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April 24, 2006
Happy Day
What a great weekend. Okay, so it rained so hard for so long that my ceiling started to get jealous so it started raining too.... Aside from a wet apartment, a lovely weekend was had!
Heather and her boyfriend Brendan/Brandon (and I really don't mean to offend here... I can NEVER get the guy's name right) popped down to CT Friday evening and came out to dinner with me, Mary and Scott. We went to Sake in Southbury and it was INCREDIBLE! By far the best meal I've had in a long time. I had red snapper in a thai chile sauce with brown rice.....drool. Very nicely decorated - quite a chic little spot. I'd like to eat there every Friday night. Do you ever wish that you were rich? I do. Every day. Damn it. sigh.
After dinner, we headed home and drank a bottle and a half of sake to keep in theme. Woooooo! That was fun.
Saturday morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed to our cups of java and headed out to the grocery store to shop for some ingredients to make a yummy hors d'ouerves. H and I decided on mini quiches in teeeeeeeeeeeny fillo crusts! We made half with spinach and feta and half with gruyere, topped with a slice of teeeeeeeny cherry tomato! No, I don't have any photographic evidence. Yes, they were that good.
We picked up Mary and Scott and boarded a ferry in Bridgeport. The ferry might have been out on a bender the night before, too, as it seemed a bit distracted when it came to staying in the water.
The seas were choppy that day, friends. I saw a round lady waddle ever so quickly to the ladies room. She was never heard from again.
Disclaimer: I really don't know if the round lady was never heard from again - she might have come right out. As I tend to become bored with things I watch once I've decided how I'd rather see things play out, you never can tell.
After an hour and 15 minutes of up, down, and all around with the ferry, we were happy to disembark and find our teeeeeeeny Aunt Nancy arriving in cousin Connie's giganto Suburban to pick us up! It was a sight to see. She explained that Connie was busy and her hubby Paul wasn't feeling too great, so she was sent to grab us. She then conjectured that Paul must really not feel well if he let her drive. Hee. Agreed.
As she always seems to do, Aunt Nancy immediately did something that made me feel just wonderful. She called Heather's boyfriend Brendan, then Brandon, then couldn't remember which was right. Maybe it's genetic?
We arrived to be greeted by the gaggle of children. Riley was a bit shy at first, but Finn, Shane and Bridget made up for that with immediate giggles and hugs. Oy. Just when I think I'm over that whole "maybe I should think about having babies someday" nonsense, I see these kids. They make you want to have a dozen.
Here we have the gang! From the left: Shane, Finn, RIley and Bridget.
Here they are trying to teach Heather how to gamble.
The occasion was Aunt Nan's 65th birthday! She looks amazing! (Hoping that's genetic too....) Con made an amazing meal of fresh crab cakes and veggie orzo salad with feta. DROOL. And topped it off with a cake decorated so beautifully, it made me want to take one of those crazy cake decor classes! (Okay, so she bought the cake - but you need to give credit for having impeccable taste to pick out a cake like this!)
So pretty! Aunt Nan loves shells and anything to do with the ocean and beach. It runs in the family....
Connie doing the honors.
All together now!
And I can finally unveil the finished Flower Basket Shawl! It looked great on her - as I so modestly predicted. ;) I'll update the gallery with all the details.
From the front.... Aunt Nan always feels a need to hold something in front of her when posing for a picture. Hee.
And the back. Click the pic for a larger view.
It was great to hang out with everyone. I got to be green with envy over hearing about Paul's trip to the Master's tournament (yep, I'm one of those strange people that likes to watch golf!), got to catch up with the kids and hear about all their daring do in sports and ballet, got to gab with Connie about everything under the sun and got to hug my Aunt Nan about a gazillion times which was the highlight of my weekend.
Present time!
We had rough seas on the way back, but we all seemed to snooze it away.... ah, what good food and neverending wine bottles can do for your mood!
Here we see Ferry Mary, bogged down with booze and choc-o-lates. See those perty baskets? They are our Easter baskets from Aunt Nan! HEEE!
Heather and Bra/endo/an headed back Sunday morning and I spent a mostly dry day indoors working on various projects that have been long neglected.
Spectacular! Don't you love when a weekend filled with terrible weather ends up being so gosh darned great?
PS: Here are more pics if you are interested. :)
Posted by Sarah at 7:43 PM | Comments (2)
April 21, 2006
One Month.
That's right. I've been smoke free for one month. I'm still alive and surprisingly enough, so are those around me.
Mary and Scott have made it this far too! To celebrate, we are going out for dinner tonight with Heather and her boyfriend. We are hitting up a new asian fusion restaurant nearby that I've been DYING to try! In my opinion, occasions don't get more special than this, so it's time to treat ourselves!
We are off to see my Aunt Nancy in Long Island tomorrow for her birthday. I love my Aunt Nancy. She is quite possibly the kindest, sweetest person I've ever met. The fact that I get to have her in my life - and in my family - is one of my biggest blessings. My cousin Connie and her hubby and their ridiculously adorable little ones will all be there, too! I can't wait to spend a day with so many of my favorite people. Life is good!
I have a finished object.... but can't show it off until later this weekend.... What can I say, you're just going to have to be patient!
Posted by Sarah at 12:51 PM | Comments (8)
April 17, 2006
One Sunny Weekend
I have a major case of Spring Fever. I'll spare you the witty remarks of "Better watch out or you'll catch it!" or perhaps "And I don't want to recover!". I imagine a frail man with really big teeth saying these things and I feel an urge to punch something.
ANYWAY.
This weekend was absolutely gorge. I pretty much wanted to live outdoors. Instead, I went on a couple of hikes.
Saturday's hike was in Bridgewater, in the Sunny Valley Nature Preserve on the Silica Mine Trail. Mary and Gracie came with! (Kyra is on the mend from a bout of ... well, we don't quite know yet.... but she stayed home to be on the safe side.) This was a great hike and an excellent warm up hike for the Spring. Not very difficult, but enough inclines and declines to keep you interested. It was about 3 and a half miles long and with a whole bunch of little breaks, we mosied through it in a couple of hours.
Mary and her faithful companion at the trailhead.
We climbed a hill to a lervley vista overlooking the Housatonic River. Sigh.
At the top of our short climb, we found this spectacular spot! Don't you just want to pull up with a pic-a-nic basket?
The vista.... There's the Housatonic behind those budding trees!
We saw waterfalls
I have some other cool shots in the album.
I was really wishing for my tripod when I saw these little falls!
Lots and lots of rocks
The trail is literally glittering! There is silica in the dirt and when the sun catches it just right... it's really cool. Guess this is why they call it the Silica Mine Trail.... yeah?
Degobah.
Yoda lives here.
And came down a great big hill covered with giganto boulders to meet back up with the River.
I love hiking with Mary because we always have adventures! We wandered around a little mixed up on a couple of trails, but found our way back... We came upon a busted bridge that was meant to take us over a muddy bog, so we had to find another way. And everything is always something. Heather might be the only one to get that.....
The shit got scared straight out of us at one point as a tree was thinking about not being upright anymore - desiring rather to be horizontal. He didn't go through with it while we were there... but the creaking sounded more like a small animal than a tree. Yeah. We laughed our asses off afterwards - realizing that we both froze up over a TREE. Phew.
More pics of our Sunny Valley adventure can be found here.
Sunday was spent a little closer by at Huntington State Park in Redding. It's a pretty flat hike and not too long, so Kyra and I ventured over there for our Easter Sunday. She was soooo happy to get out into the woods! We had a good time. :) A very peaceful, quiet and fulfilling holiday.
My goal this summer is to hike and/or camp every single weekend - weather permitting. Some serious backpacking plans are in the works for late Summer.... but I'm not telling yet. :)
Posted by Sarah at 10:26 PM | Comments (2)
April 10, 2006
Quickie
I have a total case of the hots for Anthony Bourdain.
I was watching No Reservations the other night where he proclaimed that he could make a beurre blanc sauce with his hands tied behind his back and a bong in his mouth. There's just something damn sexy about that man.
Posted by Sarah at 9:38 PM | Comments (6)
April 3, 2006
Bad Blogger. No Cookie.
Okay. I kind of suck. So? What do you have to say about it? Hmm? Yeah. Thought so.
Can you tell I quit smoking 2 weeks ago (AGAIN) and am having a bit of attitude problem on accounta it? Well, I am. And anyone who doesn't like it can take a long walk off a short pier.
BAD SARAH! Stop it! Someone smack my hand or something. Jesus, the things that keep coming out of my mouth!
I've never been one to hide my emotions or even - at times - lack thereof. So when faced with giving up something that I know is slowly killing my lungs and semi-good looks, but I have come to count on as a crutch..... When I know that quittingt is going to make me into a super mega bitch for a little while..... well, I say let the chips fall where they may. I just can't hide how goddamned pissed off I am. (Con, the kids can't read yet, right? Wait, they definitely can. Well, they're not reading this right now are they? Sweet Jesus, I hope not.)
ANYWAY. We are at Day 14 today and going strong. I officially kick ass. I kick serious ass. I could kick your ass. YES, YOURS. YOU WANT SOME?????
Shit. There I go again. I need a shock collar or something, I swear to God.
Okay, to catch you up on non post smoking traumatic stress disorder related matters... We had super mega sister weekend last week. (First person to make fun of me using the phrase "super mega" twice in one post gets their ass kicked.) It was awesome. Caitlin flew up from Floreeduhhhhh and Heather came down from the Town of Beans. Mary ummmm came over. Uh she doesn't live but 2 minutes away. But it was still FABULOUS of her to come over!
Here's evidence that the three of them spent some serious time at my house:
Mary and Scott and I took Monday off and took Caitlin and the canines (hey, is that a band? it totally should be. Caitlin - start a band and call it that. Get together the ugliest of your friends and force them to play a variety of musical instruments. I would laugh my ass off. Do it. NOW. I'm a dangerous woman. Don't test me.) ANYWAY. We took them all on a hike on part of the Appalachian Trail up in Kent. 'Twas pretty great.
Heather, don't you feel like a sucker for being on a bus back to that Town o' Beans when we were totally rocking out at this phat lean-to we discovered? YEAH.
In other news, I finally got off my ass and to the salon. And then sat back down on my ass so my hair coould be cut. My friend Lauren is the greatest cutter of hair in the history of hair cutting. She removed an obscene amount of hair from my head, and there is still a pretty crazy amount leftover. I freaking love it. Wanna see? It's super mega great. (Right. That was a test. I HEARD YOU! And I'm coming up to that Town of Legumes to KICK YOUR ASS!) Ahem. Sorry. On to the photos....
Courtesy of Zhaan, my new camera phone....
And the fact that I can't get it to look like this on a daily basis in no way enrages me to the point that I'd just like to shave it all off and be done with it because that would be soooo irrational and only some nut job that just quit smoking and can't seem to cope with stress or imperfection could be so loco as to lash out at her own hair in such a way.... Oh, wait.
On the good days, I really like it.
And that's all the news that's fit to spew out at you right now. Anyone need some muscle? Like someone owe you some money and they need to be sent a "message"? Cuz I could totally use both the physical outlet and the extra cash. I think I am as strong and angry of at least two of pre-post smoking traumatic stress disorder Sarah.
And that friends, is saying a lot.
Posted by Sarah at 10:25 PM | Comments (12)