Last Thursday and Friday, I attended the annual meeting of my regional microscopy society in Boone, NC. I'd heard a great deal about Boone from friends, but whether due to the lack of chance to really explore the city, or the fact the local university was on fall break, I left unimpressed with the city as a whole. Too many strip malls, not enough cool indie stuff. Although, there was a lovely bookstore on King St. that I spent some time in.
Part of the issue may have been the comedy of errors that was my attempt to access the internet while there. The Broyhill Inn, the university's 'luxurious' conference center, was just sad. They had a wireless access point in the lobby, but had outgoing mail blocked at the router. I pointed out to their manager that if they were going to provide internet access, the one thing that every single user would need was access to their email. Both checking -and- sending. The mouth-breather then proceeded to lie to me about the situation. I also couldn't use my cellphone to connect, because I had absolutely zero cellphone coverage. Nada. I wound up sneaking out after the banquet to a hole-in-the-wall coffee joint to send the emails I needed to get out.
On Sunday, we went up to an orchard in Henderson Co. and picked apples. We filled a half-bushel basket with mainly Arkansas Blacks, as they were the most plentiful, but with some Pink Ladies and a few Granny Smiths. We're intending to make some apple butter from them.
I've not posted pictures in a while. Look for some new ones soon.
Posted by brent at 18:47