Counting Sheep

So Long and thanks for all the...

We are off folks....the ipods are loaded...see you back on the other side around May 28th unless I somehow find a computer or two...

Our wedding song..

and others we love

Puffy

Can anyone tell me why at the age of 43 I can still hear Puff the Magic Dragon and get all teary?
Seriously

Shilling for a friend

An old friend Corin Ashley, former member of the fabulous Boston band The Pills, now brilliant solo pop genius in the XTC, Beatles (come on, his son's name is Harrison for heaven's sake), Harry Nilsson, great singer songwriter tradition has an album out called Songs from the Brill Bedroom. 

You can listen at itunes, or hear a few at his myspace page.
I love love LOVE it. 

Go listen, buy and download.  He deserves all the fame and love he can get. Help him along.  I consider him my pet musical project.

Overheard

Today in a classroom of 11-13 year old girls.
Reference:  American Idol

"Ugh, you like Brooke!"
"She creeps me out with her fake niceness."
I ask, what do you mean, I think Brook genuinely is a nice person and a bit shy as well.

Eye rolls from the pack that made the comment.

"She is way to nice, no one is that nice, it's just weird!"

Being nice is weird - I ask

"Yes, no one can possibly be that nice, it's just creepy!"

Oh my...what is the world coming to?

Oh spring...

There have been open windows, fluttering curtains.

Flannel has been tucked away for the next 7 months and thin cotton has been applied to the bed.

Blankets were washed and hung on the environmentally friendly neighborhood eyesore for fluttering and ozone injections and the smell people...THE SMELL...we know they can't bottle that don't we?

Puppy beds have been stripped of their covers, defurred,washed and fluffed.

The outdoor grill has been dusted off and moved to its summer location, charcoal has been purchased and it was christened last night with a lovely rib eye for me and a filet mignon for him, creamed spinach was on the side and cocktails were imbibed on summer chairs.

The landscaper next door came in one day this week while I was working and cleaned the ENTIRE back garden and vegetable bed.  It is pristine.  Have I told you how much I love my neighbour?

The truck got a nice bath and now shines like a gorgeous red lantern.

Mr. Wren sits outside for hours as the evening rolls in and sings his little heart out searching for this years babe to hang out in his prebuilt rental unit in the back garden.

Buds are popping, daffodils are shining and the forsythia envy has kicked in. I get it every spring and always forget to plant one.

And the trip people....the trip...is a mere 18 days away.  I really, REALLY need a vacation.

OUCH

Root canal.
3:00 today.
Scaaaaaaed.
HATE dental thing...HATE THEM.
6 years of braces and a jaw widening plate will do that to you.
Whole head hurts.
Send Bourbon

Some general STUFF

I know, I'm never here anymore, it's not that I don't love the 5 of you who still stop by, but I'm mostly over here, and I will cross post this over there as well in case anyone can help me out.

First: I have a Canon 40D camera and a new ipod classic.  I have read on the old www that it is possible with the 5th generation ipod to transfer pictures (via an adapter) DIRECTLY from the camera to the ipod without having to stop off at the laptop and itunes.  Has anyone done this?  Does it work? 
I don't want to take my laptop with us and I will need to empty my data card every couple of days so i can take more pictures.  I was looking at storage devise like the Sanho Hyperdrive, but why drop another $300 if ipod will do the work.

Second:  We will be renting a car.  Likely it will have a CD player not a cassette so my usual means to listen to the ipod in a car not my own will not work.  here in the states I have tried the unit that plugs into the ipod and uses a radio station tuner to listen.  Here in Boston that NEVER works since every frequency is full.  I don't even know if the device will work in the U.K. 
Does anyone have any suggestions on using the ipod in a car?  Particularly in Europe.

Third:  We heard a mouse.  We baited the electronic trap.  We awoke Saturday morning to find a mouse running in circles in the sink, around and around and around.  Husband went to find a glove to remove the critter and...wait for it...he ran down the disposal shute. Ewwwwww! No!!!!  We didn't turn it on.
husband hovered over the hole with a set of tongs at the ready.  Foolish thing ran right between and CLIP, husband snagged him.  He has been in the mouse relocation program and currently resides behind the garage with the litter of skulls.

Fourth:
If, IF, I brave bringing my laptop along with me, how easy will it be to get WiFi connections in Northeast, northwest, southwest england and far western Wales?  We are not talking London here, we are talking rather countrified, remote locations. Is it worth lugging this beast around?

Fifth:
Carry-ons International flights.  Can we bring noshies?  I know we can't bring liquid, but would they dump our sandwiches in the trash if we brought them through in our carry-ons?

Sixth: Want to help us with kitchen decorating advice?  Here we are, fire away!

Thanks in advance for all of your wisdom!

Spring Change

Yea, um, I went bra shopping, I know 'tmi' and right next door was a spa/salon and as I walked by my hand grabbed the door handle and WHOOOOOSH before I knew what I was doing I was inside.
A lovely man with bleach blonde hair, mascara and eye liner with a rapier wit asked me if I was 'checking in'.
I stuttered and stammered and said yes, if you have time for a walk-in appointment for a hair cut.
As he tapped the keys and looked down at the monitor he apologized for it taking so long, I said 'Oh, don't worry, its only been six years since my last hair cut, I can wait'.

His eyes rolled up at me and he repeated, "SIX YEARS"?

Yea, well it turns out I an 12 inches of hair shorter and it feels like 5 pounds lighter.

Swingy shoulder length hair is fabulous!

Faux Twitter

Current scene:
Hunched over an steamer filled with water and vick's vapor liquid, towel over my head listening to VH-1's Top one hit wonders and tapping my foot to Hot Child in the City. 
Does any remember that song? Somehow I managed to never really know that it was about a child prostitute. I still have the vinyl downstairs in the heap of molding and dusty vinyl.

Pot of chicken Pho, cooked Friday night with a whole chicken, lemongrass, charred ginger and onions, etc, rested in the fridge all day Saturday and strained and ready to go for dinner tonight.  Vietnamese penicillin?

And if this videio via Serious Eats doesn't make you laugh...you are sicker than I

Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Wash

Can you believe that the scrubbing bubbles shower wash refill bottle now comes with a warning that says:

Not a Body Wash

Um.  Really? 

My latest musical Obsession

Duffy.

And so it goes...

4 years ago today I stuck my toe in the cold waters of the wires and whispered for all to hear.

Baby it's cold outside

A fine place from which to view the storm.

That is some seriously heavy snow, that is my poor lilac.

After my oatmeal I'm out to shake the trees, before the trees start snapping.

More pics later.  Can you tell that I got a new camera finally?

Bigger pics can be found here.

The Gift

I wondered why he wanted to do the Christmas stockings last.  It seemed an odd request, but I agreed,
The last item was an envelope simply labeled J.

Inside was the following letter...

j,

OK, so this is a little bit unconventional as far as Christmas presents go, but I though it was a good time for a surprise…….

This short note is to let you know that we will be departing for England in May ... for two weeks.

We will be traveling business class both ways and the reservations have been made, so I hope that it’ll give you plenty of time to arrange cover at Create-a-Cook and/or Cambridge as necessary.

When we arrive at Heathrow we will stay one night at the Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel in a King-sized Bedroom before picking up our rental car for the holiday. I haven’t arranged the car yet because I thought you would like to take part in the selection process my queen-of-four-wheeled-vehicles.

We’ll drive up to Manchester and stay Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights with K (R's brother and my brother in law). We will go out for a dual celebratory dinner on Saturday evening (K’s Birthday and our 10th Anniversary).

Sunday morning we will drive up to Hexham where we will (you guessed it) stay two nights at Langley Castle in The Radcliffe Room (this is the one with the four-poster super King sized double bed, window seat, sauna, shower and semi-sunken bath). I’ve arranged for us to have dinner there the first night and the second night we can nip out to a local pub or eatery of our choice.

After that it’s up to us to make plans for the remainder of our stay……should be an interesting and absorbing prospect huh?

A Very Happy Christmas sweetheart (and a very early Happy 10th Anniversary !!)

Love you muchly,

r

Langley is the 14th century castle where we were married in May 1998.  I am floored, and gobsmacked and flabbergasted and desperately excited. He's a keeper that husband of mine. We haven't been 'home' to visit in 5 years.  The night before we were married we ate in dinner with our families in the castle, there was a couple there celebrating their 10th anniversary, we joked that one day that might be us.

I've been surfing and debating and plotting and planning.  Will it be Scotland again?  More of Wales - maybe Snowdonia? Will we drive down and see Cornwall instead?  East Coast? West Coast? So many choices! I know we will drive through the hills and dales of Yorkshire because I think it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I know their will be Lancashire crumbly with oat cakes and good cider and beer, eccles cakes, sheep, SHEEP(!) everywhere, little villages to see and hopefully some new cookbooks to discover.

Where will we stay?  Should I make reservations at St. John's or The Fat Duck?

If anyone has suggestions of things we shouldn't miss, places we should stay or places we need to dine at, please drop me a note. I am beginning the list making with great excitement..I love making plans...

Already 2008 is looking up up up...

Christmas Eve - La Viglia

Well, here we are.  Thankful to not be in a hospital bed.  Thankful that our shopping is done, a duck is in the fridge awaiting its destiny tomorrow and the tree, that has been standing naked for a week, is now happily decorated with presents tucked around its skirt.

Husband opened his birthday gifts this morning and when we went over to create a cook this afternoon to drop off a gift, he got to make his own chocolate cupcake.  He's quite pleased.
Soon we'll head over to my cousin's house for la viglia, feast of the seven fishes, with all my crazy Italian relatives.  Each year I give husband the choice to dine in a lovely quiet restaurant or attend the 500 decibel event that is my family gathered at Christmas. Surprisingly each year he chooses to attend the Sopranos express.  Go figure.

My cousin Johnny (8 days older than me and not about to allow me to forget it), who is also head cook tonight, has always sung and more importantly he has always been an enormous fan of Elvis. Years of family gatherings always, ALWAYS, included a Karaoke segment long, l-o-n-g, before anyone stateside knew what karaoke even was. One of his teachers was one of the guys in a local group called Boston Rockabilly.  He finally went in the studio with them and made a CD called "ode to a king".  This is my crazy Elvis lovin cousin Johnny doing my favourite track on the CD, Little Sister.

So as I leave to celebrate Christmas with my crazy family, I'd like to wish the best to you and yours. 

Buon Natale!