Making Pizza!

I decided to make a video about one of the world's best foods... Pizza! Don't get too excited, though. I used a pre-made pizza crust for it, and the whole thing was heated and baked in a tiny pizza oven - so small that the sides curl up on the pizza like a hammock and all the toppings (cheese included) slide to the middle. Despite all that, the whole ordeal is quick and easy, and sooo tasty. For this particular pizza, I used mushrooms and raw onions plus spices (salt and pepper, garlic powder, and oregano), although in the past I've used peppers of various colors, fried eggs, and even sauerkraut. I like to experiment.

I should just put this out there... This was filmed and edited last week, but seeing as I was packing and getting ready to head back to the city for the real world, I simply ran out of time and couldn't put this video up until now. Enjoy it, belated as it is!

Campfire!

Everyone loves a campfire. Something about that element seems to attract people. Is it the heat? The light? The intangibility of it? Whatever it is about fire that draws us to it, there is also some definite associations with a campfire that attracts people in other ways. Marshmallows, for instance. Hot dogs, songs, stories... They're all good reasons to sit around the fire. Maybe it's because we associate our time around the campfire with our free time. If we're sitting around a campfire, it means we're on vacation. Ah, vacation, that magical time period when nothing can touch us - not work, not school - nothing.

My nephews wanted a campfire today, so of course I had to oblige. Who could refuse those guys? Anyway, we built up the fire without much trouble, and it burned quite easily. The ground is pretty dry, and the wood was kept inside. Well, for those of you who are in a sorry state where you can't enjoy the comfort of a campfire at some point this summer, this one's for you.

The Doodlebug's Maiden Voyage

The Doodlebug is finally finished, with some major delays, but nevertheless, it has been launched into the waterways of the world. When finishing the boat, I coated the whole thing, top and bottom in epoxy for strength and for waterproofing. But then I found out that the epoxy can wither away if left in the sun for too long. So I bought and applied some UV protective varnish to the topside of the boat - just the decks and seating area as well as the mast and oars. That was all fine and dandy until it rained. Now rain isn't a bad thing usually, but it rained a lot and often for the past week and a half, making the area in general very damp. For a varnish like the one I applied, this makes it nearly impossible to dry. After 10 days, with the varnish still not completely dry, I made the decision to swallow my pride and put wood flour on top of the varnish. The varnish was mostly dry, so most of the wood flour was easily wiped away after it had sucked up some of the moisture. What I was really trying to achieve was to cut down on the stickiness of the boat, and I succeeded in that regard fairly well.

Now, the trailer I used to pull the boat down to the boat launch is of my own design, and as you can imagine, I built it myself. The whole thing is just a wooden frame with wheels and pads for the boat to sit on, with handles carved out of the two joists that run down the center of the trailer. Those handles are awesome! I'm really proud of them. I had to carve them out of the 2x4 with a jigsaw, rasp down the edges (which I've gotten good at doing from my work on the boat itself), and sand them to perfection. I should point out that even with the trailer and the supreme handles, my hands were killing me when I finally got down to the water. That boat weighs in at about 120 lb. empty, and the trailer is roughly 60 lb. On top of that, I've also got all the extra parts that come with the sailboat: boom, oars, daggerboard, rudder, etc.

When I first put the boat in the water, the first thing I noticed - to my utter dismay, I may add, was the fine stream of bubbling water coming in from a point on the daggerboard trunk. Oh, I was pissed. I dragged that boat out of the water back on the trailer. My mother and I went back to the garage and picked up some paper towels and the epoxy stuff. After I had patched the hole sufficiently, I estimated a wait of about 3 hours to allow the epoxy to set (it usually takes longer, but it was pretty warm today and quite dry, which helps). I was dead on the money. Three hours later, I had had lunch, gone swimming, came back and plopped that boat in the water. It was time for the test.

First I tested the boat for leakage (again) by rowing around a bit. I found two spots that might be minor leaks, but I can't be sure, so I'm going to keep an eye on it. Other than that, the boat rows great! It's flat on the bottom and draws very little water, so it's quite fast. Plus, with the daggerboard in place, I get very little sideslip when there's a cross-breeze blowing. I headed back to the dock and rigged up the sail. Then I went sailing. Now, I should point out that at no point in my life have I ever been on a sailboat and was involved in the sailing in any way. This was my first time. Sure, I had done a little reading, but that's never the same, is it? Happily, I got the hang of it a little bit once I got out to the wind. I'm definitely still a novice, and I have a lot to learn, but I'm learning fast. The boat sails beautifully! At one or two points, I picked up so much wind that I was actually making a sizable wake! Definitely faster than any canoe, kayak, or Adirondack guide boat.

What a day!

Update: The Rain

I'm here in Monsey for the 4th day now, and I have just a quick update concerning the previous video posted. I was dragged along on a shopping spree (one that benefitted me, I should add, lest I be hung by my fingertips to a cold stone wall and flayed alive because I left out that little tidbit of information) to the local mall here. When we got back, I was half dead (guys, you'll vouch for me when I say that an afternoon at the mall will do that to any guy), and was lying peacefully in an easy chair when I heard the boom of a thunderclap from the window right behind me.

I ran out to the covered front porch with my iPhone and snapped a few pictures, and a few seconds of video clip. Well, here it is. Less than half a minute of video, but it'll give you an idea of how heavy the rain was. Looks like the rain followed US this time.

I'll Follow The Rain

My brother and I took a road trip to Monsey to visit my sister at her new house. When we set out on our journey, the thermometer in the car showed 73 degrees Farenheit consistently, and it was raining, overcast, and drab. The kind of weather that sponges all the saturation and life out of everything. Very soon though, the temperature began to rise, and the rain stopped. The temperature continued to rise until we stopped for gas, and I got out to take over driving. The wave of heat washed over me as I opened the door, and it was only after we had gassed up, closed the door and gotten back on the highway that we noticed the reading on the car's thermometer. 98 degrees. That reading went down some, but then it went back up, and wavered for the rest of the trip. At it's highest, the thermometer read 99 degrees. It was stifling! But at least it wasn't raining anymore.

The heat continued for the weekend after the video above, which was really almost painful, what with our Shabbos clothes on (Shabbos is the Jewish Sabbath. On Saturdays, or Shabbos, Jews dress up a bit. As a result, I was wearing a dark suit, and long sleeves. Ick.). We all ended up with sleeves rolled up, sweating away, catching any shade we can, and clinging to indoor air conditioning like a three year old to his mother's skirt.

The hike up Silver Lake Mountain

While on vacation up here in the Adirondacks (also where the Doodlebug is being built), my brother and I took a short hike up a mountain called Silver Lake Mountain. We've been doing more hiking than usual lately since according to Jewish law, right now we are in a period of the year called the Nine Days, during which we refrain from listening to music, having weddings, and participating in dangerous activities, like swimming, boating, etc. Therefore, having nothing else to do, my brother and I have been filling our time instead with 'land' activities, like hiking, playing tennis, and biking.

Well, while hiking up this mountain, we met a guy named Cedric. Really nice guy. He was carrying a massive pack (found out later it weighed about 55 lb.) on his back. We spoke to him for a while, and found out that he was on a really long hike. He works 6 months a year as a maintenance guy, and then the other 6 months he is a hiker. So he's been out here hiking day in and out for a number of weeks already.

Also on the trail, we found some blueberries growing along the trail, and we stopped now and then to pick some. Mmm... good! Nothing like organic blueberries. Now, although this hike was a short one, and the mountain was considerably shorter than a lot of other hikes we've done (the whole trail there and back was only about 1.8 miles), the mountain afforded some of the best views I've ever seen for hill that small. And we didn't only get panoramic views at the top! There were rocky outcroppings along the way up, and we stopped a few times to enjoy the view. If you are in the area, and manage to find time for this hike (not much is needed, mind you), I highly recommend it. For those of you who won't or can't hike the mountain, this is my video of our hike up Silver Lake Mountain.

Update: The Doodlebug

So, for those of you who don't know, The Doodlebug is actually the sailboat I'm building from a kit. I've been building this boat for a few years now (several of those years I either ran into serious time-wasting problems, worked very little on the boat, or did not work on it at all), and it's finally almost finished. I've assembled all the main parts, epoxied the whole bottom of the boat thrice, sanded down the deck and the interior to a spotless condition. Needless to say, this is hardly a perfect job, but most of the little details that I will always notice probably won't be noticed by most people. In any event, I've got one coat of epoxy on the topside of the boat now. I need to put two more coats of that on there, and then one and possibly 2 coats of UV protective varnish on top of that so the epoxy doesn't disintegrate in the sun. Enjoy this, my first video made entirely on the iPhone 4.