Is it 2009 yet? Or Holy Shit I'm Old, I can't stay up 'till midnight.

Since I promised to post tonight & I'm drinking with Training Buddy who reads my blog - I am posting. I have had several martinis, glasses of wine, too much food and now coffee. All I want to do is find the soft spot on the couch and fall asleep because if the ball drops in New York City and I'm not awake to see it - it's still 2009, right? We are having a pretty mellow night and that's OK but I am in serious jeopardy of staying awake another hour. I was afraid we'd run out of booze and now all I want to drink is coffee. But hey - it's 11:00 - only 1 hour left to go. I look forward to 2009 with high hopes but am content in the moment of 2008 for now. It has been a good year and I want to count my many blessings. Great friends, a supportive family, a house , a job, a couple extra bucks to do things I want and buy snobby coffee every once in awhile. Life is good now and I have no doubt it will be good if not better in 2009. So goodbye 2008 - you were good to me. I am going to toast to 2009, do a spell check on this post and hit the sack about 12:05. Happy New Year!

Ten Best Momments of the Year

Ok - notsowildaboutblue is working so hopefully I'll get this post in. I have sort of cleaned the house - more like moved piles of shit to secret hiding place so Training Buddy and family will have a place to sit down, sleep & eat breakfast. Since they are predicting 3-6 inches of snow & we have the driveway from hell - they need to be comfortable 'cuz they may be staying awhile. I have a glass of wine in hand, Hubby is snoring on the couch and the cats are all tucked in so it's just you & me, my bloggy friends.

In no particular order are my Ten on Tuesday. Of course, it is probably skewed by the most recent events but I can't help that - did I mention I'm drinking wine?



1. Mom's December visit - she was here for almost the whole month and we had a really nice time. She lives out West so I miss doing the everyday things with her - we had a nice chance to catch up & just hang out.

2. The Florida Friends #1 visit - I can't remember if I have a name for them, how about Nico's People. Nico's Dad, Mom & brother came up for a week - they hung out with my Mom for a couple of hours when we picked them up at the airport & then dropped Mom off for her return flight. We had visitors for the entire month of December last year & it was good fun...really. I think the highlight was Geocaching when it was around -10 degrees - they loved it! Or at least that's what they said when we went back to the car..where they were sitting freezing their Florida patooties off!

3. The first day of baseball - always a good day - no matter what year.

4. #2 Visit form Florida friends - Visit from the Lizard family - it was a little warmer for them in May. We had a very nice time, hanging out having the nice big bar b-que I planned inside since it rained (the house was packed but that's OK) and showing Li'l Lizard Boy the bees - he had on a pair of pj's with feet which was a nice bee suit & he showed no fear!

5. Our week in Maine - even thought it rained we managed to have a pretty relaxing time. I think we hauled up half our house - which, for those of you who know us, know we don't travel light. We even brought up our own basil plant (pesto) and mint plant (mojito's) because I don't think they have either in Maine.

6. Music on the River concerts - I am on the town Parks & Rec Committee & we sponsor these outdoor summer concerts down by the Connecticut River. They are always good fun - I'll make sure I post all about them this summer.

7. Meeting Dolan's ....main squeeze? fiance? love of her life? Finally ... we thought she was making it all up.

8. Thanksgiving with family - it was nice to get away & have an unusually low key week in Florida. However, my brother in law forced me to drink a copious amount of rum and cokes one night so I hurt myself- thanks, Cliff. Glad you hurt yourself as well : - )

9. The election results - I still get goose bumps thinking about it. Can you imagine what the inauguration will be like?

10. Getting water back - thank God. I would be the worst pioneer woman, although I do like to chop wood.



Honorable mention but I've mentioned it several times already - leaving my old job and getting my new best job ever.

Also starting my blog - it has been fun and I've met some very cool people!



Ok - time to get another glass of wine, happy New Year's Eve eve. I will post from our neighbors tomorrow and most likely will be thankful for spell check after a couple of martinis.

Catching Up...

I can't believe I haven't posted since Christmas Eve. Well - I guess I can since our notsowildaboutblue did not work all weekend (shock!). I have been busy at work and trying to stay off my little blog anyhow so guess I will have to get a little patient about posting. And with less photos for awhile. Our Christmas was quiet, mellow and that was just fine with me. After the drama of the well it was nice to not worry about too much. Except slip sliding down our driveway but that will be a constant theme over the winter. I did not get the quilt I was working on done for Training Buddy & family which was a bummer. But once I realized it wasn't going to happen and I accepted that fact, I grew a hell of a lot more peaceful. So I wrote a poem as explanation and now have until Super Bowl Sunday to finish the darn thing - I'll post a photo when it's done. I also did not finish a knitted hat I started for Hubby about 3 weeks before Christmas while I was also trying to get the quilt done - I so like to stress myself out. He didn't mind & I finished it last night. I will post a photo sometime this week. Our plans for NYE are pretty calm - we'll be walking up to the neighbors to hang with them. Training Buddy, her Hubby & their Princess will be joining us & spending the night here. So I started to frantically clean until I found a skein of yarn, some needles & the pattern for a really cool martini dishtowel (link for the pattern is saved at work - I'll have to dig it up and post it later). Guess what I did - yep stopped cleaning & folding clothes & began to knit while watching the UCONN men's basketball team get killed by Georgetown. They, UCONN, not Georgetown, really played like crap. But, hey - did ya'll see them 'Fins? What a great game! I don't know how they will do next Sunday but we'll be watching and the best part is the Patriots are OUT OF IT !!! Ok - really that's the second best part, the first best part is we beat the Jets & Brett Farve played like he should have retired. I will admit I was doubtful about Chad Pennington in the beginning but he has been amazing. I so want to get on a plane and go watch the game but we got the bill for the well repair...$1,8000 ....ouch... we'll be watching the playoff game on TV. I am trying to label this post and it won't let me type "quilting" - just "quilting drunk". Hmmmmm wonder if Blogger knows me better than I think. Those are all my random thoughts for now - oh wait - we have no snow because it all melted, it was like 60 degrees here yesterday but we should get snow on NYE - any bets on Training Buddy getting stuck on the driveway?

Happy Christmas Eve!

The good news is we have water. The well boys fixed us up yesterday and the better part is they are sending us the bill. So, since it is the American way we can pay later! Yea - because who needs a $2,000 hit to their bank account 2 days before Christmas.
I am going to work but need to start posting from home - we'll see how that goes. Our notsowildaboutblue sentence will end January 7th and I am so excited to cancel their crappy service & get dial up - our best option out in the wilds of Moodus.
So I hope we only have to work until about 2:00, then I need to wrap Hubby's gifts and we will go down to Training Buddy's house for Christmas eve.
I got the below story from a friend at work and think it is so fitting for the holiday; Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice or whatever you celebrate.

An old Rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell

when the night had ended and the day had begun.

“Could it be,” asked one of the students, “When you see

an animal in the distance and can tell whether

it’s a sheep or a dog?”

“No,” answered the Rabbi.

Another asked, “Is it when you can look at a tree in the

distance and tell whether it’s a fig tree or a peach tree?”

“No,” answered the Rabbi.

“Then what is it?” the pupils demanded.

“It is when you can look on the face of any man or

woman and see that it is your sister or brother.

Because if you cannot see this, it is still night.”

~ Tales of the Hasidim

And finally, above an ever so cute photo my friends the Lizards. Now, does anyone know any modeling agencies looking for cute kids? Cuz I think this kid has a future. I hope you were all good and get what you wished for!

Yep - we got snow!

Like 10 inches of the stuff. Normally we would have had our glass of port, enjoyed the weekend and all would be right with the world. And that is how it was - sort of. Let me give you the picture tutorial of Friday.

This is the view out of my office window on Friday - around 10:00am. Now we all knew the storm was fast approaching so this sense of calm before the storm was , well the calm before the storm. Now I have mentioned that I love my company - they really do amazing work and truly walk the talk. About 12:00 they sent an e-mail out saying we were closing for the day at 12:30 - we would get paid for the whole day! They did this, and I quote "for the safety of our employees". Now how cool is that? So I hopped in my truck at 12:31and the view looked pretty much like above until about 5 minutes into my drive. I saw a flake or two start to fall, after 20 minutes on the road it looked like this

Not a lot of snow yet but you got the sense things were going to change quickly. Another 10 minutes I was turning into downtown Moodus (by the packy) and it looked like this

I was happy that I only had about 5 minutes left of my commute. When I turned down the driveway it looked like this

You'll notice it was pretty wet stuff. I was ever so glad to be home. I went out on our back deck and took this update photo

Now - this was all the snow that fell in about 30 minutes. It was a beautiful storm. At around 5 PM I went out & took these two photos off the back deck.

And since I can't figure out how to format the photos any different - sorry there you have it.

Our neighbor came down for gift wrapping and martinis and Hubby fortunately had the good sense to drive her down and home - our driveway was a bitch..... And the cats - where were they during the storm? Safe and sound..

The view off the deck the next morning was very pretty - you couldn't even see the deck lights on the boughs anymore - eventually they "burned" thru the snow.

Eric - Dude - I am so sorry you missed this one. This was all the snow you were waiting for last year when you were here. So why don't you talk your folks into coming up again..like this week....

Ok - now the drama part - we were enjoying the view - a little nervous about the driveway but we were cool. Until I was fixing dinner and the water just stopped. Like stopped coming out of the faucet. Like none came out ...of any faucet...in the whole house. Now Hubby is very handy so I wasn't freaked out yet. Until he totally freaked out. Do you know how much you depend on running water? I thought I knew but I really didn't until this weekend and trust me, now I do. We made a run into town to get water - Hubby forgot he has low 4 wheel drive on his truck & even after I told him (he didn't listen to me) he managed to get stuck going out up our bitch of a driveway and broke a taillight when he hit a tree. We went to the local drug store and since we hadn't showered in 2 days - had just been a major fight and were stressed about the whole lack of water thing, we looked our best and I'm sure broadcasted a vibe of peace, love and harmony. Fortunately for us that is when we ran in Senator Christopher Dodd. I'm sure he was so impressed with us - I could tell by how fast he got the hell away from us & out the door. Actually he was quite cordial, shorter than I thought and buying a snow shovel. That was our brush with someone famous for the day - he does live in East Haddam so it shouldn't have been a big surprise to see him somewhere around town.

We melted snow to wash some dishes, used snow to cool down our martini glasses (that was a nice suprise - it really cools things off) and basically worried about how much it would cost us to get the damn pump/well/whateverthehellitwasthatwasn'tworking fixed. The good news is the company that originally dug the well is still in business and they returned our call. I belong to a gym at work so hurried in this morning to shower there before work. More good news is the well comapny was to be at the house this afternoon about 1:30. Hubby called me at 3:30 to tell me that yes, they showed up at 1:30 and at 3:30 they had just finished digging their truck out of the ditch off our driveway - did I mention the driveway is a bitch and over 1,500 feet long? So now I get to sit here an wait and wonder how much this repair will cost us, when they can get it done and hope the driveway isn't too iced over for my drive home. If it is, I'll park down by the mail box and walk home, in the dark. What was I saying about how much I heart snow? This is the view out of my office today - notice the ice floats in the river.

Really?? 6 - 12 inches??

Before you get all excited - that is the amount of snow they are predicting for us tomorrow and you know I am ever so excited. The bad part is it should start between 9:00Am-11:00Am and will fall quickly. So, unlike my fellow Montana or other cold parts where it snows a lot drivers, Connecticut drivers get a little freaked and tend to cause accidents when they see the white stuff.This usually translates into God awful commutes home, like 2-3 hours. My company is very cool about making sure we all get home safe so will allow us to leave early & use personal time. We'll see - I don't want to use personal time to sit in traffic.


Ok - I missed Ten On Tuesday - way too busy with holiday things but basically I can cover it in one or two sentences. The list was the Ten Best Gifts You Have Ever Gave . Very easy for me - the quilts I have made for wedding, Christmas, baby events. And the trip Hubby & I gave Mom to Ireland - that was hands down the best gift I ever gave. I'll take some photos of some the quilts that I have access to & post them some day. Same with Ireland photos..


Ok - off to the paky (affectionate name for the package store) to get my bottle of port - its' going to snow!! YEA!!!!

*The photo is of our other cat, Casey. She hates the snow & cold because she is a Florida kitty . This is a random kitty photo post.

Can I answer with only one word?

I'm really tired from watching the 'Fins win a rather ugly game - but hey they won! I looked for you Sherri but didn't find you in the crowd. I'm sure you had fun!

You know I heart a challenge So I was cruising over to one of my favorite blogs - So No Zen and decided to take on the challenge - answering this meme with one word answers. And those of you who know me know I can be rather verbose and have a story for everything - so here it goes.

Where is your cell phone? purse
Where is your significant other? work
Your hair color? brown
Your mother? awesome
Your father? alive
Your favorite thing? home
Your dream last night? none
Your goal? contentment
The room you're in? office
Your hobby? quilting
Your fear? dark
Where do you want to be in six years? home
Where were you last night? parade
What you're not? unhappy
One of your wish-list items? wealth
Where you grew up? Montana
The last thing you did? ate
What are you wearing? clothes
Your TV? plasma
Your pet? cats
Your computer? on
Your mood? tired
Missing someone? yep
Your car? truck
Something you're not wearing? Birkenstocks
Favorite store? bookstore
Your summer? happy
Love someone? yes
Your favorite color? purple
When is the last time you laughed? today
Last time you cried? weekly

Fillin Friday

Another Friday - I need about 3 extra Fridays this month to finish some Christmas projects I got going. And to think I promised myself less stress this year - HA!



1. Friends are the best thing ever - I've got great ones!

2. Good health; it's nothing to take for granted.

3. I'm ready for going out to dinner tonight & enjoy the company of an old friend and a new friend.

4. Old Spice (my Dad used to wear it) is one of my favorite perfumes or aftershaves or smells.

5. The oldest ornament I have is , since my brother doesn't read this - I have the blue Silent Night ball!!! A very big deal in our family and it was wanted by both of us - Mom likes me best, she gave it to me!

6. Take some hot tea, honey, lemon & whiskey, mix it all together and you have an awesome hot toddy.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to dinner then working on Christmas gifts, tomorrow my plans include running....gulp.... 8 miles and packing up gifts to mail and Sunday, I want to work on Christmas gifts, watch the 'Fins win & enjoy the Niantic Christmas parade!

My Ten Favorite Christmas Songs

This week's Ten on Tuesday should be pretty easy, my fav Christmas songs. Most of mine are traditional but I have a couple that I only hear on my favorite radio station WWUH. I've tried to link to You Tube videos where I can so you can check them out for yourself. I really wish my brother read this blog - I'm sure he'd have a few comments.

In no particular order... ( And yes I remember the Karen Carpenter special)

1. Christmas in the Trenches 1914 - John McCutcheon

2. The Christians & the Pagans - Dar Williams ( thanks Chris at Stumbling Over Chaos)

3. Merry Christmas from the Family - Robert Earle Keene

4. Christmas in Washington - Steve Earle & Joan Baez

5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Karen Carpenter

6. Carol of the Bells - sung by a choir - just like the Teen Tones when I was in high school

7. I'll Be Home for Christmas - Elvis Presley

8. The Nutcracker Ballet - all of the music

9. The 12 Days of Christmas - John Denver & The Muppets

10. December - George Winston, the entire album

ENJOY!!!

The port is gone....

Ok - it FINALLY snowed Sunday, we woke up and there was snow on the ground but we must SEE it snowing before we can drink the port. So around 11:00 Hubby yells rather happily - "It's snowing - can we drink the port?!!" And even thought it was 11:00 AM we had a couple of nice glasses of port ( thanks again Lizard family!) and then we went out for a walk while it was snowing. It was beautiful! And on Saturday - I met Training Buddy and we ran our 7 mile training run and I didn't die. I couldn't believe how good I felt afterwards but admit I am so sore now. I really think running up to 8 miles is more mental than fitness as long as you have a baseline of ability. So now I'm screwed....

I saw this meme on Carole's blog and really like it. It gives me a lot to write about without thinking too much and that's good - we had Reiki Buddy and her husband over for dinner last night - it was really nice, we had a great time, lots of good food, conversation and wine. They left at a reasonable hour but I was all wound up and had to watch football/Sports Center/'Fins highlights until midnight.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? It depends, I use both.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real! It's not Christmas with an artificial tree - we cut ours down this weekend at Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree Farm.

3. When do you put up the tree? This year we put it up early, usually we don't get our act together until a couple of weeks before Christmas.

4. When do you take the tree down? The Saturday after New Years.

5. Do you like eggnog? Love it! Love the Starbucks Egg Nog Latte ( Venti with an extra shot, please) Love it with dark rum.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? No special gift really stands out - I always got good stuff from Santa.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My brother.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Our friend Nose Dive - I usually shop all year and I see things all the time she'd like.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, but it's glass so I didn't put it up this year - Nelson would have it in pieces.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail - I didn't send any out last year as we had company for the entire month of December. If I get my act together we mail them from the Christmas Festival in Bethlehem, CT so they have a special cancellation seal. I wasn't that organized this year but maybe we'll head over this weekend - we love to go to GW Tavern.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Probably a London Fog rain coat from my ex-monster-in-law. She bought all her kids expensive gifts, like paying off their car, big screen Tv, diamonds, etc. ( Her husband died and I think she spent all his life insurance money on the gifts). Anyway - my marriage was on the rocks and when I opened that gift I knew it was over. The next week the ex asked me for a divorce - on the phone while I was in Montana - and he was in Florida. I think the monster-in-law had a borderline personality disorder anyway... And the divorce was the best gift the ex ever gave me.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim, we also like Scrooged with Bill Murray - it is 80's fabulous...

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? All year - I try to pick up things when I am on trips or at craft fairs. I usually get about 75% of it done before the fall.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so - I did give gifts my ex- boss gave me to the Goodwill store. They were too ugly to re-gift.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything - I love pot lucks at work.

16. Lights on the tree? Yep - white & colored.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Carol the Bells although the Garmin commercials are trying to ruin it for me. I'll Be Home for Christmas always makes me cry so I like that one too.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I prefer home but when we've traveled it's always been interesting. Like when we were at my brother's and they "forgot" to shop for Christmas dinner stuff ( although his mother-in-law made the turkey - Thank God) and we had to dig in their bare cupboards (because they really don't cook much) and had Rice A Roni and Jello made with tonic water as side dishes. That was memorable..

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Sure, but I’d have to sing to do it. ( I liked your answer, Carole!)

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning!

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? My brother NEVER gets our gifts to us in time for Christmas. For some reason it bugs the hell out fo me every year. I don't even care what we get - just get them to us by Christmas!

22. Favorite ornament theme or color? No real theme, my Mom gives us homemade Santas ever year so we have those all over the house. My favorite ornament is a homemade ornament from my quilting buddy, Emily. She made it when she was in her 80's. I loved her like a Grandma and every year that is the first ornament I put on the tree and the last one I take off.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year? A sewing machine I can use to machine quilt - I believe it is under the tree already.

24. Angel on the tree top or a star? Tree topper - no angel or star.

25. Favorite Christmas dinner? Prime Rib, Crown Pork Roast or Turkey. This year it's turkey since we didn't get any leftover from Thanksgiving.

It's Begining to Look Alot Like Christmas...but where's the SNOW???

I wish it was snowing.... I admit I do heart snow but I'm also looking forward to having a glass of this amazing port from Priam Vineyards - a local vineyard. This was given to us a gift from some close friends who were visiting from Florida and since I don't have their permission to use their names I'll make something up... from the Lizard family, Scaley, Mrs. Scaley & Little Scaley. Anyhow - they gave us this wine in May. Hubby and I have a little custom - we drink a glass (or two) of port by the fire when it snows. And for gosh sake it's December......and it hasn't snowed yet and did I mention we have had the bottle.....in our house.....SINCE MAY!!! Most alcohol has a much shorter shelf life in our house. So, a chance of flurries is predicted for Sunday and I am thinking this may have to count as snow.
I was over at one of my favorite knitting blogs, bag n' trash home of monster yarn and watched this video - I was a wild child of the 80's but do not remember this video but of course know the song. I am linking to her blog, but Maryse, I had to link the You Tube video on my blog as well - thanks for the great idea!Ok - I tried to link the You Tube vidoe but can't figure it out so check out the link - really and have a great weekend!

Catching Up and Ten on Tuesday

I'm baaack! We had an uneventful but pleasant vaca in Florida. The cats survived with their very capable house/cat sitter and now life is back to normal - whatever that means. I thought I'd share some old photos from the Thunder in the Valley event we went to. (I didn't take any photos on vacation and we only saw the beach from the bar stool at Lou's Blues.)

Aren't those ladies cute with their Moodus #1 sign? I was cracking up. We had a tailgate party across from the cemetery. And not just any old cemetery - this is the First Church Cemetery - go and read about Venture Smith, a former slave from Africa who bought his freedom and was buried here. The second photo is of the Essex Sailing Masters. I love those boys with their tall hats and boots! They just look like they have money.

Ok - the topic today is 10 Ways to Save Money - something I am not that great at but I think it's pretty common sense.

1. Take your own lunch to work.

2. Don't go out to eat very much.

3. Use your local library - seriously I read a lot and this is the best thing ever.

4. Watch your fav pro sports team on TV - not hard for me to do as the 'Fins only play up here 1-2 times a year.

5. Buy stuff on sale.

6. Stay away from tempting stores.

7.Get TiVo and record lost of shows - you'll never need to go to the movies.

8. Use Netflix.

9. Make your own homebrew.

10. Go for a hike in a state forest off season - free parking!

Ok - now I have to try and catch up on all my blog reading - it's good to be back!