Wow, Really?

I can't believe I haven't posted here in 4 months! Anyway, I just want to let you all know that I'm alright. We lost power for about 6 hours, and the tops of two dead trees blocked our driveway, but those are about all the negative effects we suffered from Hurricane Irene at the house. I didn't, however, go to work today due to flooding in our area. Below you can see the trees that came down. I forgot to take a picture before I moved the first one but you can use your imagination to put it back across the driveway. (The tree in the first pic took up the left side of the second photo.)

Waking up to nature in all its glory

I've been pretty tired all week---I spent last weekend with Dad and Jan, and had a great time, but travel usually leaves me spent so this condition is not unusual.
















Anyway, after falling asleep in the recliner on Friday night, this is what I awoke to find outside:































Yup, that is really snow on April 23rd. How cool is that? (Pun intended!) It was raining by the time I took these pictures so the accumulation didn't stay around very long.

Then, this morning, I woke up to this:































I'm soooo glad to live where I do!

I Had Fun Playing Games

Last night Steve and I helped to celebrate a mutual friend's birthday. Our friend and his wife hosted a party at their house and, around 7pm, we all decided to go out for Chinese food. A little after 9pm we returned to their house to play games. The first game we played was the one that I had picked out for Steve and I to give Mike as his present. It's called "Unspeakable Words". Mike loves to play "Arkham Horror" so, since this scrabble type card game came with 30 little Cthulu tokens, I thought it was perfect for him. We had a lot of fun but, unfortunately, I lost my sanity pretty early in the game. Anyway, after two rounds of that we decided to play "Chrononauts" a game of time travel and wackiness, which I managed to win. Yay! :)

Today I did my taxes, and am pretty tired, but I'm happy they're done.

Ta Dah!

Two posts in two weeks! I'm baaaaaack! :) Anyway, I had a great weekend, though it left me really tired. Steve's mom and sister came over and I finally got a chance to cook a meal for them. I made two kinds of wontons (a more traditional one with Morningstar Farms Veggie Crumbles and scallions and one with garlic and mushrooms), sauteed green beans, and elevated whoopie pies for dessert. It was fun but, after cooking for three hours, my feet really hurt. Everyone enjoyed the food and Nancy was especially impressed with the whoopie pies. These were an idea that had been kicking around in my head for awhile---ricotta cheese, vanilla flavoring, and sugar combined to make a cannoli style filling between some molasses clove cookies I had. Yum! Nancy stated after taking a bite, "these are awesome and I don't say that often!" Yay!

Long Time, No Post

Okay, so writing on my blog has evidently not been at the top of my priority list lately. I've been sick a lot but I've also been spending time with friends, working, cleaning, and cooking. I've been much better about getting out of the house on weekends, including going to a local winter farmers' market sometimes. I'm organizing my time better, so that I'm doing chores around the house some mornings before I go to work, and even making sure to check my email once a week (for the last two weeks anyway). My life is a work in progress but I'm happy. I will try to post here each weekend because I tend to be really tired when I get home from work and don't want to turn on my laptop at that point. Oh, and it's maple sugaring season here in New England and I've been to the sugar shack in town twice already. YUM!

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.