The great Gip

I've been reading everybody's blogs this morning...and blog after blog after west-coast blog recounts exciting snow adventures. All of them involve playing, and cocoa, or latte's or some other such hot drink, and all of them involve days spent at home.

Have you noticed the distinct lack of snow conversation on my blog? On Daryl's blog? Hmm. Yes, that is because we have NO snow. No HINT of snow, aside from the smell of it in the air.

You know what we have had a lot of in the past week though? Record amounts of? Yes. Rain. Mhmm, Rain. So, apparently, we brought the west coast winter with us, and someone there stole the east coast winter.

I shouldn't complain though, since we don't have snow tires on our car, and the rain does kind of make us feel at home.

I'm hoping that we'll get a white Christmas and it will rain on the west coast, so that I can go take beautiful snowy Boston city scape pictures and post them and laugh at you all. Wahahahah.
That is for those of you who have actually emailed us saying "Ha ha ha, we have snow and you don't!!" You know who you are.

I am happy for you that you have snow though :-) I'm just jealous ;-)

Ookiness continues

Thank goodness for CVS Pharmacy. I thought nothing would be open..and I have no cold medicine, and my nose is a faucet (TMI, I know). I thought I wouldn't sleep again tonight. But I just remembered there is a 24hr CVS up the road, and called and they are open. Sweet relief and drug-induced sleep is within grasp.

Off we go.

Happy Thanksgiving?

Today is the US thanksgiving. Ironically, we have plans to have our one Canadian friend over to celebrate. The justification for this is that we missed the Canadian thanksgiving, so we have a second chance.

Thanksgiving is very different here. Apparently it is law in MA that no retailer or store with more than 3 employees can be open on thanksgiving. This law began in the late 1600's and is still in effect today! MA is the only state with this law though I think.

Apparently, the night before thanksgiving is kind of like new years eve here - it's a big night to go out an party. We didn't partake ;-)

Also, "Black Friday" (tomorrow, the day after thanksgiving) seems to be the equivalent to our Boxing Day. Boxing day is non-existant in the US. So, tomorrow, or "black friday" makes up for this though, since it is the biggest shopping day of the year here. Sales and discounts and insane shopping mayhem ensue. I have to say, it seems more beneficial financially to have this big sale day before Christmas.

I, for my part was up all night sick, and have caught some sort of ooky flu/cold thing. DH is cleaning and cooking though. He's great :-).

Vesper Martini

The Vesper Martini

3 oz Gin
1 oz Vodka
0.5 oz Lillet Blanc

Shake with ice and strain into a wine glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

This was the Martini Bond ordered in the new movie. What looked so good about it was the long twirly lemon twist (Curl of lemon rind).

What is Lillet Blanc (I didn't know). The description of it below, from this website makes it sound wonderful. I think I'd almost prefer it straight with a citris twist, than in the Vesper martini. Interesting.

Description:

Lillet (pronounced lee-lay), is a French Aperitif made from a blend of wine, liqueurs, fruits and herbs. It originated in the French village of Podensac and has been made since the late 1800s. Lillet Blanc is made from white wine and is drier than Lillet Rouge, its red-wine counterpart. Both are classically served over ice with an orange twist.Lillet is a blend of rigorously selected wines and fruit liqueurs, aged in oak vats for around 12 months, during which it is given the same care as the Grands Crus (great wines) of Bordeaux.Lillet Blanc has a golden color with candied orange, honey, pine resin, lime and fresh mint aromas.Full and rich on the palate with a lovely, long aftertaste. Always serve well chilled in a Bordeaux wine glass... zest with a slice of orange or lime. Perfect with snacks and desserts!Lillet blanc is the key ingredient in James Bond's Martini derivative, the Vesper, a drink created in deference to the beautiful double agent in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.

It smells like snow.

We went to see the new James Bond movie with a friend tonight, and when we came out of the theatre, I thought I had been transported onto a mountaintop. The air was saturated with the smell of snow. This is a completely different "smells like snow" than we experienced in the lower mainland. This is like "Is the lack of visible snow a visual hallucination" type smells like snow. It was so crisp and fresh - really very much like mountain air. It was wonderful.

I had a fairly productive, though frustrating at times day today. We made pancakes and had pancakes in bed for breakfast this morning. I then made Magnificent M's whole grain pretzels for the first time, while I did our *cringe* 2005 taxes. The rising and baking times were perfect parcels of time to work on the taxes, since I simply couldn't take them all in one fell swoop. I was able to take out my frustration during the kneading, and then by eating 3 pretzels fresh from the oven afterwards.

The pretzels turned out great. The taxes not so much. The problem with the taxes is not so much the actual taxes, but since D. and I were both technically self-employed last year for most of the year - the problem is the CPP! Even if you owe no taxes, you can owe a significant amount in CPP. Grr...

The pretzels are really really good dipped in hummus!

After pretzels and taxes, I showered, attempted styling and trimming one side of my crooked hair (blowdrying it doesn't help by the way), and we headed out for a movie with Danika. A pretty good day.

Cept we're both still wide a wake and somewhat restless and agitated and I have to be up at 5:30 for work!! Ah...that is always my Saturday night though. lol.

My hair is crooked.

OK...So I just had the most UNhappy haircut experience today. Finally, after 8 months, I decided to go for a haircut. Being new to the area, I had no idea where to go - where was good, what places I could afford etc...I called one I had seen and thought looked good, and they were booked for the day. Now - the smart thing to do would have been to make an appointment for another day. Unfortunately though, I had gotten it in my head that I was getting a haircut today, and once it was in my head, I simply couldn't let go of it.

There happens to be, across the street from us (conveniently placed next to Trader Joe's) a SuperCuts. Yes. It is the same Supercuts as in Canada. Similar to "First Choice" "salons." I decided - how bad could it be? I'll just go there, get a trim to be safe and see how it is. It will definitely be cheap, and well...maybe I'd find that gem of a stylist at the bargain salon (it has happened to me before!).

Today was not my lucky day.

First off, the person cutting my hair smelled strongly of a combination of a) Strong (not pleasant) perfume, b) Body odor and c) Cigarette smoke. Keep in mind that your hair stylist is typically in VERY close proximity to your smelling organs. I had to breathe through my mouth for most of the haircut. Thankfully, for this one reason, that was not a long time.

This brings me to my second point. A male customer, with very short hair, requiring little more than a buzz sat down with another stylist several minutes before me. I, might I remind you required a layered cut, taking off about 2 inches. So here's the surprising thing. I was done - I kid you not - about 1 minute after he was. Mhmm.

She snipped here and there, cut a couple inches off to be sure...but it all seemed sloppy and fast. But then, maybe I was just not paying attention - it had been a while since I'd had a cut. At one point, she had finished the "initial rough cuts" as I saw them, and I thought - ok, now will touch it up, even out the sides (one was about a half inch shorter than the other) and then style it dry. Then she turns the drier on my hair for 15 seconds, and says "Alright, have a great day, bye!"

I stared into the mirror at my lop-sided, damp, and middle-parted hair. I looked up at her, hoping for her to break into a smile and say "Just kidding!! We're no where near done!" She stared blankly back at me, clearly irritated that I was not getting out of the chair.

I stood up, walked to the till, paid, and tipped her mind you.

My immediate thought as I exited the "salon" was "I really shouldn't have planned to go grocery shopping after this." My second thought was, "Maybe it's not that bad...Once I blow dry it out properly and style it, it will be fine. I didn't really get a good look at it." So, I went to Trader Joe's, and my wonderful husband who met me there said, "You're hair looks great!"

After shopping, when we got home, I turned to him and said "Is it just me, or is one side of my hair shorter than the other??" He got a concerned look on his face, examined both sides and said "maybe, I'm not sure."

When I got home, I examined it in the mirror with clear lighting. And yes. My hair is definitely crooked.

WHY didn't I say something when I was there? Why did I leave, and pay, and TIP for bad hair?? I don't understand it, but hairdressers have this bizarre power. I shrink beneath their eyes, and their "so, how do you like it?"s. I simply cannot tell them I hate it. At least two times in my life before today have I paid double what I did today for a) A mullet and b) a mullet-esque 80's poof. Both of those times, it was like today. I knew, as they were cutting it, as they were finishing - pretty much all the way through - that it would be bad. Did I stop it? Did I say "I won't pay for this horrific hair cut!"? No. I said "yah, it's great!", paid them, and tipped them. Every time. So what is this bizarre power hairdressers have over me? Is it just me? Are you afraid of your hairdresser?

I want Hanna, my hairdresser in Victoria back. She would die if she saw my hair today!

The ghosts that must live here...

There is a tower atop a building that we can see from our place, and we've always wondered what it was, and keep meaning to go find it. So, today, Phil and Daryl and I went out adventuring, and after a few other outings decided to find the building that this tower belonged to. It was a foggy and rainy day, so we could only just spot it once we had drawn a bit closer.

As it turns out it is the Worcester State Hospital, also known as the Worcester insane hospital. It is abandoned, huge, brick and imposing. There are numerous buildings, including one with a clock tower, dormitories, and many other buildings. The current state mental institution is on the same premises, but the old buildings, built in about 1870 are abandoned. Here's a link to some great pictures of it that we found online.

It was eerie and awing all at the same time.

Identity crisis averted.

I found this on dictionary.com:

1 result for: tyla
View results from: Dictionary Thesaurus Encyclopedia the WebWebster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source
tyla
Hypodactylum \Hyp`o*dac"ty*lum\, n.; pl. -tyla. [NL., fr. Gr. "ypo` beneath + ? a finger, toe.] (Zo["o]l.) The under side of the toes.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

Yes, you read that correctly.....I am the under side of toes. Excellent.

Guess what I did today

Pretty much nothing. I slept until - wait for it - 12pm. 12 PM!! I haven't slept that late for-ever. It was bliss. I didn't shower till 3pm, and I had apple-raspberry crisp for breakfast. We are having a wonderful visit with P and B. They arrived Friday night and it's been SO wonderful. The best thing is that they are those friends that you can totally relax with. Hence the me lounging around in my PJ's till 3pm with guests here..but we all just hung out and read books and watched movies and had a totally relaxing day together. It was great.

Happy Halloween

Halloween has been good. The kids I work with got all dressed up in costumes (most of them) and trick-or-treated at school today. They were very very cute, even if the whole event was a bit stressful for the teachers!

We haven't had any trick-or-treaters here tonight, but we made a wonderful feast. We have a bit of a halloween tradition of having a special dinner and watching movies. It started because the first halloween I spent on the island was sad because I was used to having big bonfires and fireworks and caramel apples when living at my parents! So, Daryl and I started doing a special thing to make up for it :-).

So tonights dinner was:

Peppered wine salami.
A small round of brie baked with a wonderful blueberry jam that my sister in law made.
Roquefort blue cheese (SO good!)
A German white soft cheese (also good),
pears,
wine,
multigrain rice crackers and bread.

Just little bits of all of the above. Of course, all from Trader Joes, so all for about what we'd pay to eat at McDonalds together!

We also just found out that two of our dearest friends are probably coming to visit us for a WHOLE week for my holidays!! I have 9 days off starting this coming Friday, and P and B are coming Friday.

I can't possibly explain how happy this makes me. They are those types of friends with whom we have an ease that makes spending time with them so relaxing and enjoyable. They are in Ottowa, so it's about a days' drive for them to come visit.

Good dinner and the promise of time with dear friends. I'm so happy :-). So, it's a happy halloween. Off to watch movies and eat some "left -over" chocolate.

This is hard.

There are so many great things about being here. We do really like the area we're in, the east coast, and the New England surroundings. It's beautiful. We've just had the pleasure of experiencing a New England fall. We've seen so many things that we hadn't before. This upcoming week we're hoping to go into Boston, and New York.

We miss our friends though. We miss having friends to fill with food laughter and wine.

We miss our Church communities so much I can't even begin to explain it. We had no idea blessed we were with them. I look at pictures on All Saints, and Saint Herman's websites and blogs, of those people we love gathered together, and I almost can't look because I miss them so much it's painful.

It's just hard. That's all.

Outlet Stores Ho!

I rediscovered one of the wonders of the USA today - Outlet stores!! There is a whole group of them about half an hour from our place. We were headed to Providence, RI, but got side-tracked at these stores and never made it there!

My favorites by far were La Creuset, Williams-Sonoma , GAP, Banana republic, and Barney's. Very good. We are getting incredibly good at looking and not buying though. All we bought in about 2 hours of shopping was one pair of pants (for me, from GAP, that were only 12.00!!). Granted, there was a martini shaker and set at Williams-Sonoma we were going to go back for but forgot :-(. Next time! My mother-in-law mailed me the fabulous martini glasses she bought me for Christmas last year, so I need to pick up a shaker! They are currently in-use as decoration on our bookcase. There was much else to "go back" for throughout the day, but we managed to escape with out money intact :-).

The problem with black Lululemon yoga pants is

That they look almost exactly the same when you accidently put them on inside out. That is, until you try to put something in your pocket, and can't find it. But because the pants look identical inside out, in all other respects, you think you are losing your mind, and maybe these pants don't really have pockets, maybe you're just crazy. You paw at your hips, examining the waistline closely, pulling the pants out, stretching them, hoping to find the pockets.

Then you see the drawstring on the inside of the pants. Oh. Right.

Today...

I passed Brian Iwata in the hallway at work. Functional analysis guru. One of "the" people in my field.

I think only one person who reads my blog will understand my excitement about that.

I'm a nerd.

Squash and Ginger scones

I had a half of a butternut squash left over from a previous nights dinner...and I thought "Hmm..you can make pumpkin scones..why not squash scones??" After a few different searches on google, I came up with this recipe:

Squash and Ginger Scones
Time: 30 minutes preparation, 30 minutes baking
Serves: 10+ (yields 24 extra-large scones)
Level: 3

Ingredients
6 cups hard flour
3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp powdered ginger
1 Tbsp salt
3 Tbsp baking powder
2 sticks butter, cold, cubed
1 lb cooked pureed squash
1 qt half-and-half

Let's cook!
• Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the butter with a fork until it looks like breadcrumbs. Mix in squash and half-and-half. Roll out 1/2 inch thick. Cut into circles.
• Bake at 400°F 15-20 minutes on parchment paper or greased cookie sheet. Eat while warm.

Editor's Note: The sugar, butter, and half-and-half make this recipe a true "treat"in the sense that it's not low-fat—something you eat once in a while (not every day)!
Recipe created by Westtown School Baker, Suzie Dudas

Here is the link for the recipe. You may ask what "Hard" flour is...I did another google search to find out if I could substitute regular flour. Sounds like it is fine and won't affect the quality of the scones too much.

I made these this morning, but modified the recipe slightly based on what I had. I used 2.5 cups of regular flour, and 2 cups of whole wheat flour, skim milk instead of half and half, and replaced the butter with part margarine and part olive oil.

It's a huge recipe - I cut everything in half and it still made about 18 large scones! They were pretty good, though I think could have used a bit more ginger, and maybe some nutmeg or other spice as well. Turned out fluffy and yummy, but much lighter than scones usually are -that was probably due to my substitutions though.

Anyhoo...thought this was a good way to use up left-over squash if you have it :-)

"That's your big boy"

I totally stole this stellar blog title from D.

Those of you who are Seinfeld fans...or fanatics, as some may judge you will have immediately, upon hearing that phrase, pictured Jerry sitting in a hospital, next to his comatose neighbor, looking admiringly at a Drake's Coffee cake. You'll remember that this phrase was part of his attempt to bribe Newman, using the Drake's coffee cake, in an attempt to keep him from telling the aforementioned comatose neighbor (CN) that Jerry had kissed CN's girlfriend right in front of him (in a romantic joining over the body of the comatose neighbor).

You may also picture Elaine ravenously shoving a Drake's coffee cake into her mouth, crumbly cinnamony topping flying every which way, after fasting for blood testing for two days. This of course occurred right as the CN woke up and attempted to strangle Jerry, with completely wonderful Seinfeldian pandemonium breaking out.

So, why all this talk about Drake's coffee cake?? You see, until two days ago, I had believed "The Drake" to be a made-for-TV invention. I have news from the East, fellow west-coast, Canadian Seinfeld fans - Drake's coffee cakes are a real, American, boxed pastry! As we wandered the grocery store the other day, we came upon them. In complete disbelief we turned the box over and over, looking at it from all angles. Eventually we had to believe - this was indeed THE Drake's coffee cake talked about on Seinfeld. And I have to say, after trying them, they are really pretty good.

Magnificent M - be aware, you may be receiving some Drake's in the mail for Christmas. I think you are the only person I know who would appreciate such a gesture enough (you know..the sending of cheap fatty bagged up pastries that are akin to twinkies via post).

Click here and select the "Concord trip" album to see the pictures of the Drake's coffee cakes. Blogger wouldn't let me post them :-(.

I can't believe I forgot!

To mention that we made our first visit to The Container Store. This is a store that I had read about in Real Simple, that is not as of yet in Canada. I have drooled and browsed online, and dreamed of one day going there. I realized very quickly that there was a Container store here in MA, and only about 45 min away from us. So, the other night we took a trip out there, just to browse. It was fabulous! It is the organizational mecca. I loved it!

Turns out, convieniently enough, it is located right next to Natick mall. This is one of the large, up scale malls here, very similar to the one I went to in Atlanta. Macy's, all the great shoe stores. That's a big difference here...all the brands you see in stores in Canada (or the West Coast at least) have their own stores here. So, that was pretty exciting...I'll have to head out another time and spend more time window shopping at the mall.

Anyhoo..I just felt so remiss in not blogging about visiting The Container Store!

Bits and Pieces

Who needs sleep? Well your never gonna get it.

That's from a BNL song. Why can I never sleep on Saturday nights? It seems to be becoming a regular thing, that no matter when I go to bed on Saturday night, I usually don't get more than about 3 hours sleep if I'm lucky. I think I just get wound up and anxious about the start of my work week....and I get anxious about not sleeping because today (Sundays) is my 11 hour day at work. Anyhow... that's alright, I always make it through my day no matter how little sleep I get, and I can sleep in tomorrow, since I don't start work till 2pm.

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

We were going to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with our other Canadian friend here, but it came along much faster than I'd expected, so no turkey for us I think. It's actually a holiday in the US too, Columbus day. I work late-ish today and tomorrow though, so not really conducive to a dinner celebration. The good thing is we get a second chance at thanksgiving in November!

Friends and family...

I had two great conversations yesterday. I got to catch up with my friend Rach - it was so good to talk with her. She's one of those people who I always reconnect with in minutes despite not talking for a while. We always have such rejuvenating conversations.

I also talked with my cousin last night. We haven't talked on the phone in ages, but we managed to reconnect when D. and I visited her on our way down here, and have kept in contact since then. I'm so glad that we had the chance to visit and get reacquainted when we did.


That's all for today...

I just had my favorite breakfast ever.

Apple pie with ice cream.

Yes, I had apple pie with ice cream at 6:00 am in the morning.

Now I'm ready for the day.

Apple Picking Pictures

Here, finally, are the pictures of our apple-picking adventure. As it turns out, the actual picking of the apples is not a lengthly process. We had a 1/2 bushel (about 20lbs) within about 20 minutes. We also picked raspberries though, and that was a more time consuming process. It was fun though, and there was a little petting zoo and pumpkin patch as well. They had this neat thing where the goats could walk up onto a thin bridge, and visitors could haul a cup of food up to them via a pulley system. There are a few pictures of this below. We ended up with 3 apple pies, and three apple crisps, which used only about half of our apples! I made another apple crisp last night to take to a friend's house. It was tasty! I think we'll make yet another crisp to freeze, and maybe some platz as well, and that should just about take care of the apples. They are such yummy, juicy apples too!