Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Addendum to Boston and Seneca Falls



I didn't mean to leave you hanging on my mysterious symptom of having an extremely bitter taste after everything I ate. That is now gone and lasted about a week. I am pretty sure this happened because I ate pine nuts. What this article doesn't mention, besides why it happens (because nobody knows), is that, incredibly, the symptoms don't start right away. They can start one to three days after you've eaten them. In my case, salad with toasted pine nuts on a Monday or Tuesday (can't remember), symptoms on Thursday morning. This only happened to me--not to Doug. I don't know if my pine nuts came from China (most do). You can get them from Italy, but it sounds like they are harder to find. There seem to be no other ill effects. This is kind of a bummer, because I love pine nuts. I dislike that taste even more, though, so...I guess I will be looking for Italian pine nuts and see if that makes a difference. I've been eating pine nuts for years and this is the first time I've had anything like this happen!

Boston and Seneca Falls, Part Two

Sunday morning we had another delicious breakfast at John Morris Manor Bed and Breakfast. More fresh fruit, a similar egg dish to Saturday's, but with herbs, and a side of bacon, and divine French toast with an apple compote. Fresh, delicious. I had coffee instead of tea. Also delicious. Oh, and by the way, it's real tea you get to choose from. Not Lipton.

On the way back to Ellen Aim's apartment, this time yours truly doing the driving---and screaming---, we listened to more great music. I love road trips with my iPod. We actually had very similar playlists, but notable differences, so that was fun. New stuff (ODIS!) and old/"other" stuff (mostly the kind of stuff you don't admit to liking).

We managed to get home in one piece and then it was off to meet Ellen Aim's husband at the theater (huge) to see Paranormal Activity. Ellen Aim thoughtfully provided us with disposable coffee cups of a bit of limoncello. I drank it a little too quickly (I felt a little odd walking around with it--we're on the subway, by the way). I also needed to eat, so we loaded up on nachos and hot dogs at the theater. YUM. Unfortunately, I did not realize the whole movie was shot with a hand held video camera. I discovered, while watching the Blair Witch Project, that I get motion sickness watching movies like that. I missed the last 5 minutes of Blair Witch to go throw up in the bathroom. Nice. So I tried to stay in the theater with my eyes closed. Impossible. It looked like it might have been a bit creepy during the moments I came up for air. Can't say. I left with about 15-20 minutes to go. It's a short movie. I also couldn't find the way OUT of the theater, so I ended up walking queasily in front of the screen. Yep, nice! I survived and didn't get sick and we made it back home. I wish we had seen Zombieland! I was fine by the time I woke up at 4 AM for my flight/drive home.

I can't wait to visit again! I think I'll wait until spring or summer, though. I think Ellen Aim is probably already making use of the box o' winter gear I sent her.

Sophia Takes More Pictures

I couldn't resist sharing a few.












Intermission

Selections from our road trip playlist.



Sorry the sound is SO crappy on this Odis video. Just trust me it rocks and buy the album. I want to see them live!







OMG! They have this song on YouTube! This is NOT an easy song to get a hold of. This is my favorite song. Ever. Maybe.

HAHAHAHA! Oh, the videos of the 1980s. Nothing quite like them.


Of course, there is more, but that is a sampling.

Boston and Seneca Falls, Part One

I spent the weekend before last in Boston and Seneca Falls, NY with my sister, Ellen Aim. I was lucky enough that JetBlue was the cheapest airfare I could find. I especially like JetBlue when I can go through the JFK airport. It's clean, the food is decent if overpriced, and there is free wifi. Plus, so far I've had pretty good luck with making connections and the planes leaving on time (it was late leaving JFK for Houston, but I had no connections to make and no children with me, so I didn't mind, but if I had had the kids with me...ugh!). I also like the TV sets on the back of each chair. Every now and then the sets don't work, so I wouldn't totally rely on those being there. You can still check one bag for free as long as it's under 50 pounds. There are also free chips and beverages. So, there is my plug for JetBlue.

I've been to Boston before, but driving down from Vermont. We've been to the aquarium a couple of times and the Italian district. It's totally different when you use the train/subway system and stay with someone who lives there (well, just outside of Boston, anyway). The subway system is nice (it would probably take me a while to figure it out) and I would LOVE to be able to not need a car. I hate driving in Boston. I don't like driving in Houston, and Dallas even less, but Boston? Boston is the worst. The city is great, the driving is terrifying.

So Thursday Ellen Aim and I went to a couple of her favorite pub spots. We went to Grendel's Den where they have half-price food from 5:30 to 7 PM. The beer is great (we had the Cambridge Ale), the food is...so-so. The pretzels were fine and the spinach/artichoke/snow crab dip was oookay, but we ordered some sort of Camembert dip (I remember it was supposed to have caraway seeds in it) that was orange. The light was dim. Perhaps it was pink. We tried to like it, but after eating half of it decided it "had grown off of us". I don't see it on the website menu at the moment. Still, the pub is worth a second try next time I visit! The butternut squash ravioli with sage and brown butter (damn, everyone makes that dish, but at least it is worthy of repetition) was perhaps a special as I don't see it on the menu. This was not bad at all. Oh yes, it had pecans. Lovely pecans. So definitely worth a second try. After that, I am not sure what we did. There was walking around and hanging out at her apartment, visiting a cute little Japanese store, and so on. We ended up at John Harvard's. I didn't take notes and I don't see what we had on the menu. Figures. I think we had the Oktoberfest brews (excellent), but I also had some sort of special stout, which was malty and wonderful. I'd go back for the beer. The food was not as impressive. We had mozzarella sticks, which were dry and lukewarm. However, they were very generous with the sauce. I was exhausted at this point and we went home.

Friday! Time to drive out to Seneca Falls, where we stayed at John Morris Manor Bed and Breakfast. The breakfast here is absolutely wonderful. It's clean, it's cute, and I would absolutely stay here again. I love bed and breakfasts so much more than hotels! They do have two dogs, who are friendly, but also not shy. May not be the place for you if you are really not a dog person. It would be a shame to miss breakfast here, though. Seneca Falls, itself, however, was not too exciting. We had a hard time finding a place to eat. Many shops appear to be out of business. We ate at a pizza/pasta place that did not have its alcohol license yet. We ordered pasta. We were served with what looked like at least a pound of pasta each. It was unremarkable in flavor. The garlic rolls that came before the pasta were crusty, warm, and flavorful. We filled up on those.
Then back to John Morris Manor (where there is no wifi, but we lived). We horked a couple of chocolate chip cookies and went to bed.

Saturday morning, we were treated to a fresh fruit plate, tea, pancakes with blueberry sauce,and a sort of baked egg frittata (but looked like it was baked in a pan and then cut into squares--very fluffy and light and delicious. I'm going to try this.) with cheese. The other guests (two couples at the same table with us) were utterly charming. There was also juice. Dogs did a bit of begging.

I have neglected to mention that since Thursday morning (the morning I left for Boston), every thing I ate had a bitter, metallic aftertaste. Everything. Water. Bread. Worst culprits were greens and sweet things. I was so paranoid that I had some mysterious dental issue going on. It wasn't so bad the day I got to Boston, but the absolute worst day was Saturday, the day we were going on the wine trails. So that was a bit of a downer.

So keeping in mind that I could not properly taste wine to save my life, we started at Eleven Lakes Winery, which is just down the road from John Morris Manor. This is exciting because it's new and had their grand opening on October 3rd. I bought a bottle of red for Doug. It's long gone now, but I'm pretty sure it was the Cabernet Franc. The innkeeper at John Morris Manor recommended it.

Then we had cheese further down the road. Oh, the cheese tasted so good and then the weird bitter taste symptom appeared. We both bought the Horseradish cheddar cheese (I'm sorry I don't have the name of the farm that made the cheese at the moment. I'll try to find it).



Then we went to Knapp Winery in Romulus (insert Star Trek joke here). Again, taste buds fail me here, but I will say putting pictures of cats on the label that look like they have been to the taxidermist is not a good marketing idea. There is a huge selection here. They have a whole category of "fruit" wines, which is really not my thing, but there it is. Neither of us cared for any of the wine we tasted (I will say you can taste anything they sell in your wine tasting--I can't remember how many wines you get to have in one tasting, but it's a significant amount). However, once we realized we could taste the limoncello or limencello, we had to try it. The lemoncello is quite good and Ellen Aim bought a bottle (wish I had, too). Next time I'll try the limencello. Maybe I'll even try the restaurant next time! This vineyard was very popular--it was full of people and cars when we arrived.

Our last vineyard stop was Americana Vineyards and Winery, where we went to last year.

We resolved to go again this year, because the food there is wonderful, and the Apparition wine (blend of Cayuga grapes) was a favorite. Really, this winery is the one to go to for wine made from Cayuga grapes. The Cayuga White is also very good. Clean, crisp, dry. The Apparition is a bit sweeter (not at all too much, mind you). The Finger Lakes region seems better suited to white wines in my very limited experience so far. The winery also had a tasting menu of blueberry wines, which we had to try. Avoid that. The best of those was the last item on the tasting menu, which was the dessert wine. That was okay.

Waiting for a table at lunch was a long 45 minutes or so.

It was worth the wait. Everything tastes fresh and in-house. The bread on the sandwiches is very classy. The menu was different than last year, so we couldn't get the little dish full of nibblies we had last year. I had a grilled chicken sandwich with arugula pesto and sweet potato fries (not soggy! crispy! delightful!) and Ellen Aim had pork chops with mashed red potatoes and kale. Oh, the kale was sort of disappointing. It had sliced carrots in it and what tasted like reduced apple cider in it. It was too sweet for me. I am noticing a trend here. It may not escape your notice I'm not a huge fan of sweet things. Really, I like sweet things. In moderation. It didn't help that when I ate sweet things, the bitter after taste in my mouth was at its worst. Perhaps the kale was just fine. Maybe Ellen Aim will weigh in. It was her dish, after all. The winery also sells fudge, which is delicious for a small bite. I really loved the coconut fudge.

The winery also has a very friendly adorable cat.

I was totally exhausted at this point (I am also predictable), so we went back to the inn. We decided not to venture out again into the depressing place that Seneca Falls is at night (we did find a liquor store...no Tuaca, but we got some Godiva liqueur). We put a disk of Supernatural in and ate some of the lovely Horseradish cheese with some leftover crackers in the car and called it a night. We had to eat in the living area instead of our room (completely understandable). Fortunately, the room was empty so we didn't have to share Supernatural with the other guests.

I'll save the rest of the trip for another post.

Monday, October 19, 2009

It's RED!

Triana got Sophia a RED digital camera for her birthday! Thank you, Triana! We found it this morning on the doorstep and we had to open it right before school started. Sophia's drop off at school has been dramatic lately, so I worried that this would make it worse, but amazingly, it went just fine. Maybe it helped she had a huge box of chocolate chip cookies in her hands to give to her teacher for her birthday celebration today.

Anyway, I used her new camera to take her picture:


She took these:






Going to have to work on having a steady hand!

We took this together:


I'll pick her up early today so we can get lots of practice in! I think I can make the resolution better, actually. I finally looked at the instructions (I had to, to figure out how to download it onto the computer) and I see that is an option. Instructions are a handy thing.

Friday, October 16, 2009

How to End A Crappy Week



First give your youngest a big bath.



Later, have a glass of wine...



with a LUSH bubble bath.

Then prepare for a car trip out of town for the weekend!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

5 years!


















Sophia will be five this Sunday. We're driving up to Denton so we can celebrate with her grandparents (on my side). I asked her what kind of cake she wanted (hoping to distract her from her sister rabidly encouraging her to ask for a dragon cake) and she said she wanted the cake I made for her Daddy's birthday. This is excellent. I made an almond meringue cake with chocolate buttercream from The Art of the Cake. She did really get down on that cake. The meringue was a little problematic in August in this armpit-like area, but I think it will work better now, in colder, dryer Denton. It's all relative. Plus, I don't think I'm going to pipe the meringue in. I will next time--gotta hone those piping skillz, after all, but I want this to be nearly perfect, so in order to work faster and lighter, I'm going to just scoop that meringue in those cake pans. It'll be fine.

The birthday girl has lost a second tooth. Yes, it's early. Oh, and by the way, she has completely stopped sucking her thumb. I took her to the pediatrician for boosters and another shot (TX vaccination requirements are different than VT ones). The office was FILLED with hardcore pictures of diseases...of course, the kind of diseases you get if you don't vaccinate. Sigh. She was totally disturbed by these pictures. So the doctor comes in, and all is well. Then she notices that Sophia sucks her thumb. She encourages her not to. All of this has been said and done before by teachers, nurses, other parents, doctors, us, etc. She does not care and I don't blame her. Sucking your thumb is very satisfying when you are 4 (5, 6, 7...). She mentions how you can transfer the germs from your hand to your mouth. Whatev. But THEN she points to the pictures and said you can get THESE diseases. That made a HUGE impression on her. She stopped cold turkey.

This is not a good thing. She would be so worried if her hands got near her mouth. She asked about everything: "Will it give me yucky diseases?" She had no comfort outlet. Anytime she felt unsure or shy or tender or sleepy or anything that wasn't active playing or eating, she sucked her thumb. So we have spent the last month and a half trying to find how to survive when you can't comfort yourself. It has been hard. Fuzzy, her well-loved platypus thing, isn't cutting it. She was letting him go by the wayside before this and he's still on his way out. Although, truthfully, he has today made his way into the car and is waiting for her in her carseat. Her school gave her water out of the tap and she asked me when she got home if she would die now. Oh. My. God.

So, hopefully, this weekend will be good for her. She also had a dentist appointment this week and she would not let them touch her teeth. She DID let them X-ray her teeth, so at least we can see there are no cavities. Just lots of plaque that really needs to be cleaned off. But later. On the doctor and dentist days, I kept her out of school and we just played together. We went to the beach, had lunch with her dad, and just had fun. It's nice to go to the beach in October, by the way. It's snowing back in Vermont (I keep wanting to say "back home") and we are still wearing flip-flops.

I can't believe it's been 5 years. I think she still looks like my little baby, but as you can see, she is really growing into a big girl.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

New Camera



I'm sorry this is sideways. I'm not used to our new camera, which shoots video! I know this is not new technology, but it's new to me! I love new toys.



Mistakes were made. But those littleneck clams were The Nom.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

My Little Skeptics

Two tidbits:

Sobo has been reading "The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill" by Dorothy Wall to the kids (Fiona started reading it on her own soon after). On page 12 it says, "The great day arrived. In a quiet corner of the bush, down by a little stream surrounded with bells and flannel flowers, everyone came from far and near to see young Bill christened". Fiona asked, "Why is his last name Christened"?

We went to Meet and Greet at Fiona's school. Her teacher gave each student a little gem-like thing to put under their pillows the night before the first day of school so that they would have good dreams about 2nd grade (I know this is sort of cheesy, but for the record, I thought it was cute). Fiona was telling this to Sophia later--that Fiona would have good dreams because of this gem. Sophia gave Fiona this confused look and said "No, you won't" in this incredulous tone of voice.

Lots going on here. However, our house has sold (with some conditions), but it is no longer ours.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Mundane Blatherings



Oy, I'm still here, but engulfed by the details of life.

I finally got to register Fiona for school today and she is very excited. We've decided to let her take the bus to and from school, which is part of her excitement. It picks her up at approximately the ass crack of dawn, but, apparently, school here starts just after the ass crack of dawn. I asked about the gifted and talented program (apparently everyone gets tested for that in Kindergarten), and we can ask about that through her teacher (we find out who that is on the 20th)...probably giving it about a month to see where she's at. Sophia still seems to be enjoying school, although her teacher indicated that in the last two days she is reluctant to do her work. I was planning on taking her out of school tomorrow so she and Fiona can go to the Space Center together (there is this monstrosity of a climbing thing she salivates over, and it's so big and so maze-like that I want them to stick together in there). She is very excited about this. Hopefully, that isn't a bad idea because I'd like to do it one more time next week and take them both to the beach.

I had this idea earlier that Sophia would stay at her school until 6 instead of 2 when the school year started. Fiona's bus can actually drop Fiona off there after school, so I could pick them up at the same time. Fiona loves this idea. Now, however, it seems silly because A) I don't have a job yet. I haven't even started looking. B) 6 makes for a LONG day for them C) That'd be quite a bit extra spare change. So, hopefully, when I do find a job, that is something I can change later...and hopefully they could be picked up earlier than 6 (I mean, they go to bed around 7-7:30). I'm still not sure if I even like Sophia's school. Her teacher in the morning seems nice enough. I guess I need to schedule a visit and a conference to talk about how Sophia is doing. Once Fiona is in school, I can pop by a lot more frequently.

The closing date on our house has been moved to the 25th, or possibly some time before that. I believe the walls and ceiling are finally done, but the floors need to be finished. The entire first floor will be sanded and polished so it will all match. So hopefully, that makes up for the slightly later closing date. I just want it to be over.

Random fact. Did you know when you get your Texas driver's license when you move in from out of state, they take your old one away? You don't get a Texas driver's license with a photo on it for 6-8 weeks. This makes things extremely inconvenient. Things like trying to get important FedEx packages, opening up new bank accounts, using your credit card/debit card/checks. Oh, the list. It goes on.

We braved Houston last weekend and went to the FABULOUS zoo. We got a family membership, which is well worth every penny. My computer doesn't seem to recognize my camera at the moment (sigh), but hopefully pictures will soon be forthcoming.



These pictures are from Alex's visit last weekend. We had so much fun! It went by too fast. Next time we'll take her into Houston. I think the girls would prefer if we lived even closer to our families!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

We'll Eat You Up, We Love You So!



I'm drowning in the annoying minutiae of life, but I'm still here. If only this movie were out NOW. I'm really looking forward to this!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009