Klingon this.

'nuff said

new year, new voice

This morning I am amused at the thought that for this year I will post in my husband's manner:
Woke up hard this morning after long night. Loud snoring downstairs punctuated dripping from roof/ceiling along with throbbing of old wound renewed: bulging disc.
Need more weekend. Fingers are numb.

yay

yay! got a gyro for lunch from the greek place
yay! sunset is two minutes later tonight

Brunch is good

Brunch was great today. it was super pleasant and exciting to sit at the bar with regulars and family and watch other regulars, family and neighbors come stomping in from the snowy snow snow, draw up at the bar as well or join x's birthday party and start enjoying spicy bloody marys, risotto, great coffee and tasty everything else. There was at least seven kinds of meat at the party and just as many different cakes and the raucous partygoers (singing was often and gusty) were eagerly (and besottedly) offering platefuls to everyone. Lingering lasted until the cooks were free to amble from the kitchen and goggle at the snow while chatting us all up. Yay for Hope and Olive!

there were 74 views on my flickr yesterday. many people liked to look at this picture.



It is a picture of my husband in the park next to the Diamond Head park in Waikiki taking a picture of a kite. It was before we were totally swept up in a tropical storm which blew and drenched us. During the storm we were walking around a residential area and there were no businesses to duck into to stay out of the wet so we just slogged along and got totally drenched. Every once in a while a big gust of wind would whoosh us and I would be so surprised and helpless at the rainstorm all around us I would let out a yell or mini-screech. After a while DbR looked at me and joked, "nice bra". Sure enough I was a sight for a fatty wet tshirt convention! What had started as a nice walk around Waikiki in cloudy warm weather had turned into an unfortunate and slightly obscene event! I was embarrassed, to say the least. The bra I was wearing was perfectly serviceable and actually a nice support under a very thin summer shirt. Not to be worn fully drenched!
This is a pic of both of us before the storm:


see the nice light blue shirt? I looked awright. So we got drenched and then found the store we had headed out to find and in that store I bought a ten dollar dress. DbR continued wet. I felt sorry for the guy. This is a pic of us after I had changed. I had taken off my undies but was still wearing the wet bra, socks and vans.



I like my new ten dollar dress. I wonder if I can still wear it, in Massachusetts, in winter. Maybe I'll put on a sassy cardigan and wear the dress with knit thigh highs on new years eve at the hope and olive. It's a thought. I did walk around Waikiki in a wet tshirt. Why not wear an aloha dress in winter? No one tells me what I can do!

Feels like Honeymoon has just begun

View from Lanai:



We're ensconced in a super lovely hotel in Waikiki, a place I've never been. DbR has stayed in this hotel before and has fond memories which include a Japanese Restaurant and Honolulu marathon, both of which he will get a taste of on this trip as well. Sitting on the hotel room's balcony overlooking park doings and ocean to my left. It is a busy place even though it continues overcast. The sun may be breaking through, though, I am beginning to see people's shadows on the grass. I would like to go swimming, but not in the gloom.

Here is a picture of some of the food we ate at the fancy Japanese restaurant in this hotel. Delicious and beautiful.



Here are some pics I have just taken from where I am sitting right now.




The sun really wants to come out. Everyone concentrate.

lovely Kauai

THis is where we stayed in Kauai. We've checked out already today and are now just lally-gagging around loafing until our 6 pm flight to Honolulu. It was actually a very lovely cottage even though it had no to little internet. It stood near other cottages owned by a nice family. Also nearby was the Wailua River which became very muddy and full after monstrous rains wedn night/thurs morning. Our sneakers were out on the porch (we werent' allowed to wear shoes inside) during the storm and got wet. They've dried since. The cottage was lovely and we slept much better there than in Hauula.

claustrophobic

I hate seeing the husband all sweatly and disrupted in his peacefulness. Today was a helluva day. The flight from CT to TX was in someways worse than the twice as long of a one from TX to HI. I felt so hot and aggravated while waiting my turn to squeeze out of the plane -- it seemed to take so long and I had a hard time keeping calm and really felt like crap from the time we landed until I was in the airport, putting down my broken bag which was soon discarded. I expected the worse for the next leg-an eight and a half hour long jaunt to Honolulu airport. But I psyched myself up during the two hour layover in Dallas and I did some walking about, some stretching and really sorted myself out for a long long scene.

And it was long but I handled it okay. There was a hella cute baby boy two seats in front of us, he was about 8-9 months and just watching him cry and smile was a nice distraction. I slept a lot, I read Hollywood by A Burr. I tickled and tortured the husband, and when I was really really bored and grumpy I went to the bathroom and just stayed in the room by myself for a few minutes which was a relief. So I got through it and we got the car and luggage and the sun was setting just as we were figuring out how to go north on 63 and the condo isn't what I hoped but its not terrible and tomorrow should be lovely. hurray! my first honeymoon in hawaii has begun.

We Drove To CT

Sitting up in the Bricker watching an absurd show on the netflix instant download. Husband snores downstairs alone. Dog aren't home. The old lady in charge of the kennel (spa) where we left the dogs said she'd bring them a blanket. They have adjoining cells which each have a plastic pedestal where the dogs can lie instead of the stall's hard concrete floor. The cells have individual doorways which allow the dogs to go outside into their outdoor stall area from where they can see each other through the chain link fence. They can also look across to the pens of the other dogs which are kennelled there and they can also look up the nearby hill to see goats hanging in the yard and above that, a large fenced in area, also filled with individual kennels, all inhabited with st bernards, one after each gigantic other, all living to breed, all barking their heads off. Behind them is the farmhouse, the barnhouse and the cat=smelly shed room where the mistress of the kennel sells her wares and keeps her books.




This show is so sleazy and horrible great. It is touted by netflix as the Male Sex in the City and Anthony Head is superb, once more with feeling. I want to watch more but I should sleep and there doesn't seem to be more than one episode offered on the streaming netflix. I just heard a loud firetruck-like siren off in the distance of Greenfield.

I was told about this dog spa from my boss who leaves her dogs there. I guess it is fine and it's not super pricey and what I love is that it is five minutes away from the Hartford airport so we can pick them up super quick instead of driving all the way to Greenfield before seeing them. It is weird right now because since I am not on the plane travelling, I have this time to muse about the dogs and what they are doing instead of dealing with airports and airplane neighbors, crying babies and dry skin and rental cars. I am looking forward to picking up the dogs and bringing them home more than I am looking forward to getting on the plane and travelling to Hawaii. Please note: I didn't state "more than I am looking forward to vacationing in Hawaii." But I do have the time to wish we could have brought scraps of carpet to put down under their plastic pedestals and perhaps big fluffy dog beds to put on top of the pedestals and maybe some Indian



tapestries to hang about, I wish we could have tacked some photos up and perhaps we might have plugged in a radio they could listen to, although you know Pickles and Peretz would be arguing about the station choice constantly. Peretz will finally have his dominant will heard and classical or jazz music will waft about the closed in barn with all the empty stalls except those two over on the right, close to the front door, where our dogs from the cozy beds of Greenfield shiver the night away with the paltry heat promised to be bestowed upon the dogs after all the doors have been closed and the lights have been turned off. Cats and kittens will be the sole prowlers and the only sound heard is the very seldom yelp from that one cranky goat who sleeps on a sore buttock.

If our plane crashes, please go pick up the dogs at Meadowrock Kennels, rt 75, Suffield, CT and find them good homes amongst our friends and families.

last day of NOvember

So the husband and I got into a spat over leftovers. I find it somewhat humorous. We almost didn't have any leftovers and then it seems like there are so many leftovers but then the last of the dark meat, dressing and gravy was all heated up and piled on a plate and it didn't seem like enough for us both. Good thing I was generous with the last big wedge of Rum Cake (oh, that was so good...)!

Penultimate post of November

I do wish I were eating this right now.

dog threw up

Poor Peretz. Poor us humans, cleaning that crap up.

ate too much yesterday. halfway through the preparations DbR said that Neil and Fafnir might come over for dinner. He showed me how all of our dishes were vegetarian except the bird itself, the dressing which was now stuffing and gravy. I was wowed. DbR then pointed out the paltry five potatoes I had gotten, more than enough for us two but now we were four, maybe even six because Cooper and Jess were possibly coming as well. I was a little nervous and when we took out the turkey I had misgivings as did he, that it was too dry. He knifed out a bit on top of the white meat and it was actually very good as was the skin which he had rubbed with some nice spicy maple spicy stuff. it was spicy.

so it did become the six of us and Cooper brought over all this fancy scotch which was nice to taste and we downloaded star trek onto the magic netflix box and I fell in love with Bill all over again. I wish he was in the movie which is coming in May. boo hoo.

Did you know that I didn't like racism?

But I do love a big sweater and a funny winter toque.

I like Alex Baldwin

I'm sitting down watching Rosie Live and it's schmaltzy but awesome. Alex is on right now and seeing him makes me want to watch Outside Providence again. I'm kind of t'red 'cause when I came home I launched into constant kitchen motion for the last 3 hours. I wasn't even making anything for tomorrow. The last few nights DbR and I have been looking at each other at dinner time and wondering what the heck to eat because all the food in the house is generally earmarked for the thanksgiving meal. Sunday we had frozen pizzas, monday we had...oh, some curry rice thing he whipped up with all the extra stuff he could find and last nght we ate chinese (I had ginger milk bubble tea-yum!) but tonight I knew what was going to happen and I went to Fosters before coming home even though I had promised myself I wouldn't go to the store today. But I went because I wanted to get cake stuff and then while I was there I thought, "I should get dinner stuff." I thought, hamburgers! but since we split a meatloaf club earlier I thought there must be another meat we could enjoy and I contemplated the chicken for a while and while I was I thought "enchiladas" and then forwent the chicken for ground pork. So I came home and while DbR made filling for sweet potato pies and squash stuff I made enchiladas and then baked off the yummy chocolate cookies, pictures to follow.

I really like that Kathy Griffith.

Love is hiding who you are at all times, even when you're asleep

Watching 50 Rock, it's so great. This one actually stars Tim Conway who is pretty funny. It's a good show. Haven't watched any of the new ones, though. "My genius has come alive, like toys when your back is turned." Tracy Jordan

This evening since it wasn't colder than hell or raining like crazy so I decided I would take Pickles on a longer walk than usual. Since it has been dark before I even get home from work I lack the get up and go to go very far with him so I usually just saunter around the quick block. Now I actually know what I was missing and like I said, since it wasn't torture tonight, Pickles and I walked up to the flashing light and the Husband and Peretz tagged along. Just about at the corner Pickles and I saw a cute and curious shih tzu who crossed the street to see us. Pickles sniffed and didn't get too alarming but acted affronting enough to get Ms. Shih to walk back across. But then Cutie acted upsettingly, going over to the corner and crossing the street at the blinking light and then she wavered about the street as if to cross again and cars starting coming along at a quick rate and DbR and I were both very anxious about her. I left Pickles with his pals and crossed over to check out where Ms. Shih lived which hopefully was on her tags. She saw me coming and trotted away, away from Allen, up Beech and happily on her way home. Why was she allowed to wander about freely? Dangerous.



I miss days/walks like this.



Last night I was watching the third episode of the fifth season of Buffy and Giles was standing next to a bookcase and was looking at a certain book and I saw that on the same shelf as the book he had taken out and was looking at was the book LINCOLN by Gore Vidal. I think that's pretty cool because that book is great. (As is BURR) I also just enjoy episodes which focus on Xander.

Yay, worlds collide

I know stuff about my neighborhood

As I write this, I am choking a little on some particles which have been stirred up in my cellar by some blowing/vacuuming device which has been used by the guy from Deerfield Valley Heating and Cooling. We paid to have him come in and give the boiler a once over to make sure it is in adequate shape for this cold winter and he cleaned something or something with some tool which blew all sorts of debris dust smoke particles into the air, which have travelled upstairs to where I and the dogs are and it's making it hard to breathe and smells yukky. I also am disturbed by the cloudy quality of the air in the kitchen. Yuck. I did open the back door for a couple minutes but that action did not take much edge off the infusion. Poor Lauri. I feel sympathy for the slobs who live in Beijing and other polluted towns where poor air quality is an everyday thing. yuck.
The guy just came upstairs with a steaming bucket which I assume is filled with hot water from the boiler. I have the dogs on leashes in the kitchen and they are excited and interested in his comings and goings.

Big week has begun. DbR and I, "the newlyweds" are gearing up for our first Thanksgiving. I have never cooked the grand turkey dinner before, I have only made pies and cleaned up while boyfriends and others have cooked and done the dealio which is fine with me. But this year we have no where else really to go and I would very much like some turkey and stuffing so I've convinced Husband to come along with me on the Thanksgiving ride. He seems up for it. We went to Atkins and bought our 9.7 lb Plainville Farms turkey and some cranberries and potatoes and squash and mushrooms. Last week DbR made a super great spicy maple squash dish so I asked him to repeat that and I asked him if he could make a pumpkin pie and he opted for a sweet potato pie-yum. I think I am going to try to make those cookies again and I am going to follow the directions perfectly this time (see yesterday's blog for reference) and see if they can be moister. Although last night people did eat the cookies with gusto and when I complained that I wished they were more moist one guy said, "so they would be liquid" so who knows, maybe I am hypercritical about my cookies. I used white chocolate chips instead of chocolate chocolate chips and that may have been the trouble.

I have been looking through the November 08 issue of Gourmet and there are two main articles about Thanksgiving. One is the huge deluxe thanksgiving meal and the other is, "thanksgiving in four hours!" In the deluxe article there is a recipe for chipotle meatballs which I'd like to try sometime-not for Thanksgiving-and there is this other fancy recipe for wild mushroom bundles which look hella good and I asked the husband to take them on. We need something green at the table, right? So I'm nervous-I want everything to be yummy and I don't want us to argue and get aggravated in the kitchen together but we'll be okay. Yesterday while I made cookies and he the banana pudding, all was well. I wish we had more counter space though!!

Recipes always crap out

Lately I have been making cookies and cakes, etc. using recipes I find in Gourmet or on line. They are not Gourmet recipes, they are usually recipes found on the sides of pages, in the butter ad or the Ghirardelli chocolate ad. They've been turning out not exactly right-today I made these chocolate cookies and they don't look like the cookies in the ad, boo hoo, and they are kind of dry-not sweet and gushy, even though they have plenty of butter and choc. chips in them. I did make some alterations in the recipe which may have caused the imperfect result and it is not like the cookies are crap or anything. They are very chocolatey-just not super soup-y and moist. oh well.

DbR made a big batch of banana pudding, I have to laugh, it is pretty huge. DbR makes the pudding as a bunch of layers: cookie, pudding (made from scratch), bananas, cookie, pudding, bananas, etc and then on top a layer of whipped cream, yum. The thing fills up a large turkey roasting pan-it is fairly momentous. I think the cookies will go hella well with the puddin'. I kind of don't really like the cookies all that much. Anyway, we are bringing those desserts to the Hope + Olive tonight along with our Singstar game to celebrate 2 out of 3 of the proprietors of that restaurant and it should be good. I hope people like my cookies even though they are dry and tasteless.

I hope the stuff I make for Thanksgiving turns out tastier.

Saturday

"notify Agent Zarkov"

watching that Flash Gordon movie from the 80's. Its funny. Seems like Agent Zarkov is a little spaced out in this scene. What's going to happen? Been trying to keep the house warm with the woodstove. It's going okay. I wanted to take the edge off the third floor and warm the kid's room up a little. It just seems so cold cold cold.

wow, it's later than i thought

lately it has been hard keeping track of time. it's dark, it's light, now it's dark again. ok, it's dark but it's still early. no, it's late.
I did all the dishes and some laundry but there are so many plastic and paper bags strewn about the pantry it's disgusting and i wish i knew where my magic wand was put.

bedroom is also a mess. trying to heat the house with the woodstove. doing okay.