Drove back from York but stopped at the arboretum to go to the Maryland Daffodil Show before heading home. Both York and the arboretum are right off 83 so it worked out! I hate missing the daffodils.
My thought had been to pick up lunch and eat it at the arboretum but I didn’t see a good place that was right off the highway and open. Matt said he’d heat up some red bag chicken for sandwiches so I texted him when I left the arboretum and he had it ready when I got home. The arboretum was super packed so I’m glad it worked out that way, I wouldn’t have had a place to sit and eat; there were school groups (?) every where including the benches and picnic tables and getting some sort of instruction. It was too warm to sit in the car and eat. Normally it’s pretty empty during the day during the week. Lots of people were there looking at the daffodils too!
Everyone was excited to see me when I got home but Lulu pulled my clothes from the trip out of the hamper and knocked over the bathroom trash can—two things she has never done in her little dog life—while I was outside with the other two dogs reading in the hammock. I think she was a little upset I went away! I hope she copes when I go away in June for another class. I think that one’s four days.
We had planned the chicken for dinner so Matt dashed out after lunch and picked up some food at Lidl. I really needed some actual food after two days of basically only having one not so balanced meal each day and some tiny snacks.
He made steelhead trout, broccoli and wild rice for dinner.
I got my third migraine in as many days and went to bed early but can’t sleep.
It was a yarn spinning class. My journey to this has been long. I had ordered a wheel before our vacation in September to take a class while on vacation but it didn’t work out. Then I took a class at a local yarn store but it was awful and they never actually let me touch the wheel. This why I finally decided to take a class over 90 minutes away and book a hotel.
The class was great. Very long (although we ended a little early) which was a little rough but better than spreading it over two days because now I’m done!
We went from preparing cleaned fleece with combs to spinning it and then spinning roving and plying it into yarn. Then we wet set it and we were done!
I sort of snacked for lunch and was so hungry when I left! I stopped at a cute market called Dottie’s which I had wished I had known about before the class because they were open at 6 am and had a huge grab and go section. I got some PA style whoopie pies and potato salad and then picked up a sub from Jersey Mike’s right near my hotel.
I had never had Jersey Mike’s before but it was good. A very earnest young man made it very carefully and told me how much he loves working there.
I did not have the energy to drive around York looking for food again. It was a very well assembled sandwich.
This is my third trip in a year! I wish more businesses and restaurants were open in York but it was nice to get away and learn something new.
I thought I’d head to York early to make a day of it and kind of wish I hadn’t. I went right to the big, aptly named, Central Market which was open but most of the stalls weren’t. I got a ham sandwich at a place that had “ham” in the name so I thought it would be really good.
It was not. I should have known when she told me I was “lucky” she had cheddar because cheddar was a pain to work with. What? It was kind of soggy. I couldn’t finish it. At least it wasn’t too expensive?
I did peek in a yarn store but didn’t find anything I wanted. It was cute though! Just mostly knitting stuff and I’m still too beginner.
It was chilly and York really is a ghost town so I didn’t walk around much. I was hoping to find a cute park to hang out in but no luck.
I drove to an all popcorn store and I got some dill pickle popcorn. The man behind the counter said it was the most popular cheese based flavor. He also told me that nearby Dillsburg has a pickle festival and drops a pickle on New Year’s Eve. Who knew?
Then I drove 20 minutes to this bakery/deli that we had gone to before and got fancy bread and cheese on our way home from Harrisburg earlier in the pandemic. Last time they had a lot of fresh made to order and grab and go options but today the woman at the counter told me they were out of food and the refrigerator case was empty. All they had was a pizza and some slices of quiche. It was still lunch time! They are open until 8 pm. I was hoping for a sandwich and something for tomorrow. So strange.
Since that was a failure, I drove to the deli I found online to get some tuna salad for tomorrow’s required bagged lunch and there was a notice on the door that they were closing early today and not serving dinner. I’m glad I stopped, the whole reason I had decided to go there was because they were open late and I could pick up food after dinner. I was just bored and went earlier.
The staff was really weird and I tried some of the tuna and it was really salty. I don’t know what else to do for food though. I can’t even find a place that has fresh food to serve me today, much less something I can refrigerate overnight for tomorrow. I hate that we have to pack a lunch.
This happened to me on my trip to Asbury Park last year too. All these places that were supposed to be open according to their own social media and Google maps would be closed or if they were open, out of food. What is going on? Update your socials! It’s not that hard.
My hotel out in the suburbs seems fine and pretty empty. I’m still glad I got a room and don’t have to drive up here tomorrow (although it’s still a 20-30 minute drive to the class) at like 6 am. Going home will be nice because it’s only about an hour back.
I hung out in the hotel for a while, then realized I lost my keys and panicked. Luckily I found them in my car. I think they must have fell out of my bag when I lifted things from the passenger side floor. I can’t lock my hatchback without them so I reached through the trunk. Yay 2004 cars with manual car locks! I did not want to call roadside assistance twice in one week.
I stopped at a couple grocery stores for something to do and got crackers and snacks for tomorrow and some cake flour I need for the book. Our local store hasn’t had it lately. I also bought a plant which is really jazzing up my hotel room. It’s supposed to be really cold tonight—not too far above freezing—so I felt like I shouldn’t leave it in the car.
I tried two different places for dinner in downtown York and they were also unexpectedly closed (???) so I ended up getting tenders and fries at the first place I saw open. They were actually really tasty and fresh! I asked the teenager taking my order what sauces were good and he hooked me up. Very pleasantly surprised. Maybe it is the universe teaching me a lesson about trying to find fancier food? Ha! I had hoped for more veggies than coleslaw but it will do. Can’t beat dinner for $13!
I noticed that very few people mask here. At home most people are still masking indoors in public places and I still see masked people walking down the street, getting off buses etc all the time. How trapped must immunocompromised people feel here? Their community has completely left them behind.
I’m a little headachy (probably because I had very little to eat today until after 8 pm) but I took my migraine meds and am planning on watching tv on my iPad and going to bed early. It has been a long day with way too much driving.
Tomorrow is going to be a long day too but hopefully a successful one!
Today was a mentally exhausting day! Fingers crossed my little trip goes well because I need a break.
Worked on the book project basically all day, achieved nothing.
I did take a couple minutes to try and dry some dogwood blossoms. All from the same tree!
I tried some new “spicy” canned soup and it was so gross. I couldn’t finish it, we didn’t have any leftovers so Matt ran out and got us the lunch special at the local Thai place. I got black fried rice with tofu and they give you an app too so I got curry puff. They even give you the cutest little containers of garnish/pickles/sauce. The tofu was a little dry this time but the rice was extra good.
I didn’t make it to the store like I was debating so we got take out again. It is going to be a take out heavy week! We got sushi at the place that makes the California salad rolls not the fancier sushi place. Still good and easier to park.
Then I packed for my trip while Matt practiced the piano.
I hate how you have to travel with so many cords for everything! I can’t find my travel extension cord. I got it when I was in Asbury Park last spring and then I know we used it on vacation in Cape May in the fall. It should be in a suitcase but no. Where is it?? It is the perfect travel cord. I can’t imagine we left it there. Hopefully the room will have a lot of outlets.
Anyway, not a great day! The dogs were very good but I’m stressed.
This better be a good class and I hope I can have some fun tomorrow. It’s oddly a little cool so I had to rethink my clothes but I think it will be better to go up early and do something rather than hang out here all day and just go there to sleep before class on Wednesday.
Today we were supposed to do a day trip to Philadelphia to go to a museum and the Philadelphia Handweavers Guild’s fiberpalozza (I’m not a member but apparently they have their own building!!) but Matt’s back still is in bad shape so long drive and probably a fair amount of walking didn’t seem wise.
Instead we watched The Prince of Pennsylvania, I had leftover salad and stew for lunch and Matt marinated the finally fully defrosted chicken thighs with gochujang and a few other things and grilled them and zucchini for dinner.
Our tulips are still popping up!
I’m taking a class between York and Harrisburg, PA this week so I’ve been trying to figure out what else to do while I’m there. It’s only a one day class but it is from 9-5 and about 90 minutes away (probably more since I’d be hitting rush hour on both sides driving through 3 cities) so I booked a couple nights in a hotel.
Nothing seems to be open in York during the week. How to galleries/stores etc manage to stay open if they are only open on the weekend? Even the big public market is only open three days a week. What do people do?? I even thought about going to a movie thinking it would be empty on a Tuesday but nothing is playing but the Mario movie.
York is a city! I wouldn’t have thought it would roll up the sidewalks after lunch.
The biggest issue was that we have to bring a packed lunch to class because the class is in the middle of nowhere. You’d think they provide something or have an option to order from somewhere and have a runner go get it. But no. It’s awkward because I want to get to town before check in so I can’t just pack something from home.
I did find a place that is open until 9 pm that sells some of the menu in “bulk” to go (like tubs of chicken salad) so I think I will get that and stick it in the hotel fridge.
My mom used to really like to stop at at their location near Hershey Park when I was a kid so hopefully it will be good! It was the first place we had ever seen pretzel rolls and she used to bring a big bag home each trip. This was a long time ago and pretzel rolls seemed so exotic. And Pennsylvanian.
If not I guess a grocery store would have something. A lot of other deli type places were only open until 1 or 2 pm which obviously wouldn’t work.
Hopefully Matt can handle the dogs okay and get a doctor’s appointment. We don’t know what happened; he had been fine for a long time and did yard work and other normal activities with no problem. Back pain is so awful.
And our light switch for the outside seems ti have stopped working. Why do these things crop up on the few times I travel?
For lunch I made trout salad which we had on leftover olive bread. I also made a tomato/avocado/bacon salad for the book.
Then I made cookies for the book. I am done except for one recipe!
I had put some frozen chicken in the fridge to defrost on Thursday and it was still frozen! I guess we will make it tomorrow?
We pivoted to our favorite vegan/vegetarian Indian place. The portions are small so we got a little bit of everything. My favorites are the papdi chaat, the poori bhaji and khaman dhokla.
We’ve been watching So Help Me Todd while we have Paramount Plus and it’s surprisingly even and cute. Who knew, CBS?
Our plan was to pick up lunch, eat outside in the little historic Main Street and hit up the Howard County Museum for the grant project.
We got down to historic Elliott City, about 40 minutes away, and it was packed! We finally got a parking space, walked over the the restaurant and it was closed. There weren’t a lot of other choices in this tiny area so we ended up not eating and instead killing time until the museum opened up at noon.
I love the weird exhibits at this little museums. Highlights include exhibits about historic floods, how Ellicott City was a hot spot for underage marriage and a board of historic hair clippings.
I picked up two food books there— a cute community one with a mix “old” and “modern” recipes and one about the local canning industry.
Then we went to the fancy bread place we never get to because it’s so far and near nothing. They had a sauerkraut rye I was tempted by (we were just talking about making this ourselves, I’ve never seen it sold anywhere) which apparently they only sell on Fridays. We got the olive bread and the cheddar bread instead.
Then I had the idea to pick up kimbap at our favorite kimbap place and just take that home to eat. We got three kinds of kimbap and Matt also got some stew. I stopped in the bakery next door and got a red bean bun and a castella (un-iced) cupcake.
We didn’t get to eat until after 3 pm. Yuck. I had a headache and took some medicine.
I had to deal with some emails, worked on the book then went to bed for a couple minutes.
Got up and we had bread, cheese, lox, and the remaining kimbap and banchan from lunch for dinner.
I had planned to make trout salad with the trout I cooked yesterday and one of the book recipes to have with the bread but didn’t feel up to it. It was good to use up the cheese and lox though, we are always buying fancy cheese and not actually finishing eating it or realizing a bunch is about to expire and eating too much at once. The lox was was a fun flavored assortment from Lidl.
Watched Yellowjackets.
Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy so it should be more chill. I have some recipes to finish testing but that’s it. Sunday we were planning to do a day trip but we will see. These last two days were rough! Breakfast makes me nauseous and eating lunch too late (like we have these past two days) gives me headaches if I do it too much.
After a quick library pick up, we took the dogs for their annual tulip pic at Sherwood Gardens. It took a lot but I think I got one good one. Maybe two.
Matt dropped us off and then got us sandwiches for lunch. We had ice cream sundaes for a snack—recipe for the new book.
Then for dinner, more recipe testing—salmon croquettes and I made extra trout for dinner tomorrow. Matt made coleslaw.
Watched the School Spirits finale! It better come back! The ending was a little surprise but I was 99% right with my guess.
I think we are all a little tired today! Taking three dogs anywhere is no joke. A woman asked if we were dog walkers
Today was a beautiful 80° not a cloud in the sky day! Did a little work in the morning, attended a virtual meeting for a couple hours, had some leftover Chinese for lunch and spent the rest of the day in the yard reading and answering emails.
For dinner Matt made chicken burgers with Boursin and asparagus.
Watched Up Here which is cute but really needed to be tightened up.
Today was unexpectedly eventful! Neither of us slept well, Dottie wouldn’t settle and then Lulu was sick and had to go outside several times. I had a horrible migraine last night when I went to bed and didn’t feel much better when I got up.
Matt went to work and Dottie didn’t settle again so I got up early and thought I’d go to the store and get chicken for Lulu (and Matt who also doesn’t feel great) and pick up my in-store order of the split-ply needles at Michaels out in the county.
I pulled in right in front of Michaels, got my order and went to leave. A bunch of kids were running around behind my car and I saw the car in front of me had moved. I looked around and there were no concrete barriers between any spaces so I pulled through. And…apparently the only concrete barrier was in front of my car. The Matrix is high and I couldn’t see it and didn’t notice when I drove in, hence checking the surrounding spaces before I put it in drive. Anyway, I drove over it and then couldn’t back up and when I tried to go forward, I could feel some resistance.
I ended up calling our insurance covered roadside assistance and they weren’t sure if would be considered an accident or just an assistance call. Finally they gave me the choice of a winch or a tow. They were very nice but kept asking if there was damage to my car but I couldn’t tell. Long story short, Matt left work and came to me and we waited for the tow. The tow guy was very nice and had to lift my car over the divider and took it to a local garage. Nothing was wrong thankfully but I had noticed my headlight was out so they replaced that and I was able to pick it up this afternoon.
It was the silliest thing! If the divider was slightly lower or my car slightly higher, it wouldn’t have been an issue at all! Why was my space the only one with a concrete block??
Then Matt took me to Aldi, we got the chicken and some ingredients for the book and came home. It was really was a long day. I felt horrible and only went out because Lulu was sick and thought I could be back in about an hour and got back to bed or at least relax a little.
Matt had some soup and crackers for our late lunch and I had leftover takeout. I worked on the book and read outside a bit on the hammock.
Rachel Eats Dinner 