Book Review: Simply Calligraphy

I got this book about a week too late, as I ended up needing to write some numbers with a calligraphy pen this past week. I really like this book. It is well laid out and as the name suggests simple. It doesn't just give you pointers and then sample alphabets, it breaks things down into simpler steps. The letters are presented with the simplest ones first, rather than alphabetical. 

If you are looking for an in depth book about calligraphy, this is not what you are looking for. I think it is better suited for people who just want a basic understanding of how to write in calligraphy for special occasions it is an excellent choice. 

A random Tuesday post

The library near our home has been doing these monthly adult craft nights. They are free and only take an hour, so I have been trying to go each month. Some have been awful, some have been just ok. Today's actually went decently well. They had all the supplies needed and they had the correct supplies for the project. 

The project was watercolor mugs. It wasn't actually watercolor, it was some paint we combined with rubbing alcohol to have a watery effect. This time the only issue with the supplies was they used paper cups for the rubbing alcohol and it wasn't structurally sound for very long. Some people made some really creative mugs. Some people made mugs that looked like a toddler painted them. One woman actually wrote, "I hate you" on hers, not sure what was up with that...

Here are mugs Steven and I made. Can you guess whose is whose?

After the painting we went down to our gym. Steven has been trying to encourage me to get back into running. His latest attempt was offering to do it with me. This resulted in this very silly picture of him pouting on a treadmill. :)

Yosemite Day 3

Despite being exhausted from the Mirror Lake hike we headed out for a long hike. The plan was to head towards Vernal Falls and go until I was getting too tired and turn back. We cut our gear down to one bag and Steven kindly carried it, to make it a little easier on me. The problem with this plan was the hard part was exciting.

The first part of the hike is paved but very steep, this ends with a view of Vernal Falls on a bridge over the Merced River. After this the trail changes a little still mostly paved, but slightly less steep until you reach the stairs. There are over 600 of them and they go straight up the cliff. They are also very wet because the whole time the waterfall is spraying everything. 

About halfway up is a beautiful viewpoint. We even saw a rainbow, and of course took a waterfall selfie.

Once we made it to the stop we took a break, dried off, and had a snack. Then headed down to look over the falls. It was really crowded here, so we didn't stay up close for very long.

Our Lunch View.

After going up those stairs, I decided there was no way I was going down them. Given my terrible luck with stairs walking down crowded slippery stairs on the edge of a cliff seemed unwise. Luckily there was another way down. The signage for this was terrible, and the internet gave inaccurate distance measurements. Happily, it said it was longer than it actually was. 

We headed up the Merced River looking for the trail. At the trail intersection we were discussing which way to go, mostly because I was confused. A helpful hiker heading down said it was worth it to go see the bottom of Nevada Falls, he called the path "relatively flat". And, yes, compared to a staircase up the side of a cliff it was relatively flat, but it was not flat. The falls were beautiful though. Definitely worth the extra distance. The path continued up to the top of this falls but there was no way that was happening. We headed back to the trail merge and took the John Muir trail down.   

We headed back to the trail merge and took the John Muir trail down. Expect down actually meant up. So much up in fact that this picture of Vernal Falls isn't as far up as we went. There are actually people in this picture, but they are so tiny you can barely see them. The second picture is Nevada Falls after we walked far and up from it.

Nevada Fall 

Eventually the trail started going down, switch backing down the mountain. We were now on the cold side of the mountain and we saw patches of snow. Steven took a picture, but I was too tired. The trail was not very smooth and very steep, so it started hurting my already hurting knee. I was very happy to be done with this hike.

Steven found some mistletoe.

We named this "Face Rock"

After the hike we grabbed a quick bite of food, and headed home. I had wanted to hike to the base of El Capitan. It was on the way out and a short walk. Instead I changed out of my hiking clothes into my footise pajamas vowing to not get up until I was in our garage. I succeeded at this. And went to bed very early again. 

Step count highly lessened by my hiking poles 13, 403. The next day I was so tired from all of this I did less than 1000.

Yosemite Day 2

Happy Birthday Steven!

Today we had a lot planned. We woke up and ate cake. Not technically birthday cake, but apple coffee cake I got for free at my knitting group. Then we went for breakfast at the cafeteria place near our room. 

Morning View

Someone doing some passive aggressive protesting...

After breakfast we went to do the lower Yosemite Falls loop. It was a short walk, so we wanted to squeeze it in before our official tour. It was a nice walk, very wet at the end.

Our winter gear proved useful afterall.

The tour was really nice. Since it was cold and raining we had a bus, not the open seat shuttles. We got there early as we tend to do, and had a stop right at the front of the bus. We could see right out the front window, and get off first at all the stops. We really liked our tour guide. There was a lot of interesting information about how Americans have caused problems with the valley. 

Another classic Yosemite View

Deer!

Coyote

After the tour we grabbed our hiking gear and went to check out Mirror Lake. Sadly with the rain it wasn't mirror like as I would have liked. It was still beautiful. The trail there was a mile round trip, so easy hike... Expect we decided to do the walk around the lake too. It isn't just around the lake it was way upstream and the trail became less maintained as we went. It ended up being about 5 miles. My foot hurt in it's formerly broken spot, and my knee was starting to hurt. Despite my being exhausted at the end of this it was a lovely hike. Going out past the quick hike areas was nice. 

Steven proving that his shoes are waterproof.

The first of many makeshift creek crossings.

Steven pondering on a rock. 

Since it was Steven's birthday I made a dinner reservation at the fancy place at the Ahwahnee Hotel. The dining room is really beautiful in the early evening. We dressed up per the dress code. We started out with their onion soup, which was delicious. Steven very unsurprisingly ordered the prime rib roast. I went with the ravioli.  

After all the hiking 15,010 steps, but as we confirmed the next day hiking poles greatly interfere with step count by almost half. I was so tired I fell asleep by 9:30.

Squirrel!

Yosemite Day 1

This year for Steven's birthday I planned a trip to Yosemite. He took the Friday off and we made it a long weekend. The plan was to get up super early spend as much time in Yosemite as possible and then leave Yosemite late Sunday afternoon, just before it got dark. 

We stayed in Curry Village (technically Half Dome Village now due to some complete stupidity), which is what I would call halfway between camping and a hotel. We had a tiny little cabin with two double beds we pushed together to make a normal sized bed, and bathrooms just a short walk away.

Our first stop in the park was Tunnel View. The hiking site I was reading said if you don't have a picture of this people won't believe you went to Yosemite. So, just in case... It was a wonderful view, but a bit crowded. This picture also clearly shows the thunderstorms the weather people predicted... We packed warm clothes for the weather and we a bit concerned about how warm it was when we arrived. 

The next stop was just down the road a bit, Bridalveil Fall. It was very short and easy walk, paved the whole way. This made this hike very crowded too, but easy enough to get our picture taken. We quickly figured out that the nice fancy camera I borrowed from my mother was not going to work for waterfalls. In about 2 seconds the lense was covered in water. Our phones managed well enough. 

Next along the road was the Swinging Bridge and this lovely meadow. We almost missed this because the bridge area came up so fast with no parking. But just up the road was meadow parking, so we stopped there and walked back. I don't know the name of the meadow, but the waterfall is Upper Yosemite Falls. 

Along the walk back I saw a big black bird. Someone who was also photographing this bird said it was a raven. Some googling later confirmed that this person knew what they were talking about. They were a fairly common sight. 

This is the view from under the "Swinging Bridge". It doesn't swing anymore, because they replaced it with a non swinging bridge and didn't bother renaming it. This picture is interesting because one day later it would not be possible to have taken it. It rained so much overnight that the water level went up considerably.

Me poking the water.

Here is the first of many waterfall selfies. After taking this we went on a short walk through the meadow path, hoping to find a scenic route back to where we parked. It was mostly successful.

While waiting for our lunch buzzer from the Ahwahnee to buzz, we took a short walk to check out this little rock thing. (The hotel was renamed, but the buzzer was not.) Steven wanted me to take a picture of him behind it, but I took a bunch and google GIFed it for me. He also climbed up to the top of it. 

After lunch we still had some time before we could check into our room. So we went to check out the museums and science places. We ended up getting tickets to see a movie later that evening. The movie was visually stunning, but it was narrated by a climbing guy who sounded like he was stoned. 

Yarn Basket!

Apparently arrowheads are projectile points now...

Despite being in the car for 3 hours I managed to get 14466 steps. This wasn't even with dedicated hiking.

Home Cooked

Another cookbook on how to cook the old fashioned way and why it is so much better. This seems to be a trend, but one I am enjoying. 

This book had some things I will never eat, unless I am literally starving to death and for some reason it is the only option. Maybe some people are into them, maybe they do taste good, but it just isn't something I'm going to eat. On this list I did put the blood orange salad, but I recognize that more people will eat that than roasted chicken hearts. 

Ignoring the food I consider too weird to eat, I liked this book. There are some things in it that I do plan to make. I might even have been a little inspired to try tomato canning once tomato season comes around. If the inspiration lasts anyway. 

I think this is a nice book to have around if you ever feel like having a big cooking day. It isn't the best for situations where you want to make dinner and are looking for recipes. 

Broomball

When I used to do precision skating I would sometimes see people playing Broomball at the rink. I never got a chance to try it then, but I always thought it looked fun. A meetup group I am a part of was organizing a group game so I signed up for it. 

Broomball is like ice hockey, but no skates and it uses a ball and things that look like brooms without bristles instead of hockey sticks. We started out wearing helmets, but quickly learned why helmets have chin straps and gave up on them. Also being on a ice rink is much easier in skates... 

Very few people in the group had any idea what they were doing. I think some of them may have played other sports before, but mostly it was a chaotic mass of people swarming the ball. Despite it being exhausting and the falling hurting it was fun. Steven even made a goal. :)

Now that I have tried this once I am happy to never do it again. :) I would like to be wearing skates next time I am on the ice...