ludlow asian population = 2!

met an asian last night at outback (bar and nightclub, ooooh, i know you're thinking super snazzy, but bring it back to ludlow :D). after getting ice cream at scoops (PA and i shared the minty moose, i prefer the denali moosetracks just b/c the minty moose had too much chocolate) we got all decked out (i.e. college wear of jeans, top and sandals) and went to look for a bar nearby (since we were our usual sleepy selves at 8 pm). tom's loft tavern looked closed and killarney's only had about 2 cars parked outside of it, but outback (nothing to do w/ the steakhouse chain, but it does have an australian theme) had half a dozen cars parked outside so in we went. 


the guy checking ids was really into his job- checked our ids for a good 15 sec, looked at us for a good 10 sec and then our cards for another 15. i'm thinking if i was under 21 i wouldn't drive all the way to ludlow for a drink.


average age at the bar was probably about 40-50 but a 50th birthday party was about to start. around 10:30 the DJ w/ his mac started playing some pretty decent music. the birthday celebrators were super cute and people watching was fun from the bar (beers on tap- $6, i was so hoping being in the middle of nowhere would make for cheaper drinks). they ran out of magic hat #9 after my first beer, which was really sad  and had to make due w/ a blackberry wheat which was so-so. 


but onto the asian story, he was probably one of the most jacked asians i've ever seen but he looked pretty asian (something about his clothes and glasses and the way he did his hair) and he knew the dj so when one of the people PA and i met there was requesting a song i went up and asked him where he was from. haha, he probably thought i was completely crazy but he said he was originally from nj but had been in vermont about 20 years so i'll take it! one of the sweet old ladies from the birthday party grabbed me from the stage and walked me to the birthday girl to get cake. so cute. there was a creeper so after the songs kind of sucked we said we had to teach the next morning and ran off. oops, it sort of felt like we hustled them for drinks but we hadn't realized how creepy he was until the last half hour of our night there.


the bar also had a game set up w/ a hook in a wall and a washer tied to a string about 2 feet from the wall and you try to swing the washer to catch onto the hook. anyone seen that before or is it a small town new england thing?

nature's stair master

lake echo from vista trail

 finished two weeks here now and PA and i went all out today exploring. there's 5 lakes in the plymouth area and we wanted to explore but the state park is closed until the end of june and the lakes are pretty much private so we went back to the plymouth vista lake echo trail we did yesterday w/ the participants so i could get some good shots and we could walk around more. so w/ the participants it took about 30 minutes to get to the top for the view (PA and i charged up in about 10...so we took some detours). 

it's finally not raining in vt, i'm sure it'll change but we took full advantage and explored the trails. then grabbed some maple creemee- which was vanilla soft serve w/ maple flavoring. i'm not sure if i can ever get used to the maple syrup in all my food (w/ my pasta was probably the weirdest so far). 

at the sugar house there was a dad losing his mind and cursing left and right at his wife...so awkward to get back into our car right next to them. but the sugar house has really cute vt stuff- shot glasses, shirts, jewelry to food stuff (i need to get my hands on some grade B maple syrup before i leave this state).

man, this is gonna be a long post- but lunch was tempeh surprise. the potato "fries" were amazing w/ siracha (my best friend) and ketchup. i'm off and on again w/ the tempeh but i'm hoping for some chili tonight!

going up the tower

after lunch, PA and i headed out to okemo so she could climb the mt and we could both finally go up the tower and get a view of vt. we went off the rd and took the ski trails (kind of brutal on the low back and calves but broke up the monotony of transversing the rds). we got a little mixed around but finally saw other people and they pointed out the fire tower to us. 

the 360 views from the fire tower were absolutely amazing! you could see the lakes, ludlow town and our home for the summer. it was also very very very windy and the tower would shake, so that was kind of freaky and fun. the total walk, up the ski trails and down the rd took us about 2.5 hours

tired

today was a long day...i'm feeling wiped out, but it's still the beginning of my internship so it's going to take a couple weeks until i'm in a sort of semi set schedule. i think i clonked out around 9:30 last night and got up a bit before 6 am. PA and i are on day 1 of training for this tri so we took road the bikes right out of our building towards rutland which was a bad decision b/c a) it was freezingggg and b) it was uphill. a highly amusing way to reintroduce yourself to biking. haha, so maybe not biking for a bit. one of the staff participants walks the golf course before it opens in the morning so i think i'll try running that tmrw.

today was bizarre weather all around (maybe it was from the venus sun thing yesterday, which we couldn't figure out how to watch here w/o blinding ourselves, so today show this morning was of course a great way to pretend we did). we on and off rain and rain w/ sunshine. but we did get this great shot of clouds just hovering over okemo mountain which was really cool. sometimes in really stormy weather the whole mountain is impossible to see. 

lake echo in plymouth is part of the view for one of our walks off "campus" (vermonting). we got back to the car right before the rain started (yay perfect timing). this area is also big during the fall for tourists ("peepers" not sure about the spelling) to come see the leaves. that's "peeper season" with buses and cars going 12 mph taking pictures of all the leaves. and seeing the number of trees around it would be pretty spectacular. our supervisor took PA and i on a trail by our place and boy does she walk fast! i feel so out of shape here, maybe more than i did at the fitness expo in february...time to do more running and strength training. 

today's lunch was serve yourself again and i always get so confused putting my own food on my plate so i try to follow the same layout we do for the plates that are made for us, but i still get a huge amount and get flustered. so feeling just like a participant on wednesdays. but it's nice and colorful:D 

ooooh, the snack today was the apple truffle again. man, that will probably never get old. dinner was also great today- tofu, roasted potatoes and all sorts of veggies (forgot the pic of my salad again).


so glad the week is half over- just got to get through 2 more days :D hopefully next week i'm scheduled for more nutrition stuff (although the lecture tonight was really good, but i felt like i was in school all over again trying to learn about all these hormones and nature vs. nurture). gotta get my thinking cap on! have a good night, as usual, my night is ending wayyyyy early.

dinner pic!

i finally remembered to bring my camera down for dinner to nab a shot of this food! although i'm not a fan of shrimp this was still pretty tasty. and their take on pad thai was pretty nice (although i much prefer the real noodles and not the thin ones we got here...but that's healthy for you.) this is not including my side salad w/ roasted red pepper and capers dressing (eum eum)

the "pad thai"- thin noodles, sugar snap peas, cucumber slices (which was different but a good different), squash, and shrimp. i got tastes of coconut but no peanut (probably b/c all the possibilities of allergies). i loaded mine up w/ siracha :D btw, the plate is 9", the idea is 1/2 the plate for veggies, 1/4 for protein and 1/4 for grain.

tuesday's are baked dessert days. today's was black bean brownie topped w/ raspberry jam and orange zest. the black bean brownie was the cooking recipe for class last thursday and i think it tastes better when it's fresh out of the oven and warm. once it's cooled it gets a bit too dry. but the jam was definitely fresh.


got to pump up some fitness balance balls today. we got around 15 minutes to get a ball inflated, but it still wasn't filled enough. but if you ever need a great tricep workout go ahead and get some empty fitness balls and a bike pump and have at it! slow and steady wins the race for this task. tomorrow i get to showcase my teaching skills for fitness for my boss...i very much dislike performing for someone that knows their stuff b/c i get so flustered.


oh, and i think i'm signing up for a mini triathlon...tmrw starts training! 

small airports

made a couple trips to the rutland airport today to pick up new participants for the week. PA and i definitely drove past the airport road the first time b/c we couldn't believe it would be so tiny, but we turned around and made it. the airport was about the size of a large house and the parking lot was about 1/8 the size of a grocery parking lot back home. it's a tiny airport that has those small 6 person planes coming in. 


the airport is about 30 minutes from GM and while we were in the area we checked out the chain stores and the downtown area. 

we found this dollar store and they were selling these, i guess play dolls for the spice girls. all the baby spice were out but the very interesting posh, scary and sporty were still around...

this was the coolest looking building front and i have no idea what they were actually selling. it was about 2 pm on a sunday but there wasn't a single store open except one restaurant bar...

we're double the number of women now so it's going to be tough learning all new names again! maybe i can exercise my brain a bit by learning names.

strolling of the heifers

woke up to pouring rain, but i was on a mission to check out this cow parade that one of the sort of locals talked up. there were cows...

and llamas, horses, donkeys 

and people in funny vehicles, but it sort of felt less than i was expecting. it was highly entertaining though and PA and i felt like we were in a foreign land.

the town of brattleboro (about an hour south of ludlow) is pretty cool. it has an eclectic mix of stores (everything from a mystery book store to vinyls and interesting art pieces).

this bathtub of beads was in beadniks off of main street. the sign just made me want to climb in, i'm thinking the beads would have been kind of like a massage? it was partially a specialty beads store (think beadazzled) but it also had knick knacks like gumby and old school candies (like razzles). 


we ate at amy's bakery arts cafe (also off of main street) and it was packed at lunch time. my feet were soaked through and it was cold so all i could picture was a hot sandwich= tuna melt w/ avocado. eum eum eum. i highly recommend. PA got this hot turkey sandwich that had avocado and pesto on it that she liked. the baked goods also looked tasty.


it's been challenging thinking of things to do in the evening after lunch as everything is either too far away and everything closes so early so tonight was another movie night w/ some of the ladies. PA and i are going to rutland airport to pick up some new participants so we'll check out that area while we're there. have a good night and hopefully you stay dry!

moose/meese/mooses

happy friday! it was a great day for moose

up at 4:45 this morning to search for moose. driving out to our secret spot, this is the sun rising on one of the lakes by our way. the water was evaporating off the lake (you can't really tell), but look at that sun rise!  

 GA has an eye for spotting these suckers. 2nd day searching for moose for me and PA and we got two:D

we waited for an hour but they didn't cross the street so we headed back to ludlow, grabbed coffee and "ugly little donuts" from sweet surrender. the cinnamon sugar ones are super cheap and delish!

today's food included yummy muffins at breakfast (i preferred the apple cranberry over the applesauce peanut butter one, strangely enough), pizza at lunch (it's really sad getting a real serving slice of pizza...so i had 4 slices...haha). the pizza was great, flat and crispy- the ones i tried were: one w/ feta-tomato-argula-marinara sauce (my fav), a caramelized onion one, and a mushroom one (my 2nd fav). and i had tofu parm (the women got free-range chicken parm) for dinner. got to go on 2 walks w/ the women and did some upper body strengthening. oh, and i also learned how to make an origami box!

GA left today w/ her family so it's just me and PA, i'm not sure what we're doing tonight, but tmrw's plan is to watch a cow parade in brattleboro (see the link on the side bar) even if we get flooded in this rain that's coming.