Happy Holidays!

I hope you all like your presents and are enjoying some time off with friends and family. I've been meaning to post here for awhile; I have pictures of our first real snowfall of the year and jewelry I've made. I'll get that stuff up soon but, in the meantime, Happy Belated Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Ooops!

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. I've been cooking, baking, working, shopping, etc. I'm getting back to my normal routine and having fun. I played the card game "Dominion" last Saturday night with Steve and a bunch of new friends and purchased a pair of roller blades for $5 at a local ski & skate sale. I did a news story at work this week, about local holiday festivities, and my boss said it's the best one I've done yet. Yay!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful Turkey Day! I made Green Bean Casserole and Lasagna, yum! I have a lot to be thankful for and I hope you do too.

I Made Pizza and Rice Pudding

Yum! Yesterday I got to try out two recipe ideas that have been kicking around in my brain for awhile. I put local tomato sauce, that I'd purchased at the farmer's market, on top of a store bought whole wheat pizza dough. Then I layered on 2 cups of mozzarella cheese, 1 package of MorningStar Farms Veggie Crumbles (that I'd sauteed up with Olive Oil and some fresh Italian garlic that I also bought at the farmer's market), an entire container of Ricotta cheese, and 2 more cups of mozzarella. It was a bit more like lasagna than pizza, and I'm not crazy about the whole wheat crust, but my friends liked it. (I brought the food when Steve and I went to play "Magic: The Gathering" with a few of our friends last night.) They also liked my first attempt at rice pudding: Sushi rice cooked with Half & Half, sugar, and vanilla extract. It was a little crunchy but the flavor profile was there. Next time I'd like to figure out a base for it, and I'll probably add cinnamon and nutmeg, but it was still good. It was nice to be in the kitchen again and to cook for people who haven't tasted my food before.

I Own "Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter"!

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have wanted this book ever since I heard the author interviewed on NPR a few months ago. I looked into getting it but it was $25 so I figured I'd have to wait a year for it to come out in paperback. Instead, I bought it for 50 cents yesterday at a local senior center's used book sale. Yippeee! I was so excited when I pulled it out of the box that I actually shouted in the middle of the senior center's lobby. Oh, well. I can't wait to start reading the book tonight.

Pics as Promised

I can now say that I've been in the same room as Michael Symon! I really like watching Food Network and I love "Iron Chef". Thankfully, a local charity hosts an "Iron Cook" competition every year pitting three local chefs against a celebrity. This year's guest chef was none other than Chef Symon. I had a great time listening to the friendly banter of all the participants and smelling the wonderful food they made. The charity raised a lot of money so this event was a winner all around.

Next up, a big thank you to my friend Jim. Having finished with a bunch (23) of his Dr. Who novels he passed them on to me. I couldn't believe it when I found a giant bag of books behind my desk the other day at work and, when I told him it might be awhile before I returned them, he told me not to worry about it. I will be baking or cooking up a treat for him soon for sure!

Finally, Halloween costumes. Steve dressed up for the party on Saturday night as a NY Giants "Superfan". That, btw, is a NYG Superbowl Champions Banner that is tied around Steve's neck as a cape.

I, of course, went as David Tenant's Doctor Who. At Mike's party on Sunday (where we read Shakespeare's Scottish play) everyone got who I was immediately because we're all SciFi/Fantasy nerds.

Halloween & Elections

Sorry about not posting in awhile. I was sick for most of October. I did, however, get well in time to have a great Halloween and I'll be posting pics and details of my adventures here soon. In the meantime, I'd like to put in a plug for Democracy. Please vote today. It is very important to exercise our right to choose our leaders. Besides, if you don't participate, you don't get to complain later. :)

More Boardgames

Today I met up with Steve and Shanon to play boardgames and eat yummy food at a local comic/gaming store. We played a game called "Ascension" than none of us had played before. It is a fantasy card game where you accrue honor by acquiring heroes and defeating monsters through combinations of cards. It was fun even though I lost by a lot. Then Steve and I played "Wasabi", the sushi building game which I think I've mentioned before in this blog. We ordered in from a local Chinese/Japanese restaurant and I enjoyed an order of steamed shrimp dumplings.

Last night, I made another one of my giant Greek calzones using fresh jumbo shrimp from a local seafood store and raw goat & cow milk feta from the farmers' market. The owner of the seafood store was really nice and explained how to de-intestine (de-veining is a misnomer it turns out) the shrimp since I told him I'd never worked with them raw before. It felt very satisfying to cook them from scratch and they smelled so good that I couldn't resist trying one as soon as I'd pulled them out of the boiling water. Yum!

Elections, elections, elections!

If you live in a state that will be having primary elections tomorrow, please exercise your right to vote. I am about to research the last of the candidates I'll be voting on and am excited to cast my ballot. I have been doing a lot of work around the election as part of my job and will in fact be sitting at the polls tomorrow night in order to get local results. I can't wait. :)

Turkeys, Trivia, and Netbooks, Oh My!

Yesterday began with a flock of wild turkeys in our yard. Susan joined me at the kitchen window to watch them proceed up our driveway, across the road, and into the woods on the other side. I tried to get a picture but the batteries in my camera were dead.

Later on, I convinced Steve to join the 21st Century by purchasing a netbook. CVS had one on sale for $100 so it made it easy for him to dip his toe in the water. We charged it up last night and, next weekend, I'm going to introduce him to web browsers, Youtube, and email. Woo hoo!

Finally, Steve and I sat down last night to play Book Lovers' Trivial Pursuit. It was much harder than either of us thought, especially given that we both read a lot. I think the game was actually intended to be played by teams, the instructions suggest it can be ideal for 16 people to play at once. My category of expertise is Children's Literature if anyone is interested. ;) At 12:30am, after more than 2 1/2 hours of play, we called it quits without a winner.

Busy, busy, busy.

I've been doing a lot of work covering our state and local elections for my job and have been getting to be creative as well. Unfortunately, some of my creativity was channeled into creating a short memorial video for one of our volunteers who passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was an amazing man who, at 84, was an inspiration and a lot of fun to play games with.

I'm sitting here watching coverage of the U. S. Open and catching up on all the Facebook emails that I missed over the last year and a half or two. I got up early this morning and made French Toast for breakfast. Yummy! Then I did some chores before I headed out to spend a few hours in town. The Farmers' Market was a great place to pick up fresh produce. I ate my Asian Pear as a snack when I got home and it was tasty. Steve's here too so we might play some Magic in a bit.

Proof That We Play More Than Magic

In case any of you were thinking that the only game I play with friends, and Steve's family, is "Magic: The Gathering" this photo should ease your fears. We went to Steve's mom's house a couple of weekend's ago to celebrate his birthday and we played "Sorry" (pictured) as well as "Guillotine" and "Monopoly Deal".

I'm bushed!

I was pretty good at watching less TV over the last two weeks, instead getting chores done. I ate well, did laundry, vacuumed the house, went grocery shopping, and even had time for some fun. Oh, and I finally watched "Lost" Season 5. I can't wait to see how the show ends! Anyway, writing about fun reminds me that I saw "Despicable Me" yesterday. It took a bit to find the last theater around here that was showing it but I did and it was a very satisfying movie. I laughed a lot and really appreciated the "in jokes" for Science Fiction Fans, James Bond Fans, and adults in general. Other than that, I'm hanging out, talking with my family, and playing games.

I lucked out on Friday and purchased "Monty Python Fluxx", used, for $7.50 at a local game store. I hadn't found it anywhere else for less than $14 so I grabbed it as soon as I saw it. I also picked up a game I hadn't tried yet, but had heard about, called "Chrononauts". It's a bit like the "Fluxx" games, in that the cards change what's going on in the game a lot, but it involves time travel and alternate realities. It is actually three games in one and only cost $5! Steve and I played it last night and it was okay but I think it will be better with more people. I'm psyched to try it again.

I had a great birthday party!

Thank you to everyone who came and I send good thoughts to those of you who missed it. I really had a good time, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and we ate lots of yummy food. This party was exactly what I wanted. I was able to spend time with friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in awhile, there was a lot of laughter, and we even played some games. I have uploaded the photo album from the party, and the one from Diana's wedding, so check them out below. I may have goofed up some familial relationship titles, and wasn't sure of a few people's names, so please let me know if you see something. I don't want to insult anyone. I'm pretty tired so I'm going to keep this post short. I just want you to know that I'm very happy. :)

A Quick Update

I haven't posted here in a bit because I've been quite busy. I'm up to my eyeballs in politicians at work because we are ramping up for election season, one of my cousins got married last weekend, and I'm getting ready for my birthday. Woo hoo! I'm doing well, though my radio show isn't getting recorded every week, and am having some fun. I'll post pics from Diana's wedding soon and perhaps from my party. Oh, and I'm listening to Sarah Vowell's "The Partly Cloudy Patriot" on CD. I bought it for $5 at a local used media store. It's awesome. I will post a more detailed review soon. Anyway, I have to head off to work now. I hope you are all well.

Not much going on...

I just want to say hi. I'm reading Eve Brown-Waite's "First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria". I've finally paid off my car loan for real. (I thought I paid it off at the end of May but it turns out I miscalculated. Oops! Thankfully the friend who loaned me the money was very understanding about it.) Oh, and the big news is that on Sunday, around 5AM, Susan's daughter gave birth to a healthy, 9 pound, beautiful baby boy. Yay!

Heatwave!

So, somehow I missed the fact, until a few days ago, that a heatwave consists of 3 or more days in a row in which the temperature rises above 90 degrees. I'm weathering the weather quite well and am thankful for air conditioning, breezes, and low humidity. I hope you all had a good holiday weekend. I had some fun playing games again with Mike and Michelle on Saturday. We played "Dungeoneer", "Shadows Over Camelot", and "San Juan".

Two Cool Videos I Just Had to Share

You know that I don't do this often but these two videos not only hit my nostalgia button, they're really good. The first one was sent to me by a local radio station and, late last week, I showed it to the guys I work with. (*Warning, the song will get stuck in your head!*) In response, my boss just showed me the second video. I liked it so much I had to post the link to it here and share it with all of you. Enjoy!



Click here to watch the amazing video my boss recommended! (Sorry, it's not embeddable.---Is that even a word?)

I had Fun in the Kitchen Today!

I really cooked again tonight. I haven't been doing much of that over the last six months to a year but we had a lot of food left over from Jessie(Susan's daughter)'s baby shower last Saturday. We wanted to use up as much as we could so, last Sunday, I made a calzone out of the leftover shrimp and feta cheese. I bought pizza dough, mozzarella cheese, and Kalamata Olives at the grocery store and put them all together at home. I'd never rolled out pizza dough before and I used all 4 cups of cheese. The calzone measured almost 1 1/2 feet and probably weighed more than a pound. It was very yummy!

This afternoon I used up more of the Feta along with some of the red wine. I bought mussels at a local seafood store and fresh basil at the local farmers' market. I took some jar sauce and added chopped baby portabella mushrooms, Feta cheese, fresh Basil, and Kalamata Olives. For myself, I steamed the mussels in the red wine and cooked up some sliced baby bellas and basil in olive oil for Steve and Susan. We each ate our fill over angel hair pasta. It was fabulous!

I had forgotten how much I like cooking and especially when working with fresh ingredients. Anyway, I'm really tired (so I'm not really proofreading this post) so I'll sign off now. :)

It's time for another Vlog post!

Recent Event Photos & Video

So, I'm pretty behind on blogging but I really wanted to share this stuff with you. I've been getting together with friends on the weekends to play games. Here Mike, his wife Michelle, Steve, and I are playing "Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game". It was a lot of fun even though we lost because Admiral Adama turned out to be a Cylon. Darnit!






Next, my sister graduated from college! I'm soooooooooo proud of her and she's going to be a great teacher. My mom, sister, her mother-in-law, and I had our nails done (yes, I can do girly things once in a while!) the day before Becky's commencement ceremony. This picture is of me at the salon after my nails have been painted a pale lavender:






















It was also nice to spend time with my nephews. In this picture my older nephew, Jacob, and I are playing "Risk". He and I played for about 4 hours. Did I mention he's only seven? His dad, Ken, and Ken's mother are also at the table.






Finally, here's some video I accidentally took of the family after the graduation ceremony. I'll try to post the whole photo album soon.

There's a bird in our house!

Susan opened the door to the deck, to dump some recycling, and a bird flew in. It made itself comfortable in the TV room and now is flying between the living room and kitchen. Our house is mostly open plan so we can't trap it anywhere with only one way outside. We have the deck door open and are hoping it will find its way back.

Btw, I am going to take a cue from my job and try to post weekly updates here so that weeks don't turn into months without me posting.

I recently returned from seeing my sister graduate from her teaching program, Magna Cum Laude I might add. I'm really proud of her and I will try to post those pics soon too.

That's about it for now.

Ooooops!

I did it again. I let more than a month go by without blogging here. Sorry about that. I've been blogging for work, and other things have come up, so this hasn't been a priority. I was sick for a week in there too but that isn't really an excuse. Anyway, I attended Soup & Games Night again tonight and had fun. I was also just invited to a friend's 40th Birthday Party. It's going to be a lot of fun. On Friday I saw the Matrix again on the big screen. How much do I love the local midnight movie!?! I hope you all liked the April Fool's Youtube video I made for work. If you didn't get the email with the link, let me know. The people I heard back from thought it was cute. Anyway, I should head to bed but I will try to post here more often. I know, I've said that before but this time I really mean it! :)

Make a Conscious Choice to Buy Local!

It's important! I am working on a post for a regional blog and have been thinking a lot about this subject lately. I also just finished a story about it at work. If you haven't checked out www.the350project.net yet, please do. It's the simplest, most down to earth, version I've seen of this message.

No Longer Snowed In

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Work has been busy, so has my social life, and then this week we got more than a foot and a half of snow. The snowstorm left us without power for 36 hours and without phones & internet access until this morning. Susan and I were making necessary calls on our cells (hoping we'd get power back before our batteries died), melting snow on our gas stove so that we would have water with which to flush the toilets, and bringing in lots of wood for the fireplace in order to keep warm. Thankfully, I had a stockpile of bottled water and regular batteries and Susan has a NOAA radio. I had a lot of work to catch up on once I made it into the office but, if you check out my organization's website, you'll see the results of some of my work on the homepage.

Finally, I thought I'd share some pictures I took of our beautiful winter wonderland (though I know that some of you have seen more than enough snow recently). Enjoy!

The view from Susan's deck doesn't really do the depth of the snow justice, because that's where we took a lot of snow from since it was easy to reach with our slippers on, but it is the best example I have.

Finally our driveway, notice all the dark stuff? The temperatures have been so warm, even during the snowstorm, that the ground is a muddy mess. We actually asked our plow driver to stop plowing, though there were still some moguls in the way, because if he didn't we'd get stuck!

Oh, and I couldn't resist sharing this picture of Casey. She had so much fun bounding through the snow that she exhausted herself. I call this one, "Pooped Pup"!

Organizing, 'Nuff Said

Well, maybe not. I was quite productive this weekend, after experiencing a rough work week. Work wasn't bad, just tiring and a little stressful. I did, however, complete my third topical story for our website and it was up all of this long weekend. I ran around completing errands yesterday and now have a six shelf, cloth, organizer hanging in my closet (I needed someplace to put my sweaters), a new 4GB USB flash drive ($12), and "Fringe" season 1 ($9.99 at Best Buy).

I am a little ticked at Best Buy, though, and am not really sure I want to be giving them a shout out in this blog. They changed their rewards program so that points now expire at the end of every year. This would be fine, I think, if points posted right away, but they don't. They take 35 days to post. I don't think corporate has realized what this means to consumers and I'm considering writing them a letter. I mean, there will be a month, or a month and a half, each year when, assuming I can get the same item for the same price at another store, I will not have any incentive to give my money to Best Buy. It also means that I just lost 131 points and have to start over. GRUMP! :)

Soup & Games Night was Awesome!

I had a blast again tonight. I played "Hearts" with a large, and rotating, group of people (sometimes we played solo and other times with a partner). I think there were seven or eight people sitting around the table for the last hand and there were three teams of two that time. I also got to play "Cosmic Wimpout" with two of the game's creators. How cool is that?! I was very rusty and didn't get very far but it sure was interesting. At the very end of the night, we demonstrated the game "Apples to Apples" for the folks at our table who weren't familiar with it. We laughed a lot the last time we played it and have put it on the agenda for next time. If you aren't familiar with these games, I suggest you Google them as they are lots of fun.

A Couple of Quick Updates

My piece on homelessness is up on my work's homepage. It won't be there for long because we are trying to keep the homepage current and we have a new story coming in today, I think. If you want to see my piece and don't have my work website, or you don't see my piece when you get there, email me and I'll send you the link.

My first radio show, featuring "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll, Chapters 1 & 2, will air on Saturday. Unfortunately, I don't think any of you are in the listening area but I will try to put it online somewhere and let you know.

Another First for Me!

Yesterday, I conducted my first phone interview. As you know, my background is not in journalism. My new job description, however, includes providing up to date content on our website. When we don't have new videos, I sometimes need to create them. In an effort to provide more topical coverage I am getting my reporting feet wet and covering the issue of homelessness in our town. The manager of a nearby shelter agreed to a short interview but I didn't have time to drive out of town to conduct it. Instead I went into our radio studio and did the interview there. I got a chance to practice with new, to me, technology and hone my communication skills. It was scary but, in the end, satisfying.

In other news, I wrote an essay based on my previous blog post and plan on submitting it to a friend's blog. I'll let you know if it's accepted.

A Sad, Sad Day for Massachusetts.

Wow. I'm still stunned. Not to mention upset. I've been following some of the news coverage of what happened in yesterday's election, to fill the late Senator Edward Kennedy's seat in Congress, and I think that many of the people who voted for Scott Brown are going to realize they made a mistake. I predict that, within the next six months, "Don't blame me, I voted for Coakley" bumper stickers are going to start appearing on cars around the Bay State. If this one vote really means that the entire nation heads back down into the awful mess we were in under the prior administration, Massachusetts voters for Brown will feel even worse. It will be interesting to see where we go from here once the election hoopla has subsided. Stay tuned.

Help with the relief efforts in Haiti

I heard a great interview this morning on my favorite public radio station that prompted me to post this. There is an NGO already on the ground in Haiti, that has not been incapacitated by the earthquake, and it can use lots of help as it aids people. The organization is Partners in Health and its website is www.pih.org. It is not strictly a disaster relief organization but it is, and has done so in the past, functioning as one for the moment because it has the infrastructure in place to do so. If you've been looking for a way to help, this one comes highly recommended.

Ok Go's new music video

For all my fellow music nerds out there!

Click on this link to watch the Youtube video (I think Capitol Records refused to allow embedding so you can't watch it without leaving my blog. Sorry.):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJKythlXAIY

Photos I've been meaning to post.

(In no particular order)

Christmas 2009 at Steve's mom's house:

Me on my snowboard last weekend (I hope to post a slideshow of this soon!):

Hannukah 2009 at my house:

Hannukah 2009 with a good chunk of my family:

Me on a date! Psych! Me on the set of my friend's parody of "The Bridges of Madison County", not coming soon to a theatre near you (my acting skills are pretty rusty):

Wire wrapped pendant (my first!) that I made today with a stone an acquaintance gave me as a New Year's present:

My second (and awesome, in my opinion) wire wrapping project. These were stones that Susan's aunt picked up on a beach and tumbled, that Susan asked me to turn into earrings. Thanks to some terrific tutelage at my local bead store, this is the result:

Happy New Year!

Sorry this is late. I had fun at a party and then an awesome time snowboarding over the weekend. Susan took pictures of the latter and I will be posting them shortly. I hope you all are experiencing a wonderful start to this decade.