Feed A Cold

I am a firm believer in the above so that is what I did today. When sick, you need soup. So I made some chicken soup with the sinus clearing properties of a very hot jalapeno and some chipotles. It's lip tingling good and just what I needed for a long day of work. And it has been a nice change from the endless cups of tea and honey my sore throat has demanded.

I was not thrilled to be working during a holiday weekend but it needed to be done. The three girls needed today (of which I am one) were all up and in contact early this morning waiting on the other person to do his part. Of course, some confusion (his not ours) occurred and we started the process 3 hours later than planned. It was a bit annoying and add to that a VPN problem and it looked like I would be working all afternoon and night. Thankfully with my iPod firmly attached, everything got done and I got to gorge myself on some new music I got this week. The first was a gift from a friend and the second was a gift to myself from Amazon. I have enjoyed exploring both.

Work is done for today but I have to get up very early tomorrow to complete some database processes. I am hoping that I can take a bit of a breather Tuesday and finally decide on my New Year's Eve plans.

So This is Christmas

I am still having a bit of a hard time believing that today is Christmas. This year has certainly flown by. This week at work was so busy I didn't have time to wrap the presents until late last night. As a very organized person, this drove me a bit nuts to be so delayed. But it was unavoidable due to the project that will be occupying my Sunday. With a full belly and warm heart from spending a great Christmas Eve and Christmas with people I love, I am not thinking about work tonight.

For my family like many others, Christmas is all about the food (well actually, any holiday is all about the food for us.) This year, my brother did a killer job on the best pork roast with fig sauce. The pork was so juicy and tender. It makes me want to drool thinking about it. And the potatoes. Mmmm. Cheesy and so very good. Add to that baked manicotti, roasted vegetable soup and antipasto. I have basically been eating non-stop since 2pm yesterday when I participated in about three of the seven fishes of the Christmas Eve feast of my downstairs neighbors. The food was great, along with the champagne. I was the lucky recipient of plenty of leftovers from our dinner now taking up space in my fridge. Of course, just when I think I am not hungry I am eating something else.

Of course the other part of this holiday is the gift giving. Everyone seemed very happy with their presents and I am with mine. It was fun watching my very hung over brother trying to wrestle with the complexities of tape and wrapping paper. I am so in love with my new Sorel boots I will admit to having worn them around the house for about 30 minutes. It's important to make sure they fit :-)

So with that, the butter cookies are calling my name. Merry Christmas!

Holiday Spirit

So if the events of the last few days have not gotten me in the holiday spirit, nothing will at this point. I was lucky enough to finally see the Aimee Mann Holiday Variety show with my friend. Yes, I know Aimee Mann is not necessarily the first person you think of for an cheery, upbeat Christmas song but it was a fun show. And she played some of her non-Christmas songs so it was all good. What was not good was the torrential downpours that were occurring. It was crazy to drive home through these giant puddles.

I did realize that my town got some ice but did not realize how bad it was just a few miles north of me. People are still without power today from all the ice and damage. When I left for NY on Saturday morning, I saw a line of utility and power trucks heading into MA from CT and there had to be about 20 of them all coming to help restore power.


I arrived into Grand Central, and much like last year was besieged by Santas. If getting dressed up as Santa, slutty Santa, or a pimp Snowman, singing bawdy Christmas Carols, and drinking at 10 am are your idea of fun then SantaCon is for you! Think of a Santa Pub crawl and you've got the idea. All fun, except when you get stuck on the 6 train with about 20 of them pretty well sauced up and singing at the top of their lungs.

It was freezing in the city but this time I did remember to bring my hat with me. It was so great to be back and I had a lot I wanted to do. I was unable to catch up with most of my friends but was actually happy to have a weekend in the city with no set plans.

The tree was lovely and had the usual crowd around it. Fortunately the things I had to do were in much less congested parts of the city. I am still puzzled though by how people can stop dead in the center of a crosswalk like a deer in headlights. I know there are a lot of people, cars and shiny objects but gawk from the sidewalk, not in the road!! I did give out a bunch of directions, which I don't mind. I like helping people along.

The food was good and I did manage to get my cupcake on Sunday. Full of sugar, I decided to head back home a bit earlier than normal. The next few weeks are going to be extremely busy at work and I preferred to drive back in the daylight.

Cinnamon and Evergreen

With the first snowfall this weekend (only a little but there were flakes so it counted) it was the perfect day to get my tree decorated. I always forget that I manage to get covered in sap whenever I deal with a Christmas tree. A little peanut butter on my hands and a wash got me unstuck. It's a cute tree and it makes my house smell like Christmas. The cinnamon came via a great Yankee candle. All in all my home has been chock full of holiday scent today.

It was also a good day to bid adieu to a delusion man. We were on entirely different levels (I am in reality, he was in the 80's, 50's, or an elevator in '91) and with the incident of calling me the wrong name I was happy to set him straight and on his way :-)

This week is going to be a very busy one with work and my impending NYC trip next weekend so it was nice to have a day to relax and get some decorating done.

Banged up and Bruised

Well it's been quite the week and weekend. I managed to sneak out of work a bit early Friday and spend some time with the ladies of my family prior to my Uncle's birthday party. It was fun, spontaneous and silly. All things I needed after a busy and stressful work week. And spending time with the ladies provided a nice dose of feminine energy after a bit of a testosterone soaked week.

The rest of my weekend was pretty good. Other members of my family have not quite fared as well. My grandmother had to go to the emergency room due to a sore hip. My Dad tripped over the pool robot (it was wintering in the garage). My uncle got hurt by a ladder at a fire (he's a firefighter and he's ok). My brother threw his back out and can only stand. My mother, well, she takes the cake.

While getting out of the car at the grocery store and looking very cute, by her telling, she got her heel caught in her purse and took a dive into the parking lot (fashion can sometimes be painful). She ended up with a chunk missing out of her chin, covered in blood and with two very bruised knees. She did not break her glasses, which was good. She's going to be really sore tomorrow.

Add to that my aunt completely wiping out my Mom's air freshener (the kind with the sticks and oil) and creating a lavender scented oil slick in the front hallway and it was quite the weekend.

Weekend Update

So this weekend started with a nice dinner on Friday night. You can never go wrong with a steak wrapped in bacon and crusted with blue cheese. Mmmmm, blue cheese. The rest of the evening was interesting but left me feeling a bit out of sorts and like a cat that's been petted the wrong way. Saturday early morning yoga and a venting phone call with my girl in Portland helped me put things in perspective, which I sorely needed. The evening was catching up with the girls helped along with wine and pizza from Upper Crust at a charity wine tasting. It was held in Crate and Barrel, which was really fun. The wines were great, expect for the one Argentinian red that made us all sad and unhappy.

Also making me unhappy was the man who did not understand the difference between being polite and being interested. I was being polite as he was a friend of a friend. I figured he'd take the hint when I just turned and headed to the bar to get some more wine. Nope, he waited about 2 minutes and followed me. Then proving to be a master of the painfully obvious uttered "I followed you". No kidding.

Today was spent sitting at the kitchen table vistin with my Grandmother and being fed by my Mom. A good day all around!

I Voted!

Today was finally the day to vote. At least for me, as I know friends in other states got their ballots by mail already. I personally love going to the elementary school gymnasium where I cast my ballot. The sweet old ladies who check my address and the dapper elderly gent who hands me my ballot are the same people I see every time I go.

Voting in my town means connecting two brackets with a Sharpie marker drawn line. It’s not so much civic duty as art and crafts time! If I manage to walk out of the booth with no black marker all over my hands it’s a victory. This is no easy task for a lefty who smudges ball point pen when writing.

This time it really seemed important to get out and vote. Even though I am not in a swing state, I feel that after these last 8 years of having my personal rights stamped on by an administration that forgot all about the people of this country while engaged in their own selfish self-interests, I needed my vote counted.

So tonight, I am trying to avoid the pundits and their ceaseless conjecture about who is winning before the results are in. I am gorging myself on the visually beautiful Mad Men as I work through the pile from Netflix on my coffee table. And when I am done, I hope we have a new president!

Ninety Nine

It has been quite a year for grief in my life see here and here.

Sadly I am now also mourning the matriarch of my Mom's side of the family. My great Aunt was a truly amazing lady and didn't seem to be 99 years old. She was spared the other ailments of growing old and managed to a fiercely independent life. She was a teacher and when she retired she became a volunteer for the Elder Service Corps. She did this until she was 90. It cracks me up to think she was volunteering for the elderly - when she was in her 80s!

My mother's parents passed away when I was very young, so I did not really know them. My great Aunt was my link to that side of the family. While I occasionally scratch my head at how I fit in with my Dad's side of the family, spending time with my Aunt made crystal clear where my love of books, cream of wheat, intellectual conversation and shoes came from. We also shared a good bit of moxie and a disdain for the willfully ignorant. She once said of a cousin's boyfriend that he was "really nice to look at but didn't have a lot going on upstairs." She was right.

I will miss the wonderful notes that would find their way to my mailbox wishing me well and getting me thinking of our next Sunday tea. My Mom and I would go and spend a few hours having great conversation, laughs, tea and lunch. My Mom, who doesn't really have a sweet tooth, did like my Aunt's oatmeal cookies even if she didn't get the hang of dunking them in her tea! I was not really fond of the orange jello mold (my issues with jello go way back) but ate it so as not to offend.

So my dear Auntie, thank you for everything. We certainly have a void in our lives but are all the better for having you in ours.

Portland

While my travels to the Midwest were fun, the highlight of my August on airplanes was heading to Portland, OR to see my very dear friend. It's where she landed after leaving Cambridge this spring and I've missed her dearly. So I was nearly beside myself to get out there. Of course, the entire northeast corridor airspace was really busy the Friday night I left so I got in two hours late. My seat mates were a lovely hippie Mom and her little blond two year old. Normally I would not be thrilled to sit next to a toddler for a cross country flight, but she was a doll and fell asleep soon into the flight. As we were getting into Portland I could hear this little voice calling my name. She was up and wanted to tell me about her book. I could not wait to get off the plane and see my friend. The suspense was just killing me and it seemed to take a billion years to get my luggage.

Portland was a blast! It was slightly odd because while her place is totally different than her Cambridge place, it felt really familiar seeing all her stuff. We had the best time laughing, chatting, giggling, losing wallets, drinking coffee, drinking beer, buying earrings and hiking. I had one of the best meals in Portland. The rabbit was out of this world. It also was the evening of the most lame attempt at a pick up. The man at the table diagonal to us smoothly came over as we got our cauliflower appetizer to tell it was really good. Not two seconds later he blows it by saying "what is that" and pointing at the appetizer he just told us was really good. Smooth.

All About the Cheese

Yes, I could not resist on my two trips to lovely Madison, WI bringing home cheese.
While I did enjoy some good cheese I am still puzzled by the cheese curds. I heard people in Madison speak almost reverently about their love of the curds. They were ok but not anything I'd want to eat again. So while in the airport waiting for my flight back to Chicago I went to get some water. I looked and there was this cow of cheese that I had to get and bring home to my brother. He enjoyed the gift! Surprisingly it is orange cheddar not white as the wax cow coating would have you believe.

Full Moon, Gold Medals and a Man Behaving Badly

Well it has been quite the weekend. The moon last night was so bright I didn't need a flashlight outside when I went to check on my Dad's pool. If it weren't for the copious amount of mosquitoes, I would have been very happy to sit outside after a very long afternoon. I was left in a really angry mood after the man in the above title proved to be far more ignorant and selfish than I had imagined. If there is one thing all the dating I have done has given me it is the gift to cut people loose. I am a very happy person and do not need a man to make me happy. But I don't need one to make me unhappy either and that was what was happening. When it gets to the point where you can't remember what you even liked about a person, it's time to go. So I went.

I was in a much better mood watching the Olympics. And helped because I do feel like a weight has been lifted (a large, annoying weight) and look forward to this week of traveling for work and pleasure. And I am also very happy with my new coffee table my Mom scored for me at an estate sale. Thanks Mom :-)

Strenuous

So after a busy week of work, travel and way too much time in front of the computer or my blackberry, it was time for some fresh air. Luckily I had a friend who suggested going for a hike on Saturday. I was more than game. Post hike I found a trail description with the first word to describe the hike as strenuous. It sure was!

We headed for the White Mountains and a few ominous black clouds did not deter us. We headed up the docile sounding Blueberry (Ledge) Trail. I caught the blueberry part but clearly missed the ledge part while looking at the map. The blueberries were delicious and the ledges were a challenge. It was certainly kicking my butt towards the top but my friend was wonderful in her attempts to spur me on. Besides, once we got to the top, it was lunchtime! The sun ended up coming out and we had a great lunch, though the sandwich place really screwed up our sandwiches.

The hike down was different, due to a slightly different trail. It was pretty as we walked along a raging brook from all the rain. The rain also gave the woods a very Alice in Wonderland feel with all the giant mushrooms. Not needing to be bigger or smaller, we left them alone.

Laughing Through the Tears

I am no stranger to grief or loss. The joke is that my Irish heritage makes this unavoidable in a way. True, I am intimately familiar with the workings of wakes and funerals but I think of it as more of a symptom of having a very large family than anything else.

It was recently that my family suffered the untimely loss of my uncle. This was my stepfather's younger brother. He went to sleep and never woke up. My stepfather has been in my life from my earliest memories. He was a friend of my parents during the years they were married. At first I wasn't quite sure about this hunting and fishing family. But I have come to love and treasure it. These hunters and fishermen taught me the value of the outdoors. To sit in a treestand with a bow waiting for a deer requires patience of the sort I can barely attain with yoga. I learned the utmost respect for nature and the creatures that inhabit it. If a deer or a fish was going to give up it's life, the very least we could do is to respect it and give thanks.

There was a private funeral service which brought forth the laughter through tears of the title. As we sat and shared memories, it was utterly heartbreaking and so very sad to see my grandparents mourn the loss of their son.

Best Plate Ever

I am not ashamed of my love for cupcakes. As far as I am concerned,they are a prefect food. All in one snack goodness. I have been baking a few types of cupcakes for parties and it's been fun. So for my recent birthday, my dear friend gave me a big bag of presents! It was unexpected but the most unexpected of all was the cupcake plate. My friend said the minute she saw it, she had to get it for me! I can't wait to put cupcakes on it.

Nothing To Watch

Sometimes, there is just nothing worth watching on tv. Poor Hobbes has been suffering since my ever present work laptop has taken his place on my lap. So he finally gave up trying and feel asleep next to me on the couch. It's a welcome change as he usually lays on top of the remote and envelops it amoeba like with his orange girth. That's when the channels start changing as if by magic. Last week he turned on the dvr and started recording a show!

A Fitting Farewell

When my dog Nik died, my ex and I agreed to get his ashes returned so we could scatter them. He was a dog that loved being outside and would not have wanted to be in an urn stuck on a mantle. So with the weather finally cooperating, we set off to hike a mountain. We choose Mount Watatic as Nik's final resting place. Like many other mountains in New England it was a small ski area in the past. Unlike the one down the street from where I grew up, it was not turned into housing but left as an open space.

It was not a difficult hike and such a gorgeous, sunny day out. He would have loved it. We spent so much time out doors and hiking with him that it was weird to be together without the dog. We left him on the summit overlooking his favorite lake. We said our goodbyes, thanked him for everything and shed more than a few tears. We laughed about the day we got him (he was the puppy that ran over to me and untied my shoe.) I was in love with him from that moment on.

First Day of Summer

Today was the first day of summer. Appropriately enough Solstice is the longest day of the year. And let me tell you, was it ever. It's been a long week with work going into the wee hours of the morning. I could barely get out of be this morning after only a few hours of sleep. The highs and low of database testing have run me ragged. I was so happy to get home. And take a nap :-)

Man Purse and Tater Tots at the MFA

Ok, so there were no Tater Tots at the First Friday "Meat Market under the guise of art" event at the MFA last night. But there was indeed a seventy-ish year old man with a man purse. I thought at first he may be holding it for his wife but no, it was his. How do I know? Of course he decided to come over and talk to me. In addition to his man purse he was clearly lacking in any concept of personal space. He kept getting closer and closer to me as he talked and I kept backing up. Unfortunately I could only go so far as there was a sign behind me. Fortunately one of my friends saw what was happening and saved me.

There was the usual display of fashion challenged people which provided no end of amusement. It is a fun event to people watch at but the whole pick-up scene is just a bit much sometimes. There's nothing like the naked desperation when the end of the event comes. With odd, openly lecherous men hanging out by the door waiting to snare any women who wander by on their way to the coat room and hoping for one last gasp of hooking up. It's not very pleasant and was really irking one of my friends.

After the MFA we headed to Cambridge for a beer and a burger. Mine was a cheeseburger with jalapeños and avocado. It was really good but the tater tots made it better! It may have seemed like I was channeling elementary school but they were hot, salty and full of processed potato goodness. It went perfectly with the beer!

Girl on the Go

Well my normal busy life got ever busier. I spent a lovely week in the Carolinas (South and then North) for work. The bonus, beside going to Charleston and Charlotte, was spending the weekend with my Grandparents. We had the best time. I loved sitting at the kitchen table with my Grandmother having coffee and watching the birds in her backyard. The fleeting glimpse of the bluebird in her yard was amazing. The mockingbirds apparently do not like the bluebird and chase it out.

The weather was so nice. It was like instant summer. I did actually get to enjoy a day outside as part of team building at the US National Whitewater Center. The ropes course (actually wires not ropes) 35 feet in the air was great fun and very challenging. It was instant bonding and I did end up with two sweaty hand prints on my shoulders. (Nothing like adrenaline to give you sweaty palms.) The rafting was fun but just a bit monotonous given that it's man made. The rapids were fun, but there were only two loops to go in. And the weirdest part was the conveyor belt (think like the grocery checkout line but instead of apples the entire raft and all its contents paddle up and get on.)

This was no vacation. My boss apparently didn't realize I was actually working while I was away and presenting. She kept sending me emails with deadlines that were so unrealistic given the fact that I was actually traveling, on a raft or on a plane.


I will admit that as much as I do love traveling,it was so very nice to come home. There is nothing like sleeping in your own bed :-)

Busy Girl

Well this has been quite the week. I was out and about and being a social butterfly in addition to lots of work. I was very happy to have time to myself this afternoon and evening. I do feel like I need another weekend just to recover from this one!

I did have the good luck to have a wonderful time on Friday night and to laugh so hard I cried on Saturday. I just love getting silly and cracking up. I'm not sure the other people in the bar got quite what we found so amusing but it didn't matter.

So as I get ready for bed I am getting organized for two dinner parties this weekend with spectacular menus, if I do say so myself! I have some travel coming up for work that I need to get pinned down as well.