Weekend blogger.

I am going to turn into a weekend blogger, I know it - here's my second one for the weekend and I can guarantee there will be little or no blogging again this week. Ah well. It's a sacrifice I have to make right now.

Okay, so now up is the blog about the weekend fun. Yesterday we went to Portland to visit with Chris and Chris. We met Lulu for the first time (such a sweetheart!), interacted with their possibly paranormal entities, and ate dinner at a nice little pub downtown. Portland has a nice pace of life. Very nice, very comfortable, very homey. I like visiting there. We also exchanged Christmas gifts this trip - never too late for Christmas gifts! Chris and Chris gave Doug and me some lovely items - Guitar Player magazine (probably more for Doug), a new-guitar-each-day desk calendar (again, probably more for Doug), a book on the Puritans, a Pyrex bowl to match the one I got with them back in the summer when we went to the flea market in Rowley, MA, and earrings (probably more for me). How did we get such generous friends? They know us all too well. For them we got a pumpkin-shaped pie plate and a Pavement CD set. Who doesn't love Christmas gifts? Here are some photos of the day:
Chris and I realized that we had very similar hats, and so had to pose with them. Not sure what this means about us... perhaps we are secretly communist? No, don't think so - just think we have similar fashion sense, but don't be surprised if we now refer to each other as Comrade...

Today has so far been another good day. We got a lovely (but way too short!) visit from Adam, who popped by our house on his way back from running a race in Derry, NH. Is Adam insane for running a race in this kind of cold weather? Yes, I think so, but he says that 20-degree weather is just perfect for running. I think I'd like another 20 degrees on the thermometer before I'd get out there and run a race, but I'd have other requirements, too, before I'd be running any kind of race. Requirement #1 - I don't keel over and die. Requirement #2 - the race has to be from one end of my street to the other end. Requirement #3 - the race be at night so none of my neighbors would see me huffing and puffing down the street. Anyway, here's a shot of Adam and Doug in our living room. Doug's pumped... he'll soon be playing Wii tennis and eating the piece of Domino's Pizza Adam brought. Awesome!

So, now it's off to work. I've been putting it off long enough today. I can smell the chicken chasseur in the crock-pot, so that means I only have a couple of hours before it's done. Please let it be good... it's the one meal I'll cook all week!

Inauguration day

So, on my inaugural day as Director of Research Services, Tuesday January 20, 2009, Barak Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States. I hope that his inauguration day went better than mine. Within the first two hours of my day I had an employee scurry out of the library crying, a managing director looking for some obscure piece of data that she needed to insert into her presentation in 15 minutes, about ten phone calls from vendors wondering where Jessica had gone, and a to-do list about five miles long with no way it would ever get done. Ever. I really hope President Obama (how lovely to say!) has a better time at it than me!

Oh well. I haven't cooked in ages, so no photos of my latest cooking catastrophes. Instead, I'll post a photo of the newest addition to our little family - the loon.Doug's big into birds of all sorts, but particularly those that have webbed feet and swim around in various waters. What's ironic about that is that Doug doesn't swim himself. Maybe it's an envy thing with him, because I think he's a little obsessed with water fowl (have you seen how many faux ducks, gulls and other such birds we have in our house? If not, stop by. We can show you.). In this case, though, I don't mind because I actually really like this loon print. It reminds me of New Hampshire. My aunt and grandparents had cottages on Crystal Lake in Enfield, New Hampshire, and growing up we would spend much time up there. We don't go there so much anymore; in fact, almost never. It's a shame. Now my grandparents' cottage is owned by my father's brother, which is a different family entirely from who owned the house in the first place (it was my mother's parents who owned the cottage before), and so it's just slightly weird that my father's family now represents up there at the New Hampshire compound. That's not why the family doesn't go up there anymore - our absence is more due to the fact that we're all older and just don't have a whole lot of time to go up there on weekends, summer vacations (what's that?), etc. But there are always a few loons that swim in the water up there. I think they're beautiful birds, but I don't think they're good for the fishing prospects in the lake. I think they eat the fish. Doesn't bother me any... I'm not much of a fisherwoman and I think I've eaten fish maybe 3 times in my whole life (not counting canned tuna, which I don't consider fish), so let the loons eat as much fish as they want.

Today we're off to Maine. We're getting a late start. We apologize about that. But we are going to get there! Doug's out of the shower, so I guess we're ready to go. Maine here we come.

Bears.

It's Saturday. Doug's at work, I'm holed down in my office for the day, and our trip to Portland was canceled. Seems like a bummer, yes? Well, yes, you're right. But I have these three beasties as a bright spot now, and I'm happy to have them here with me today.



Of course, I'm also happy to have these bears with me today, too. Thanks, BJ's!

The case of the missing glasses.

Two things to report from this past weekend (there was more this weekend, but I only have twenty minutes until Antiques Roadshow comes on, so I'm trying to make this uncharacteristically quick). The first - we visited Jipty and Chris and their one month old son (already!) on Saturday evening. Little Ely Michael Armstrong Therrien is an adorable, adorable baby, and so well-behaved! Babies traditionally make me nervous because they can't talk and I have no idea what's going on behind the eyes. They're also squirmy, and the fact that for a good while after they're born they can't hold up their own head, which makes their neck something like a tetherball rope, does little to ease my nerves. Ely, however, didn't really make me nervous. Jipty and Chris looked wonderful for being new mothers with very little sleep, and the kitties and doggies all seem to be adjusting well. Mad props to the new family for making it all look so easy, and mad props to Jipty who labored for over 65 hours! The result was worth it - a healthy baby, a healthy mommy, and a birthing story to rival all others. This first photo is of Chris, Jipty, and their son, and the second one is of me, finally getting a hang of holding the little bundle of baby joy.

Second item - I had my first dealings with a kleptomaniac on Saturday. We were meeting Marieke and Curt for brunch in JP at 10am, so I tried to make a quick trip to Curves, only to be thwarted by a would-be thief. I had walked to Curves, so I put my giant coat and hiking boots into the cubby closet (the cubbies are just egg crates). I don't like to work out wearing my glasses, so I took my glasses off and put them into one of my boots. Just as I was closing the closet door, I said to myself, "You shouldn't leave your glasses in your boot - you'll forget they're there, then stick your big foot into the boot and squish them." Smart! So I took my glasses out of the boot and placed them in the crate right near my boots. I worked out (I'll admit to skipping a few of the resting stations in order to keep to my tight schedule), then went to the cubby closet to put on my coat and boots for the walk back home. I open the door and look into my little cubby space and see my boots, but no glasses. Hmmm. Maybe I left them in my boot after all. So I check my boot. No glasses. Check the other boot. No glasses. Look to see if the glasses fell through the holes of the egg crate. No glasses. Look all around to see if they somehow (?) got into someone else's egg crate. No glasses. I then decide that something is wrong with this picture, and go wave my tag under the scanner to officially end my workout. In my head I'm seeing dollar signs - it's not in the budget right now to get a new pair of glasses! How will I see? What will I do? And what would someone want with my glasses? It's not like they'd be able to see out of them. Part of me is thinking I should just leave and then call Curves to tell them to keep an eye out for my glasses, but then another part, the part that is trying to be more assertive, decides to do some more investigating. I walk over to these two empty chairs where someone's bag and shoes are, and out of the pocketbook I see the arm of my glasses. I know they're mine - I can tell. So now I have a conundrum. Do I reach into her bag and take my glasses? I know who the woman is - do I go up to her and tell her to give me my glasses back? What to do! In the end, I decide to just raise my voice above the obnoxious Curves music and ask if anyone has seen a pair of brown glasses that were in the cubby next to my boots. I do this, and the woman immediately comes over to her bag and gets my glasses, telling me that she's sorry, she thought they looked like the ones she usually buys at the Christmas Tree Shops. I play it off, "Oh no problem, easy mistake," I say, and then leave, but even if they were like the ones she got at the Christmas Three Shops (which I doubt they are), how does that make it right for her to take them? These glasses have Gucci engraved on the side. Since when does the Christmas Tree Shop sell Gucci eyeware? I do believe the lady simply saw them in my cubby, decided they looked like a nice pair of glasses, and decided they should go home with her, no matter what prescription they were. A klepto! At Curves! Touching and taking my glasses! The violation! Anyway, my glasses are back, so all is well, but I'm reluctant to go back to Curves. Apparently what's mine is not mine at Curves, and that doesn't make me happy.

Two minutes to Antiques Roadshow. See ya!

Mattress!

I can't even contain myself about this one, though I have managed not to burst with joy about it (amazing!)... We finally have a new mattress! Yes, our Christmas wishes have come true. Doug and I are now sleeping on a fantastic queen-sized mattress and our double bed is now happily living in the guest room, making it for the first time since we've moved a real and proper guest room. Now where are our guests?

The new mattress came from Gardner Mattress, an awesome local company that makes its mattresses in Salem, MA, to order. You go into the store, find the one you want, they go into their manufacturing facility and build it for you. Our mattress was the floor model, which made it a bunch cheaper - all this hand-sewing and made-to-order stuff makes these babies pretty expensive. Did we have qualms about buying a floor model? Not at all. It was only on the floor since July and I bet 10 people total tested it out. It's one of their hardest styles, with no pillow top, so it doesn't appeal to too many people (but to Doug and me it's perfect). This is all good stuff, and now the mattress is upstairs, covered in cozy flannel sheets that we got from my parents for Christmas (my mom was also hoping that Santa would bring us a mattress this Christmas), making our lives that much better. It's funny how I don't get too excited about clothes or shoes or bags or anything like that anymore (I do, but not as much as I used to). Now what gets me going is our new oven, our new mattress, thoughts of a new front door, and dreams of a new refrigerator. I'm not even thirty yet and already I've turned the corner to domesticity...

This is the mattress. We were putting the mattress pad on it when we were like, "Wait! Let's take some photos! Blog content!" So here are some photos. Note the label on the mattress - that's Gardner Sisk, the company president. His parents (maybe grandparents?) started the Gardner Mattress company and for a while Gardner's baby photo (with the family pooch) was used for the mattress labels. If I were Gardner, I don't think I'd be too keen on having people sleeping - and doing who knows what else - on my face, which is maybe one of the many reasons why I don't run a mattress company.

As mentioned, our old mattress is now in the guest room, ready and waiting for guests! The room is just big enough to fit the bed (good thing it's a double bed), and it looks pretty good in there. We don't have a theme yet for that room; right now the bed looks just like it did in Newton, which was a mish-mash of colors and styles. We figure we'll decorate the guest room later this year, but for now we're content to simply have a guest room. Good things can't be rushed. We took some photos of the old bed in its new space, too, as we didn't want it to feel left out of the excitement.


One of the great things about this new mattress is that we're not the only ones who are enjoying it. Or who are enjoying the new bed in the guest room. Wyatt and Sasha are regulars on the new mattress and love the extra room they have to punch each other. Here are some photos of Sasha and Wyatt caught in the act of loving their new favorite hang-out spot: Wyatt is especially fond of the flannel sheets. This morning he decided that it wasn't good enough to just lie on top of the mattress; he needed to be closer to the flannel softness. So he burrowed himself under the covers, hunkered down, and rested for a while. I documented the activity, of course, and will now post for the world to see. And where is beautiful Meg in all of this new mattress fun? She's claimed the guest bed for herself. Right now she's probably under the red blanket, fast asleep, warm and secure, just how she likes it. Things are good here in our house now that we have this new mattress.

Food, food and more food.

Wow. I figured it was time for another blog, and really all that I have to write about is food. I've been cooking more from that Quick Vegetarian Pleasures cookbook from my sister, Doug finally got me to try the Half-Way Cafe in Dedham, and as a treat after a couple of very stressful days back at work we got dinner from Blue Ribbon. I have pictures of all of the above, of course.

First up - my own cooking adventures. I am a much better baker than I am a cook, I'll say that. Why? I think it's because if I overcook something like a cookie or a cake it's not going to burn. It will just get tough and won't be as tasty. But if I overcook something like a steak, or some kind of vegetable, I'm likely to practically burn the house down. Such was the case with my eggplant sandwiches, but I'll get to that. Here's a few photos of my Irish Golden Raisin Bread, a variation on an Irish soda bread. The bread is quite good, and even better warm with some melted butter. It has wheat germ in it, as well as raisins, so I don't feel quite so much like a sugar-saurus when I go back for a second slice.

Next up - photos of the eggplant sandwiches. They started out with such promise, and they ended up pretty good, but the in-between part was a little touch-and-go. I was supposed to broil the sliced eggplant (that was dipped in mayonnaise and parmesan cheese), but, not surprisingly, my broiling turned into burning. Yes, the smoke detector in our house did the usual blaring and screaming of, "Fire! Fire!", but I was able to salvage most of the eggplant to make the below sandwiches. Warning - they're very garlicky, so only eat them if you're not going to worry about your vicious breath. Thankfully, Doug and I were only breathing on each other that night (and our breath even with garlic fumes will always been a thousand times fresher than any of that of our cats) so it didn't really matter to us.

Okay, so as you may have read in my previous post, Doug was sick for the New Year's holiday. I felt a little bad for him so I thought we could get his spirits lifted by seeing a movie and then going out to dinner. We saw Gran Torino, which was very good, though not really an uplifting film. I left the theater with tears running down my cheeks, but I won't say any more about that. Doug suggested we have dinner at the Half-Way Cafe in Dedham (he thinks Mikey Adams goes to the one in Dedham), and since he said it was his dying wish to go I was obliging and went. We ate what we seem to eat everywhere... sandwiches. The sandwiches were fine, the fries were fine, the atmosphere was cramped but fine, so all in all the experience was fine. Is Doug sorry he used up his dying wish? Possibly. Here are a couple of photos.


And, of course, lastly we have our most recent Blue Ribbon experience. I love, love, love Blue Ribbon, but this time it was not so good. Possibly it was because we had to drive the meal about 10 miles back to our house so by the time we got to eat it the food was cold (and I'm sorry, but food reheated in a microwave never, ever tastes as good as the original), but it could also just be because, for whatever reason, the food was not as good tonight. It didn't help that Doug ordered the meat loaf platter and he got some kind of salad with a couple of slices of meat loaf on it, and that one of our cornbreads was left out of the order (and that the one we got was the nub - who likes to eat the nub?). This experience won't keep me away, of course, but it does make me disappointed. Here's a look at some of our Blue Ribbon not-so-goodness.


What will we be eating next? Spit pea soup. Haven't made it yet, but after a doctor's appointment (I've waited almost 9 months for this appointment!) and our mattress delivery, I think a good homemade meal tonight will be a treat.

Welcome to January.

So it's January. And it's 2009. The last time I blogged it was 2008. Weird. Our New Year's Eve consisted of me getting out of work early due to the snow (but having to come home and still do work...), Doug making up a bag of Totino's Pizza Rolls, us eating a late dinner of Hungarian goulash, a recipe courtesy of my mother's Crock Pot instruction manual, and watching movies on the couch. What did we watch? I had plans of putting in Smart People, since that's been kicking around the house for a while and I wanted to send it back to Netflix, but we instead got hooked on John Hughes movies playing on cable, so we watched Sixteen Candles and Weird Science. I admit to being asleep on the couch well before midnight. Apparently Doug was trying to wake me up when the ball dropped in Times Square, but I have no recollection of this at all. New Year's Eve and giving my husband a kiss at midnight were not priorities for me, it seems.

But 2009 has been good to us so far, which may bode well for the rest of the year. We met with our mortgage guy about refinancing and it looks very good for us to refinance. The new rate would be considerably lower than our current interest rate, which means lots of savings each month come mortgage time. I will no longer have to cry myself to sleep after writing out the check to the mortgage company, or at least won't have to cry as hard.

We've also been cooking more in 2009. I do not make resolutions come each new year, but I do tend to put a few things on my running mental list that I'd like to get done in the next 365 days. On my running mental list is always "cook more at home," and so far we have been. It helps, too, when we get new cookbooks. For Christmas my sister and her lovely family gave us Jeanne Lemlin's Quick Vegetarian Pleasures, a cookbook that her friends Suzanne and Heinrich swear by. Since it is also always on my running mental list to incorporate more vegetables in our diets, this cookbook serves two wonderful purposes. The first recipe we've made is the corn chowder. I put in ground thyme instead of dried thyme (I already made a note in the recipe not to do that again!) and I will say that despite the fact that I don't like ground thyme and that the thyme was all I could taste in each bite, the recipe came out well and I'd gladly make it again. See below for some photos of our corn chowder adventures. Up tonight is an eggplant-tomato sandwich, and for tomorrow a split pea soup with homemade golden raisin Irish bread. Yum!

The negative retail environment has been good to us, too. We made a trip to IKEA, really just because we wanted to get out of the house but didn't want to travel far, and we ended up getting a new cushion for our Poang chair. Many of the cushion fabrics were on sale, probably being discontinued, but one was marked for $20! Compared to the original $89 price, that was quite a discount. It was not our favorite fabric (it's not very bright and has an odd pattern), but it would work right in our living room and for $20 we couldn't say no. So we trekked into the self-serve area to get the cushion, only to see the price on the bin in the self-serve area marked as $39. Well, for $39 we didn't really want the cushion, so we took it to the register and asked the cashier to check into it. She called the salesroom floor and no, the cushion was indeed $39. Well, we bought it for $39, but we were mad at ourselves because on the tag on the showroom floor the cushion was marked as $20. So Doug and I, determined to be a) more money conscious in 2009 and b) more assertive, decided to contest the sale. Doug took the receipt to the showroom, showed a salesperson the tag with the $20 price, had to have a manager write a note saying that we could get the cushion for the (accidentally) marked price, and then went down to the returns area to get our $19 refund. Yes, this made for an overloy long IKEA trip but we got the cushion for $20 and like it much better now. In other purchasing news, we also got a new coffee table at the Boston Interiors clearance center, which is very close to IKEA. The coffee table was half price, with no visible scarring. How could we go wrong? It's larger than our old one, has a shelf on the bottom for storage of magazines, the computer, etc., and is the same color as the woodwork in the room. So it works well, was a great price, and we like it. Thank you, failing economy!


Doug and I have also scratched off of our running mental list "eat at 50s Diner." The 50s Diner is a Dedham staple and one of the only little breakfast/lunch places in town. We've been meaning to eat there for a while, but it's always packed with a line waiting out the door. Yesterday we were determined to eat there, so we waited in the line for our first 50s Diner experience. The verdict is... the food was okay. I did not have the best club sandwich ever, Doug did not have the best cheeseburger and onion rings ever, but the ambiance was good and the waitstaff was friendly. It was also cheap. So in all, a good meal, but we both say that we would not be willing to wait outside on a freezing cold day for the food (even though we did, but not again).

Not all is great in 2009, however - Doug is sick and is passed out on the sofa right now. His father was just coming down with some kind of bad cold when we were at his house for Christmas, and then my sister and her family all have bronchitis, so we were exposed to all of their germs, too. There was no hope for us. I am getting over my cold, though still sound a little like Kathleen Turner, and Doug just got hit with his on Thursday/Friday. We do hope to get a movie in this weekend, but it looks like much of the weekend will be spent on the sofa in front of the television with orange juice IVs going into our arms. Which is fine - it seems the only time Doug and I ever slow down is when we're sick. I don't feel guilty about being a sloth when I'm ill because I have no choice. So I say "yay!" to sickness for once and look forward to sharing the sofa with my ailing husband.