A few more things I love about fall/winter

I am one of those unique people who appreciates all seasons, all weather. I love a cold winter night as much as I like a sunny summer afternoon.

Let’s recap from a previous post:

- Hot chocolate!!!! Yes, hot chocolate especially with soy milk and WHIPPED CREAM!

- The smell of fireplaces. (I wish we had one.)

- Apple picking!

- Snow! I love snow. (Until March) But everything seems happy and magical when it snows.

- Better yet: blizzards! I love me a blizzard. I love being snowed in when they don’t plow my street because then I can walk to Keltic Krust for cookies and hot chocolate! And later to Crowley’s for some beer.

- HALLOWEEN!!!

- The picturesque leaves changing.

- Hot apple cider.

- Thanksgiving (and noodle kugel) because I only have kugel over Thanksgiving and Christmas!

- Christmas and spending time with family.

- The sound of the radiators at night.

- Using the steam room at the YMCA when I know it’s freezing out. Something’s very comforting about it.

- Having an excuse to just lie around the house watching TV, playing cards and board games with Matt, and reading.

- Brunch! This can be done year round but I particularly love it in the winter because it’s all comfort foods!

- Scarves, hats, and gloves. Fashionable AND functional!

- Cooking! When it’s 80 degrees in the kitchen, I don’t always feel like cooking. But in the fall and winter, I love it. I make extras and stick ‘em in the freezer.

- Flannel nightgowns!!

- Cream of Wheat. I know, Cream of Wheat is actually kind of gross but it reminds me of when I was a kid. We’d have that and hot chocolate on cold winter mornings. Also, waffles.

- Our attic. It’s so warm and cozy in the winter. I could just live up there. Actually, I probably would if the attic stairs weren’t so scary.

- Valentine’s Day. People hate it, but I really like it - CANDY! Especially because Matt and I like to go to CVS the day after Valentine’s Day and get candy on discount.

- At the end of winter when bulbs start poking out from the ground.

- Getting pizza or Chinese food delivered because it’s too cold to go outside.

- Shoveling the sidewalk. People think I’m nuts for liking this. But the way I see it, it’s great exercise AND it’s usually a time to chit chat with neighbors because the whole neighborhood is out there shoveling!

- The winter is the only time of the year when I don’t have allergies.

- Wearing pajama pants under long skirts. Nobody ever knows how comfortable I am!

- SOCKS!

- Cold, sunny days after a snowfall. Everything glows.

- Oktoberfest! BEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Sledding.

- Chamomile tea with honey.

- Cuddling with my cat…he’s not so cuddly when it’s hot out.

- Turtlenecks. I like to watch TV with the neck part of the turtleneck pulled over my mouth and nose. It’s very cozy.

- Getting into my car and not scalding my hands on the steering wheel.

And now I have a few more to add:

- CLEMENTINES! I just bought my first crate of the season on Sunday and I’ve really been enjoying them.

- Convertible mittens! After years of coveting them, I finally broke down and bought a pair. What do I mean by convertible mittens, you ask? Here is an example!

- A few months of a break from gardening. I love gardening, but between November and April, it’s kind of nice to not have to worry about watering the tomatoes, harvesting the lettuce, making sure none of the flowers die. Instead we can just work on adding to our compost so we have some nice soil come spring. (Though we still have our Aerogarden, but that is low maintenance. Speaking of which, final harvest might be coming soon…)

- Being a homebody. Come to our house and we’ll drink wine and play Taboo!

- CrockPot cooking. Mmm…maybe I’ll make chili next week.

- Heating up cider at home, which is easy to do with our Choco Latte Beverage Maker, courtesy of Julienne.

- Tea tea tea. Yerba Mate tea.

- Cinnamon toast! And thanks to this I can just easily shake out the proper ratio of cinnamon and sugar.

- Heating pads. I have bad circulation so my feet are often as cold as ice. When it’s cold, I put the heating pad on my feet and I put a blanket on em.

Sheep Shearing Festival

On Saturday, Matt and I attended a Sheep Shearing Festival at Gore Place in Waltham. It was so much fun!

I am torn between being a city girl and a country girl. I lived in Brooklyn when I was little, but spent most of my life in Central Jersey, which at the time was filled with farms and cows. Now it’s filled with shopping centers and housing developments. When we first moved to New Jersey, we didn’t even have a local supermarket! We had a general store. The summers smelled like cow manure. I haven’t lived in an area like that in a long time. Usually I tend to live right outside of cities.

But until recently, I didn’t know that we were only a few miles from being able to visit the farm animals at Gore Place! Below are the pictures from the festival:

Matt and I listening the the bluegrass music

OXEN!

This big guy mooed in a baby’s face.

Matt looks proud because this was after I confiscated the camera because he was spending a great deal of time photographing cow doody.

Lots of oxen pics

Sheep, many waiting to be sheared.

Sheep enjoying their new hairdos.

A llama! Isn’t he funny?

A girl sheep getting sheared. She didn’t seem to mind and she was awfully cute.

Baby goats!

The baby goats kept going into that little roof structure thing.

BWOCK!

Border collie herding demonstration.

Mini horses

Matt and horses

HELLO! I’m Mr. Ed!

Pygmy sheep and goats.

Me

Alpacas! I think they’re so funny looking!!

Matt enjoying the alpacas!

BABY!

I think this was the Alpha Male and he was kind of a jerk to the other goats.

The Alpha Male trying to pick a fight with another goat. They were butting each other’s heads.

A pirate looking guy selling baskets

I’m the same age as Pac-Man!

I thought this was fun…

In 1981 (the year you were born)

Ronald Reagan becomes president of the US Minutes after Ronald Reagan becomes president, Iran releases 52 American hostages that had been held captive for 444 days President Reagan is shot in the chest by would be assassin John Hinkley Space shuttle Columbia, the world’s first reusable spacecraft, is sent into space A suspended walkway in the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapses, killing 113 A female former lover files a “palimony” suit against tennis star Billie Jean King President Reagan appoints Sandra Day O’Connor to be the first woman on the Supreme Court The Pac-Man video game is introduced in the US Alicia Keys, Elijah Wood, Kelly Rowland, Anna Kournikova, and Britney Spears are born Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series Oakland Raiders win Superbowl XV New York Islanders win the Stanley Cup Raiders of the Lost Ark is the top grossing film “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes spends the most time at the top of the US charts MTV debuts on cable television, playing music videos 24 hours a day Gimme a Break premieres

Camping!

Matt and I just returned from camping at Lake Dennison in Otter River State Forest.

We had a lovely view from our campsite.

Matt made a great fire

Just relaxing

Relaxing on Friday night

Whoops! Smoke in Matt’s eyes!

Now, where’s that trail mix??

About to play Ticket To Ride, which I proceeded to get my butt kicked at three times over the course of the weekend.

Lilypads

A tree on the lake

Matt serenading our burgers.

Some delicious honeydew that I actually purchased from Costco! It was delicious.

Lots more pictures, but I have used up my free storage quota on my Flickr. I should really upgrade.

I took one last picture before we took off:

Other cool things about the weekend:

-There were lots and lots of frogs. We fell asleep both nights to the sound of frogs ribbiting and crickets chirping. It was very peaceful.

-The campground was clean and the bathrooms weren’t bad either.

-Great lake views from the campsite.

-There was an ice cream man by the beach part of the lake and he was selling toasted almond bars…those are hard to come by and I love them!

-The weather was FANTASTIC. Not too muggy, not too hot…it was absolutely perfect.

-The lake water was clean and cool. They had two beaches, and the smaller one was close to the campsites. Neither was too crowded.

-Not overly buggy out!

-It’s less than an hour and a half from Newton!!

What wasn’t quite as cool:

-We were surrounded by families who were there for some Boy Scout thing. These people were SO LOUD…at 6 AM both mornings we were awoken by boys screaming across the campground at each other.

-Our air mattress sprung a leak and sleeping on the floor was less than comfortable. My arms still feel a little funny.

-I stepped in mud while wearing flip-flops and Matt laughed heartily at me. :-(

-On the way home we saw signs on Route 2 for The Wachusett Brewery. As beer afficianados, we decided to exit there to find the brewery. We drove several miles down country roads only to find that the brewery is only open Wednesdays through Saturdays.

-They didn’t have boat rentals which bummed me out because I wanted to canoe.

Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk

Here I am, urging you to support yet another charitable cause! :-)

Matt and I are doing the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk this September. (Actually, we’re doing the half-marathon, starting in Wellesley…I’m not so sure I’ll have the stamina to walk to Boston from Hopkinton by September!)

Anyway, we each need to raise $200. Plllleeease donate if you can — it goes to a GREAT cause. (For you out of staters reading this, the Jimmy Fund is for cancer research!)

If you want to donate online go here. Unfortunately, I think you need to donate a minimum of $20 if you want to donate through the site…that’s kind of a bummer because I know that’s a little steep for some, but if you still want to donate you can send me a check (or just give it to me in person). Leave a comment here if you want to send a check and I’ll email you telling you where to send it. Make ‘em out to The Jimmy Fund.

Even if it’s just a few bucks, it could make a HUGE difference. Everything adds up and brings them one step closer to finding a cure. So seriously, if all you can swing is $2, send it on over because that’s $2 more than they had before.

And hey…if you’re local, why don’t you join us? We can walk from Wellesley to Copley Square together. It will likely be fun, exhausting, and totally worth it.

Fun at Drumlin Farm!

We went to Drumlin Farm on Saturday! Here are some pictures:

A rooster and hen. They just recently got together after the rooster lost his old hen, and they’re just starting to get along.

This goat was super duper preggo. She was in a separate pen and she was HUGE. I didn’t take a picture of her whole body, though, because her udder was freaking me out.

Happy as a pig in mud!

Piglets!!

These are the goats. They were frolicking around and playing. It was so cute.

More goats, enjoying the beautiful day.

I took more pictures I couldn’t get any good ones of the sheep. There was a really pretty fox there, too, but it was shy and ran away before I could snap a photo. There were also rescued owls there which I couldn’t get decent photos of.

But I like the goats. :-)

I don’t know if my cat’s a Red Sox fan…

Well, he doesn’t seem to like wearing the paraphernalia anyway.

“Get away from me, you stupid human!”

“I hate you!!!!!!!!”

“Here’s where I plan my escape route…”

“All right, I surrender…take your stupid picture!”

My First Fenway Park Experience

On Wednesday, I got to go to my first Red Sox game at Fenway Park!

Even though I don’t really follow baseball, I love live sporting events. I like the people-watching, the energy, and particularly at Red Sox games there’s an amount of passion and enthusiasm that I’ve never seen at a live sporting event before. It was quite an experience and lots of fun!

We had box seats so we were really close!

I think the Jimmy Fund logo is really cute!

At one point, the bottom part of this said: “EAT HEALTHY.” I thought it was really ironic, considering it was in between a McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts ad…plus, are Fenway Franks and Cracker Jack really conducive to a healthy lifestyle?

I had beer ($7) and a sausage ($4.25)…I think I got totally gypped with the sausage. It tasted and looked exactly like a hot dog, just slightly darker. When I got back to my seat, I noticed people with much better-looking sausages. And also with better beer!! (Our tickets were free though so I can’t really complain!)

We sang “Sweet Caroline”…it recently prompted me to find out why “Sweet Caroline” is the theme song. I did some research, but it seems like there’s no real reason.

Then some dude ran out on to the field during the ninth inning. Here’s security essentially tackling him.

And here he is, getting escorted out!

Overall, it was a great night! Getting back on the T was a bit of a nightmare — we waited in line for about a half hour!! But it was all worth it. And I get to go again in a few weeks with my “Little Sister”. :-)

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land…

I came home to a pleasant surprise. Tulips have bloomed in front of our house! We didn’t move into this house until August, so I didn’t know that the previous owner had planted bulbs. I noticed them sprouting about two weeks ago, but I had originally thought they were daffodills.

People always talk about how beautiful autumn is in New England, which I certainly agree with, but spring in New England is very lovely. Things have just begun to bloom. Everything is pretty and flowery. It all makes me sneeze but it’s nothing a little Claritin can’t cure!

Aren’t they pretty?

My bologna has a first name, it’s G-R-O-S-S…

You know what I think it among one of the most disgusting things known to man? Bologna. Just the thought of it alone makes me absolutely nauseous. I don’t know what reminded me of it, but all of a sudden I just thought how disgusting it is.

I looked up bologna on wikipedia, and it made me even more nauseous:

…bologna may also be served fried or wrapped around mashed potatoes and baked as a version of “pigs in blankets.”

Ring bologna can be found in two inch diameter sausages that are normally about a foot long. These can often be found pickled in a combination of vinegar, salt, sugar and spices.

Barfety barf barf BARF.

I think bologna tastes like the more disgusting little brother of something else I don’t generally care for: hot dogs. I think bologna is like cold, flat hot dogs. Ewww.

It reminds me of the “Seinfeld” episode where George’s mom makes a bunch of bologna sandwiches, and nobody wants them because, as George says, “Nobody eats bologna anymore.” So, George’s mom suggests that Jerry hands them out in his apartment building.