  From my first race with a time of 27:33 to this race of 22:39,  I am really happy to have improved so much.  I can't wait for next year and Outdoor Track in the Spring!

iPhone (4S) Announcement 10/4/11

        It's official! .... And this is big news!  It looks like finally the delayed iPhone 5 will be announced 10/4/11! Today apple sent out press invitations for next Tuesdays iPhone unveiling.  The invitation (below) shows iPhone apps.  It is rumored that these will be updated the most, also note the '1' by the phone, this probably means only one iPhone will be released.  (Over the weeks it was in suspicion that they might release a low budget iPhone 4S with slightly upgrade and a full redesign high end iPhone 5 model.) Apple in the past on it's invites have hidden clues to what will be said which is what all the hype is about that!

Links:

http://9to5mac.com/2011/09/27/apple-confirms-october-4-event/

http://www.technobuffalo.com/companies/apple/iphone/rumors-iphone-54s-to-arrive-1014-ios-5-on-1012/

http://www.technobuffalo.com/companies/apple/iphone/iphone-5-rumor-roundup/

Oatlands Invitational Meet

        This morning was the Oatlands meet, we had to leave very early because the Oatlands Plantation was in Leesburg, Va.  I ran a 25:11 which is my personal record! I beat my previous time by 3 minutes.  The Oatlands course was awesome, I really enjoyed it.  Tons of people were there though, something like 60 teams!  It was a lot fun fun.

9 3/4 Miles At The XC Fundraiser Today!

       This morning was our XC Fundraiser and we had to do a lot of running.  We had 2 1/2 hours, to run. I was able to do 9 3/4 in that time!  The total number of miles the team ran was about 550, but thats not exact!

First Weeks Of High School

        High school has kicked off with a busy start like always, when you start school.  All my teachers and new friends are very nice.  At Sherwood we have a 7 block day.  I have before school time, periods 1-4, Lunch, 5-7, then XC practice.  I arrive in the morning at 6:50 and have about 1/2 hour to do HW, see teachers, friends, etc. Off to 1st, which I am taking Spanish 2.  After Spanish 2 I get to have some fun in Guitar!  Great class, I even met a super cool football running back, a senior named Fernando! He's really nice.  I even saw him play in Sherwood's first varsity game against Quince Orchard (That was last week!).  At the end of guitar are the daily morning announcements, and sometimes they have them broadcast over their TV network!  I have US History and PE next... those classes are ok, but not my favorite though.  PE feels too short, and history isn't my strength.  Lunch is 45 mins.  We have a lot of time to eat with friends, and to go see teachers for help or visit the media center.  The media center is awesome and they even have MP3 and Kindles to use!  After lunch I have English... my teacher in this class is really cool, but she expects a lot.  We already have been assigned the book, Of Mice and Men, to read the first chapters of over the weekend!  Already have we done much research on the happenings of that time period (1920s, 30s great depression and all).  Geometry is cool with Mr. Key.  He is very upbeat and keeps the class moving through lessons fast, while still getting the point across.  He has an excellent rhythm for his class that is perfect for learning, and is really fun.  He runs a great class and is definitely one of my favorite teachers, especially the best I've had for any math course.  My last period of the day is Biology.  It's right down the hall from Geometry so luckily I don't have to go all the way across the school, or downstairs!  This class is funny... because Mrs. Erdman and Ms. Deitz have a great sense of humor, making for a great learning mood for the class, which is needed because of the amount of work, and assignments, quizzes, and homework they give.  It's probably the hardest class, but Biology is fun so far!
     
        After this typical day I make it to the locker room, for XC and then to study hall with everyone from XC, were we get homework completed!  Practice after this homework time is a few hours, ending a busy day for me at slightly past five o' clock!  I was going to have my Magruder XC Meet today, and it would have been my first real meet, but no... it's canceled because of the days of rain! So, no meet... but that doesn't stop the spirit.  With a few of the seniors and the coaches thinking a little, they come up with three teams, splitting up, with various runners on each team.  We had a scrimmage, right here on Sherwood's XC course.  Since we all needed a little competition, that's what we got, a team scrimmage to end the week!

Freshman Orientation Was Today!

        Here we go again!  Today was the day all the freshmen got to meet their teachers and get to know the school.  So getting up earlier than normal and ridding a bus again was a little tough.  But everything was great and I love the school and my teachers are so nice.  Getting around the school wasn't as hard as I thought, but having classes on both levels where you keep going up and then down isn't the best of it!  Overall very nice first day and nice people all around.  Speaking of knowing people, it was really nice to have done cross country over the summer and to have got to know a nice group of people.  Sherwood= Awesome!

First Scrimmage At SSFS

        I had my first scrimmage today.  It went very well, better than I would have thought.  It was pretty much what I was expecting, but there were about 6 schools there instead of the 2 or 3 that I was thinking would be!  I beat my goal time of under 30 for my first race, and got 27.33.  Not great, but good for my first scrimmage I guess.  I was able to hold off two Magruter boys, that were right behind me the whole race.  Until the end, when I gave it everything I had and sprinted as fast as I could, one of them still had it in them and barely managed to beat me!  So a little upsetting.

Agricultural Farm Park Run

        This morning we had to met at the Agricultural Farm Park.  Today was incredible, we did everything!  Hills, pack running, sprints, striders, long cool down, stretching, and watermelon!  You may know that this park is where the MC Gregor Invitational is held, so we were lucky enough to practice the course!  So got to know it's tips and tricks, and am getting better every day.  Great practice, 6.5 miles total!  Sorry I'm not very good explaning the workout but I just wanted to write a quite update!

A 45 Mile Week!

        It's been a week now and a very long one with tons of practices.  Two a day and many runs, drills, stretches, games, and cool downs.  The 45 miles is including warmup and cool downs, along with each run, and adding it up equals a lot.  The team is keeping a log to keep track of it, and the coaches want to make sure we don't do too much, anything over 45 a week, so we don't get injuries or completely kill ourselves.  Also my ankle stared bothering me on Wednesday during our running.  It started on the day we were running on hills.  <
       
        This week has been a great start and the team is nicely shaping up, and I'm getting to know more people slowly.  So far it seems like the team is probably 80-100 people, both boys and girls, but not everyone is there 100% of the time.  Tomorrow morning we are doing another run and we have to meet at some park near the school.  Also sometime next week there will be a cook off, after practice.  So that should be fun, we should also be getting uniforms in the up coming weeks, and many of the upperclassmen have been trying to talk the coaches into something special, so it might be interesting!

Cross Country is Official!

        Yesterday morning @ 7:30 was the official first practice for cross country at SHS.  Met the coaches and lots of people.  The coaches are very funny and really nice!  Ran Sherwood's XC course 3.1 miles is the standard course.  Didn't have to get my time done though so it was just for practice!  We did a long warm-up to get started and had to go over all the special drills for form and such.  So hopefully so much time doesn't have to be used for drills all the time!  Anyway a lot of fun!

Asticou Terraces -The Garden of Wonders

        Another day with on and off rain. So a car trip was more than perfect.  Near Seal Cove there was a short little hike to a lovely garden.  Great more nature photos!  It was good but raining, I still got pictures.  The Northeast Harbor was visible from above and it was a great nature walk.  Just one flower picture I took (right) and just one of the many great garden angles (below).  More photos in the NATURE page above!!!

The Jackson Laboratory - A Leading Genetics Research Laboratory

        Today was very rainy so we went to The Jackson Laboratory for a tour they offer to the public two days a week.  The lab is a world renowned genetics institution.  They have slightly more than 1,200 employees 1/3 being actually researchers.  The Laboratory's mission is to discover the genetic basis for preventing, treating and curing human disease.  They do this through mice... they have more than 1 million at any given time.  They are very careful at how they take care and research using the mice.  It is more complex than this but I can only write so much here!  They are also the world's largest distributer of mice to other scientists and labs using mice to do research.  Right here in Bar Harbor!  The Jackson Lab is also the home of the 4Pi microscope... And this microscope is the worlds most advanced optical microscope, and this microscope is capable of revealing the nanostructure of genetic material within a cell in three dimensions! 


        Some of the genetic diseases they research include cancer, heart disease, diabetes and Akzheimer's.  It was very impressive how hard working, creative and innovative those scientists are.  Who knows, maybe one day soon, the Jackson Laboratory will find the cure to some of these diseases!

Visit them online here!

The Bar Harbor Band & A NEW NATURE PHOTOS PAGE (above)

        While on an evening walk throughout Bar Harbor, we walked through the Village Green to find nice music live from the Bar Harbor Band!  Very nice music.

        Also check out the NATURE! page above for great photos of nature, wildlife and the views here in Bar Harbor that I've been taking during vacation!  And also don't forget to check the VACATION 2011 page to for more....!

Seal Cove Auto Museum & Dinner At Little Notch Cafe

        Went to an awesome Auto Museum that had all sorts of cars, in fact one of the world finest most expansive collections of antique cars.  From the first Mercedes, Fords and Cadillacs along with more.  After this we drove to Southwest Harbor and ate at the Little Notch Cafe.  This cafe was fabulous and we highly recommend it if you are ever in Southwest Harbor!

The Auto Museum in Seal Cove

Little Notch Cafe

Cadillac Mtn. & Sand Beach

        On the Cadillac mtn. now it's 3:50! Great view of Bar Harbor up here.  Hope the picture looks good!

        Also in Acadia we went to Sand Beach and it was great.  Funny name for a beach huh! All beaches are sandy!  We did a little hike on this path off the beach and we almost got lost going the wrong way.  And again great views!

Bar Harbor from Cadillac Mtn.

Sand Beach from the beginning of the hike.

BlueBerry Scones

        My mom made yummy blueberry scones with fresh blueberries!  Unfortunately they were store bought, but later on we hope to go blueberry picking for some fresh Maine blueberries!  And then we can enjoy something blueberry knowing they were just picked.

        We found the the recipe in the rental house guest book that someone had written!  If you are bored and have blueberries and some other ingredients here's the recipe, make some and leave a comment if you liked it, we did!

Wild Maine Blueberry Scones Recipe:

Combine 2 c flour, 5T sugar, 1T baking powder, 1/2t salt. Cut in 6T butter. And add 1/2 c blueberries + 2/3 c half n half into dough.  Form a round loaf + cut into 8 sections.  Brush w/ half n half + sprinkle w/ sugar. Bake on greased + floured baking sheet for 12-15 minutes @ 425*. Yummy!

--^ copied directly from the guest book!

In Bar Harbor!

        We are staying at a really cool circular house.  Really tired after the drive, but late last night we did find a hotel to stay at.  We ended up in Worcester, Massachusetts! Today, now, a nice circular shaped house!  Anyway sorry for the small post but this will be all for now, I will post again if we do something fun tomorrow!

Driving Update

Still on the road! Now in Massachusetts! Just a quick update. 10:38pm!

What Can You Get Away With in an Apple Store?

        Here's a funny video of comedian Mark Malkoff from YouTubes My Damn Channel, testing really how much you can get away with in an Apple Store.  With all the videos of people dancing and singing in the Apple Stores the real question is what can't you do in an Apple Store!

Ethan - Fisherman Extraordinaire!

        Here's a quote from my good friend Ethan, an awesome 8-year old, describing his fishing expedition in to the ocean and what he caught!  "The fishing trip went good.  I caught a one foot long sea bass.  We went to the middle of the ocean.  We used sand shark, squid and eel for bait.  We walked on the boardwalk at Wildwood a lot.  I had spaghetti for lunch and shrimp and crab for dinner.  Nobody caught any sharks but a lot of flounder and sea bass." - Way to go Ethan, Look at what you caught!

Awesome Video - Futuristic House Featuring Life With Corning Gorrila Glass

        Check this out, I thought this video was awesome to show a look into what might be the future to come!  (Click the video for fullscreen)

Bloom Energy - An Energy Solution for the Future

        Ever heard of Bloom Energy?  I hadn't until recently.  Bloom energy can provide clean energy solutions and can be used to power a home or an entire building.  It's still in it's baby phase, but many major companies like Google, Staples, eBay, Walmart, Coca-cola, The Bank of America and more have all bought Bloom units.  Bloom can save a lot of money over time and eliminate the use of the grid all you need is to invest in the Bloom units themselves.  Bloom isn't currently available to regular customers but who knows maybe soon in the near future everyone will have Bloom!  http://www.bloomenergy.com/

Looking for Something to Cook? Here's a Recipe

        Looking for a new recipe or two?  You're in luck I'm releasing two of my scones recipes from The Stand if you are interested.  Listed BELOW in this post and under the Discontinued Page! 

Here are two recipes officially no longer available.  Recipes were made during year of 2009 for coffee stand.  *Found on Epicurious.com

Chocolate Chip Scones

Preheat-400*

Bake for 20 min.

Scone ingredients

• 2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/3 c. plus 2 T sugar
• 1 t. baking powder
• ½ t. baking soda
• ½ t. salt
• 6 T (3/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced
• 1 t. (packed) grated lemon peel – optional
• ¾  c. miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• ¾ c. chilled buttermilk
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 t. vanilla extract

1. Butter and flour baking sheet
2. Sift 2 c. flour, 1/3 c. sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl
3. Add butter and lemon peel (rub in with your finger tips until butter is the size of rice)
4. Mix in chocolate chips
5. Whisk buttermilk, egg yolk and vanilla in small bowl
6. Add to dry ingredients until dough comes together in small clumps
7. Gather dough into ball
8. Press onto lightly floured surface into about 8 in. round
9. Cut into evenly sized wedges
10. Transfer to baking sheet
11. Bake and enjoy!
    

Cranberry-Orange Scones

Preheat-425*

Bake for about 12 min. or until golden brown 

Scone Recipe

• 2 c. all purpose flour
• 1/3 c. sugar 
• 2 T grated tangerine peel
• 1 T baking powder
• ½ t. salt
• ½ c. chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• ½ c. dried cranberries
• ¼ c. crème fraiche or sour cream
• 3 T fresh tangerine juice
• 1 large egg
• 2 t. unsalted butter melted
• 2 t. raw sugar*

1. Line baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Whisk flour, 1/3 c. sugar, peel, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and blend
3. Add ½ c. chilled butter
4. Using your fingertips, rub in until mixture resembles coarse meal
5. Mix in cranberries
6. Whisk crème fraiche, tangerine juice, and egg into medium bowl to blend
7. Gradually add flour to mixture, using a fork to toss until moist clumps form
8. Knead dough briefly on a lightly floured surface until it becomes smooth
9. Pat dough into a 8 in. round and cut into even pieces
10. Transfer to prepared baking sheet
11. Brush with melted butter sprinkle with sugar
12. Bake, share and enjoy!

*Sources noted. Epicurious. Choco. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Chip-Scones-104462 . Cran-Orange http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cranberry-Orange-Scones-15682

Sonos - A Wireless Music System

        Sorry i've been so tech heavy lately but there has just been so many awesome things happening in the tech world recently!  Anyway I have one more neat tech device to share with you.  It's called a sonos wireless music system.  With Sonos you can play music in different rooms of your house in sync and control it from your computer or phone or normal remote.  I'm sorry I know I'm not doing a very good job at explaining this it does way more and is more advanced than just that, you don't even have to own that much of your own music because you can use internet radio services like Pandora, Spotify and more!  If you have a minute check it out it is a really cool way to enjoy music throughout rooms of your house.

Take control!

The system

Mac OS X Lion - Get The New OS Today

        If you have a Mac you can now update your software the new Lion system with improved everything and many new features.  Lion is available only through the Mac App Store so no buying discs required.  They even let you buy it once and install on all computers.  The new upgrade now for only $29.99, or read about it on apple.com.




Or see the video below from TechnoBuffalo about LaunchPad, just one new feature!

The New MacBook Air

        Along with Apple's new Lion OS they have also released a few new computers.  One of these is the new MacBook Air.  The new computer has new state of the art processors, thunderbolt, flash storage, and now a back lit keyboard.

Fox Hollow Farm

        Just wanted to let you know about a local farm near us.  It's called the Fox Hollow Farm.  It's a family owned farm that has many types of meats, fresh eggs and even some produce.  You can even pre-order your thanksgiving turkey to be raised from birth and can live in a happy     If you have a minute and want to check out some cool stuff visit foxhollowfarm.org. Do you have any farms local to you where you can buy fresh eggs, meat and more?

Earthships - An Eco-Friendly Home Solution

        Did you ever think you could live in a house of trash?  Well, you can live in a house made from recycled materials like cans, bottles, and old tires, anything that could make a wall or foundation.  These earthships are very eco-friendly and can use their own electricity, from stored up energy from solar panels and wind turbines installed on the roof, house or lawn.

        These buildings are very architecturally unique and very durable and sustainable.  And the earthships aren't just a house.  They are designed to also provide a way to grow some plants or vegetables in their green house like areas built off the home.  Take a look at one of these creative earthships and a floor plan (below). Interested? Want to see more? Visit http://earthship.com/.

To The >>>>>MAXIMUM

        This morning I ran 6 miles.  It's the most mileage I've done since my 2nd day, which was about 5 - 5 1/2.  This is the start of my 3rd week, so I think I'm off with good mileage.  My guess for approx. the total amount of miles by now would be somewhere around 45 miles, maybe slightly more, maybe slightly less!  We always do more than 3 miles and most days it's between 4 and 4 1/2, and at least once a week we go more than 5, on a longer run!

Spotify

        With Spotify's music service you can listen to any song on the web or your compatible cellphone.  It lets you search for songs, artists, albums, or genres.  Once you've found it you can play it.  For free.  If you want to keep the song you can buy it but Spotify is really cool.  Watch the video below, visit the website, request and invite (all for free) and check this out today!  See what you've been missing.

Also Don't Forget

        Don't forget to look at The New House tab (above) for house photos, and remember to look at the Apple News page for any news apple, including new products and rumors about up coming releases and iPhones!  -Posted on daily

Cafe Rio

        Ever been to Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Las Vegas or Olney MD?  Ever seen a Cafe Rio?  I have!  These are the places Cafe Rio has it's restaurants.  Cafe Rio is a really good mexican grill similar to Chipotle, but different.  It has a different eating environment and really good entrees like burritos, enchiladas, toastados, and salads.  Everyone can find something great to eat!  I highly recommend this restaurant if you see one. 

Many locations out west & even in Maryland and Virginia!

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 2

      

       Went to see the last Harry Potter movie yesterday.  If you haven't see it it's amazing.  No wonder it gets a 97% rating!

Are you a Harry Potter fan or did you just go to see the movie?  How did you think it was?

Out Trip to Dorney Park

       Took a trip to visit friends in Pennsylvania and went to a cool park.  Rode a ride called Steel Force. (pictured) It wasn't the only ride we went on but it was definitely the best and the fastest!

Steel Force!

Random people on Thunder Canyon ride!