Category: Useful Things

Pumpkin Parking

I learned some useful things about attending Keene’s famous Pumpkin Festival:

1. Arrive early.  The party starts at noon, but things are setting up all morning, so arrive early to get a parking spot – read on…

2. Arrive from the West.  Drive right into town.  Get as close to Main Street as you can, and plunk down your money to park.  There’s no getting around it, so at least get close.

3. If you arrive from the East, friendly and well-meaning volunteers will direct you to a lot 1.5 miles away from Main Street with a shuttle bus and tell you that it’s your only choice.  Politely ignore them and drive to a closer lot, maybe one you can walk to.  Better yet, pass by town and arrive from the West!

This will raise an eyebrow…

or at least let you show off the ones you have…

Kris has been following this blog and she sent me a lesson to share:

“I learned that there is a product called Men Only hair color for Men’s mustache’s and beards. This works great to tint your eyebrows. You can mix just a little bit at a time and dab it on with a q-tip, wait 5 minutes and you’re done. This is a very inexpensive and easy alternative to spending money on beauty salon eyebrow tinting. The packaging for the mustache and beard and the overall hair color is almost identical so make sure you get the mustache one. Enjoy!”

Feel free to send me photos of your success with this and I’ll post them!

Worth 1K Words

I have learned (I hope) to take my camera (in its waterproof bag of course) on every kayak ride,

On this day, the late afternoon light and the calm water combined to make this amazing illusion: at water level the shoreline and trees made an absolutely perfect reflection.  It looked exactly like we were riding in the sky.  It was kind of eerie and very very cool.  I so wanted to capture it!

This is an approximation, but taken later from the boat ramp, much higher up.  In our actual boating experience, the sky blue was all around us, not dark like this.  But you can get the idea.

Okey Dokey Karaoke

My sisters-in-law and I learned that you have to be quite picky when choosing Karaoke CDs.

1. Tempo is very important!

2. Go for CDs with underlying lyrics provided, even if you think you know “Last Train to Clarksville” inside and out.

It’s possible that this all becomes less important the more you drink, but this is a good starting point.

IKEA Survival Guide

Marathon?  Triathlon?  Hundred-mile trek through the desert?  No.  IKEA is the ultimate endurance event!

I learned so much in my 4.5 hour shopping trip with veteran IKEA shopper Sally and newbie Dott!  I will share it all here!

1. Go prepared.  Travel light: no coats or big pocketbooks.  Pop your wallet in your pocket and leave the rest in the car.  You can bring your cell phone but don’t count on reception!  Because of this, stay with your party or be VERY specific on where to meet up.  Bring some shopping bags that fit in your pocket.

2. Know the layout and have a game plan.  The first/top floor is a VERY long one-way path through display rooms.  The restaurant is there.  The second/bottom floor is the marketplace, where you actually buy the small stuff and then pickup the really big stuff, and check out.

3. Coming into Floor 1, accept a big plastic bag, but don’t take a cart.  Most of the stuff is just display here, but there are lots of  “end cap” items throughout.  Until this trip, I would have said don’t pick anything up on this pass, just keep moving and get it later in the Marketplace.  I have since adjusted my strategy on this one: If you want it, or think you might want it, take it now!  Hence the bag.

4. Pick up an order slip and pencil.  Use it to write down items you may want.  Make sure to write the aisle and bin number, Sally taught us, as this is going to save lots of time later.  Consider writing down alternatives, in case your first choice is out of stock.

5. Know the path shortcuts.  There are signs around that show them.  You can skip a section (but if you’ve come this far you probably won’t) but more importantly you can cut over to the rest rooms or cafeteria more directly, and come back to where you were, later.

6. Take a break.  Eat the famous meatballs.

7. Outside the cafeteria, sign up for IKEA Family at the kiosk.  Don’t forget to grab the card, as it is retracted quickly if you walk away.  Score some free stuff.  For us it was a frozen yogurt on this trip.

8. When heading down to the Marketplace, now you can get a cart.  If you see something you think you might want, put it in the cart.

9. DON”T GO BACK.  This is why you are taking what you think you might want.  You can ditch it later. I tried to go back to the display floor to get an item that we all three saw in bulk, but never found again.  I will spare you the details but will just say that it was just like one of those nightmares where you are running, running, running and never getting to your destination.  Complete with people telling me that it didn’t exist.  Sally eventually beat a display model out of someone but we never found the box we all remembered seeing.  So if you see it, take it, and never go backwards.

10. Pace yourself in the Marketplace.  How much time do you have left?  What did you really want to see?  Make sure you get to that today if you’re not coming back soon.

11. In the stocked aisles, get help with the heavy stuff.

12. Load your big stuff with the labels facing forward

13. Examine your cart.  Unload anything you really don’t want.  Don’t feel bad.  It’s part of the business model.

14. Pay with your debit card and get a substantial credit for next time. Keep your receipt.

As you can imagine this is fun for some people, such as the three of us, the polar opposite for others.

Did I miss anything?

Biking to Work Along the River Charles

I have learned how to use the new Hubway public bikes in Boston and it’s a hoot!

Earlier, I posted that bikes were free for the first 30 minutes.  I have since learned that this is only true after the cost of membership, which is $80/year.  The alternative is to pay $5 a day for a membership, which is what I’ve done twice now.

I took the bus to Boston and brought my helmet.

I picked up a bike at the corner Arlington and Boylston Streets, popping in my credit card and following the prompts to get a code to unlock a bike.

Since you can’t ride through the Public Garden, I had to ride in traffic around the block, which was scary the first time.  Then I popped onto the Fieldler Footbridge, and onto the Esplanade!

All my life, it seems, I have admired and envied those lucky Bostonians who walk, run and bike along this glorious path along the Charles River.  Now I’m one of them!

I rode my little bike, complete with retro mechanical bell, along the water, over bridges, along the path.

I asked a walker to take my photo and she readily agreed.  Just as I was getting back on the bike and reflecting on just how geeky that was, another Hubway biker coming towards me flashed his iPhone and said “I’m going to ask her to take my picture, too!”

I took the BU footpath, just past Kenmore Square and rode a short way to my office, which has a Hubway bike stand right on the end of my street!

Unbelievably fun!