What's On My Desk: Great Oudoors

Summertime is here and for most folks that means mosquitos, aloe vera, and sand stuck in unmentionable places. For us it means loading up the truck and fleeing civilization for some solitude in the great outdoors in the form of biking, camping, and hiking. As a salute to the dog days What's On My Desk! will be throwing some mud, spraying some deet, and hoping for the best with some outdoor related features.

Now I like trail mix, fear of bear attacks, and filthy clothes as much as the next dude, but what really sets off camping for me are the gadgets. Size matters and in camping you want small. Waaay small. You also want to eat. Combining the two is today's piece de la resistance- the MSR Pocket Rocket camp stove.



Weighing in at 7 oz (including fuel cell!), and priced less than $40, it will boil a liter of water in about three minutes and has a wind clip to prevent blow outs. All that is great but the real reason I love this stove is the fact that it handily folds up ala the Transformers to be stored in it's own tiny, form fitting red carton.







Oddly enough it is packaged with nine, yes nine, individual instruction booklets for every conceivable language. Informative- yes, over the top- maybe.





So get out there and get cooking! Oh, and are you going to finish eating that freeze dried icecream?

American History Museum

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we took a drive down to Washington DC. The main mission was to finally see the American History Museum—which after having been closed due to renovations for 2 years, finally reopened. I'm being a bit ambitious, but I hope to have a full review posted here soon (we weren't too pleased), as well as photos from our visits to the National Air and Space Museum (Steven F. Udvar Hazy center hangar and from the National Mall space), Arlington Cemetery, and the U.S. Botanic Garden. HOPE. Please be patient—I alone have about 700 photos to go through!

For now, here's some photos John took.

Top to bottom: from the American History Museum, from the Air and Space center, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery, and from the U.S. Botanic garden.