Garba/Dandia Raas

Weekend of October 20th

While Isaac & Ross went climbing to celebrate Ross' birthday, Stephanie & I went to a dance event hosted by the India Cultural Club of Vermont. It was held to celebrate a multi-day holiday. I'm not completely sure what the holiday is about - I spoke with three people and got three different answers: harvest, fertility, and celebration of good triumph over evil. In India, thousands show up for dancing each night. I wish I had taken pictures, but Isaac had the camera for the day. When I get pics for others I will be sure to post them - it was a blast!

On Sunday, Isaac & I were supposed to go to the Lake George area to paddle some whitewater. We were going to meet Adam, who is a moderator on cboats.net. He has a bit of a c1 museum at his home - about 30! The goal was to paddle a few on whitewater to see if there were any I liked - Debby needs a new boat. Unfortunately, my body was beat from 4 hours of dancing the night before, and I didn't feel up for whitewater once we got there. I paddled some different canoes on flatwater instead, and Adam helped Isaac and me learn how to roll.

Canoes I liked:

• Sith
• Viper
• Descender

Canoes that weren't my favorite:

• Hornet
• Oxygen

Canoes I wish I could try but he didn't have:

• Finkenmeister
• Prelude

We tried the Oxygen, even though we are not interested in squirt boating, because there were only 11 made. Squirt boats are extremely low volume c1's and kayaks, and this low volume allows the paddler to do various tricks that involve sending parts, or all, of the boat underwater in a river. There's even a 'mystery move', where the entire boat & paddler disappear underwater and reappear downstream. Squirt boats are hard to keep upright to begin with, and the Oxygen is the least stable of them all. With this in mind, Isaac still seal launched the thing off the dock. He managed to stay upright - how I don't know - and paddled it straight for shore. If you look at the blown up version of the picture below, you can see his cheeks are blown up like a puffer fish - and rightly so - that was one scary boat to paddle (even on flatwater).

Isaac seal launching the Oxygen
(look at it dive!)

I was less brave and started out on shore. I was able to shift my weight back, sinking the stern & pushing the bow up into the air.

Deb hanging out in the oxygen

Adam was super nice to help us with our rolls. It was a beautiful fall day, but he still had to put on dry gear get in the water. Neither of us got our rolls, but we're off to a start, anyway.

Deb getting ready to try a roll

Isaac trying to roll

Wisconsin Wedding Weekend ... WOO-HOO!!!!!

While Isaac was climbing in Utah, I went to Sheboygan, Wisconsin for the wedding of my cousin, Heidi. This was the weekend of October 12th (I'm catching up on the blog posts ever so slowly).

Congratulations to Heidi & Patrick!!!

Things I love about Wisconsin weddings:
(ok, much of this applies to any excuse to visit Wisconsin)

1. Getting to see family who I haven't seen in a looooong time. Especially my crazy cousins Heidi & Kevin. So many good memories ... (does it get any better than Christmas in Sheboygan with the Zwitters?)
   
2. Making a pilgrimage to Kopp's. My goodness, how does one decide between burger and grilled cheese, speciality sundae or scoops, flavor of the day or chocolate custard?
   
3. Remembering Grandma & Grandpa Zwitter and the house where my dad grew up and my grandparents lived for as long as I knew them.
4. Open bars with bartenders who make stiff drinks. Really, really, stiff drinks.
5. Driving on roads that are well maintained. The ones in New England suck. They blame it on frost heaving, but, what ... you don't think they have frost heaves in Wisconsin ???
6. Seeing a shout out to the Green Bay Packers in the wedding ceremony program. Love it!
   
7. Seeing pictures of the bride in groom as children ... wearing Green Bay Packers helmets.
   
8. Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha, WI, proudly serving all of your deluxe cheese & sausage needs since 1947
9. Bratwurst. Can't find any good brats out east, that's for sure!

Here's me & my brother, Zack, enjoying the fruits of the open bar

Breakfast with Mom, Dad, Zack, and Sarah

Utah climbing trip

Isaac went on a climbing trip to Southern Utah with some friends. I think it was the 2nd week in October, and I think it was Indian Creek, but I'm not 100% sure because I'm insanely jealous and didn't pay too close of attention. Here are some pics, though ...

Better Late than Never ...

A few weekends ago (late Sept, I think), Isaac, Ross, Stephanie, and I climbed at Upper West Bolton. I just never posted about it until now because I was too lazy to go through the pics.

Ross started out by leading the Thorn ...
He went free as far as he could go, and then he switched to aid. Isaac then started aiding the Rose, which was just to the left.
And here's a nifty one of just Isaac on the Rose:

We need more rain!

It's been so dry all summer and fall. All the rivers in NW Vermont are all too low to paddle, and not even the rains which shut down my garage sale were enough to bring the rivers up. Here's a great you tube video of some amazing open canoeing. I don't do anything near this crazy, but man, it is sure fun to watch!

Doesn't it feel good ...

... to lighten the load? I held my first garage sale as an adult, and I unloaded so much stuff that I no longer need. Who am I kidding ... much of it I never needed in the first place.

Junk that I'm glad is gone:
That rug that Webb left in my basement
That stupid red exercise ball
My old tandem bike (glad someone will be enjoying it)
A sliding screen door
A cat play tower (they used to use it, anyway ...)
A large white dry erase board
A dress form that is too small for me
A hammock
Many pieces of "art"
A bunch of stationary & cards
Lots of books
Lots of speciality kitchen crap
Some old clothes
A silly radio that played sounds of "nature"
A slide viewer
A full visible spectrum "S.A.D." light
Some board games I don't play anymore
A map of Vermont
A pressure canner/cooker
A Sears Tower keychain (yes, someone actually bought it for 25 cents!)
An 8-pack box of Annie's Mac & Cheese
Lots of other junk, too miscelaneous or embarassing to mention

And then, there's left-overs (expecially since it started raining around 1:00PM). But, there's always Craig's List ... anybody need a nice food dehydrator? How about some stunning oil lamps for that holiday table scape? Scared of what the holidays will do to your waistline ... now's the time to get going on that in-home exercise routine.

For stuff that is still left over but may be useful to someone else, there's always the ReUse Zone. It's a shed at our local recycling center & waste location. Pay a disposal fee, but the items go into a shed where others can go and take whatever they want out of it for free.

Next phase ... don't get acquire "stuff" in the first place!