Amanda Takes Off...

Yesterday Good Man, Mark, and his Lover headed off to Seneca Creek State Park for a hike. The weather was beautiful and as you can see from the photos, it wasn't really much of a January hike.

Seneca Creek

Blue Skies

Chopped Wood

Glowing Red

Wrong Side of the Creek
(But We Didn't Know it Yet)

Good Man

Marsh

Dam

Ripples

Yesterday Master posted told me this on Facebook.

아만다 잘 자내죠? 한국은 오늘이 설날이에요. 떡국먹는날. 아만다[가] 떡국 맛있게 만들어줘요~

Amanda are you well? Today it's Korean New Year. It's the day we eat rice cake soup. Amanda make some delicious rice cake soup.

Of course, Korea's a half a day ahead, so today it's Lunar New Year Eve. But I didn't need Master to tell me what day it was! I had already bought some (brown!) rice cake disks for soup.

We were originally going to have some for lunch, but long story short, it ended up becoming an early dinner. Diana, Min Gi, and the baby came over. Mark was picking up his lover at the airport, and couldn't come over for lunch, but when the schedule got messed up, they were able to come over for dinner.

The Spread

We had rice cake soup, mushroom bibimbap, spicy tofu, king oyster mushrooms, cucumbers, Asian pears, and dried seaweed. In this picture the table was set for four, but when we added two place settings and some wine, it was a true Korean spread, with dishes completely covering the table.

Good Man and Mark

Good Man found an interesting article with historical information about the military/dictatorship government, US puppet government, and Japanese colonizers government trying to get rid of Seollal.

The cartoon below (from 1980) shows most people walking toward "modernization" and "solar new year" and only a few people walking toward "lunar new year."

As a piece of trivia, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon (specifically the water element), although in Kazakhstan it's the Year of the...Snail.

Happy new year!

A friend made this gorgeous shawl for me, and I got it around Christmas. It's warm, soft, and a great color on me!

Huge, Gorgeous Shawl

All Wrapped Up

Pattern Details

Wind Picking Up

While we were taking the photos, the sun was setting, and I got this picture.

Setting Sun

On Tuesday night, Good Man and I went out with a coworker of mine to see Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I haven't read it and was not expecting the extremely disturbing rape scenes.

Also, I know the MPAA is a ridiculous, political organization, but how did Dragon get an R and Lust, Caution get an NC-17?

Last night we went out with Good Man's coworker and her brother. We had Korean food and spoke in a strange blend of Korean and English to try and be inclusive of her brother.

At one point, Good Man was talking about the (North Korean) Kims and he was speaking in English. I said, "Why don't you switch to Korean?"

"Then you won't understand me."

"Try." He spoke in Korean and I waited until he was done. "Did you seriously just say the second son loves going to Eric Clapton concerts?"

"Oh! You understood!"

On Saturday, Mark, his Lover, Good Man and I went hiking at Prince William Forest Park. This was the second time Good Man and I were there in as many months, and we took a different route this time. We covered 7.1 miles using directions from Hiking Upward.

Very early on there was a small family cemetery featuring a well-kept stone...and then the other one.

Robert A. Taylor

Mystery

Juniper

Following the Orange Blazes

Shadows

Fall Colors

Mark

Beaver First, Fungus Later

Pet Rocks

Fern and Maple

Good Man Refuses to Smile

Taking Good Man's Lead

Standing on a Taller Rock

Leaves Before Trees

Trees Before Leaves

Fallen

Clear Cut

Sinking Sun

Curling

Red and Gold