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!