Any Port in a Storm

Our guest room bed, all made up for my powerless sister and brother-in-law.  This is as neat as it ever is!

Worth It

On the other hand, snowy nights lead to snowy mornings. And up in the mountains, this is what you get. Worth it.

Too Soon?

A snowy scene in North Conway tonight. We're here for Justin's army family weekend and just made our snowy way home from a local bar.

And So It Begins

Yup, that's what's left of our first snow of the season - a fairly light dusting overnight last night.  They got a few inches further north in VT, NH, and ME, but I think most of it has melted off by now.  Either way, there's no doubt what's coming down the pike.  Ah well, we wouldn't be New Englanders if we couldn't handle it.

Jealous of Her

Yeah, this is how Sadie spent much of her day.  The blanket over top of her was added by me when I got home, and as far as I know, it's still on her now.  Someone's got the right idea . . .

Good Enough

Like with last night, some nights you just come home tired and say, "Sure, that's good enough."  It may not be the most exciting thing ever, but hey, this cute pic of Justin and the pup is good enough.

Best Photo So Far

I am exhausted tonight.  Since yesterday, I have hosted/taught/herded 78 school kids at my museums and I think I'm coming down with something to boot.

So all you get is the photo and a short caption.  The basket in the foreground is full of animal skins for the Native American history program I did this morning and the room in the background is 301 years old.  No, I'm not kidding.

In addition, my lil' camera phone did an admirable job handling both the detail on the basket and the chairs in the back.  So hurrah for a good photo and it's off to bed for me!

Apples in Various States of Decomposition

You can thank Justin for that title.  It's what he first thought when he saw today's photo, an angled shot of my work space this evening.

I was cutting up apples for these hand pies, which came out very yummy!  We still had a lot of apples (10+) left over from our CSA this fall, but this knocked off 4 of them.  We had a few tonight and the rest are to share with my family for dinner tomorrow night.

3 Squares

Today, we ate all three meals at home, at the dining room table.  Doesn't sound that extraordinary to eat all three meals at home, but I can't think of the last time it happened.  Weekdays, I rush out with travel mug coffee and a small thing in hand (banana, granola bar, waffles wrapped in a paper towel) to eat in the car while Justin eats his breakfast at home alone.  I eat lunch in the various towns in which I work and we usually have dinner together at home.  Once a week, we have dinner with my family and once a week (Thursdays), we order pizza and chow down on the couch while watching TV.

But today we were home.  Here's what we enjoyed:

• Breakfast (above):  scrambled eggs with cheese, sliced apples and warm brie on toasted bagels with pumpkin butter, coffee, and pomegranate juice
• Lunch:  leftover roasted veggies (tomatoes, white kidney beans, eggplant, and zucchini) over couscous, Yuengling beer
• Dinner:  Trader Joe's frozen pizza with roasted peppers, mozzarella, and provolone, Narragansett Octoberfest (me), some weird Dutch lager we bought for a party a few weeks ago (him), and soon to come for dessert . . . sliced apples, Wensleydale cheese with cranberries, honey, hazelnuts, and port!

Spider Shadows

The window decorations at my mother-in-law's house for my 10 year old sister-in-law's Halloween party!  I added an "antique" filter on my phone and I kind of love this.

End of the Week

A nice glass of red wine before/with dinner and before going to a 9:30 showing of Moneyball.  A relaxing way to end the week!

Never the Same Day Twice

I've always said that holding three jobs in the museum field ensures that I never have the same day twice.  And man, did this week prove it!  Last night, I was wandering around one museum in a dress, noshing on brie and pinot noir.  This morning, I was ankle deep in a muddy archaeology pit.  Variety is the spice of life!

The Best Laid Plans . . .

All day, I planned on my photo of the day to be from the museum's Harvest Supper tonight.  I went down to the first floor and took a few shots in anticipation.  We had a lovely evening with lots of good food & wine.  I was all set for the day, photo-wise.

Then, I got home to find out that our new bar had arrived!  So while Justin noshed on leftovers from the Harvest Supper (the potatoes came home in a plastic baggie, which he thought was pretty hilarious), I started assembling the new bar.  After he finished his late supper, he helped me finish the bar and we tucked it into its corner of the dining room.

We've begun to accessorize it and while I'll probably tweak it a thousand times more, it's at least had a start.  The top shelf sports a melamine placemat with a Robert Burns quote and an old wooden tray I bought at a thrift store in New Hampshire, which currently hosts a bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label,a small bottle of port wine from Orkney Wine Company, a not-shown cocktail shaker, and nips of Talisker and Drambuie.

The next shelf down has a pretty engraved aluminum tray (that totally looks like silver), which is currently covered with our collection of shot glasses.  However, I'm still feeling like open shot glass storage is too "dorm room decor" for me, so that may change.  The next shelf down has another melamine placemat with a different Burns quote and a basket corralling bottle openers, wine corks, and my kilt beer coozie.  The bottom shelf has a built-in wine rack which is currently holding two bottles of red, a bottle of blackberry mead, and a bottle of margarita mix.

Yay for finally having a good bar set-up!  Can't wait until we have friends and/or family over and they can help themselves to a drink.

Contemplative

Dinner with the family tonight at a local restaurant.  I had a few more active shots, but couldn't resist this one of cutie Thing 2 contemplating his french fries.

We all thought he looked very dapper and a bit preppy with that 3/4 zip sweatshirt on, but don't fear a future of "yeah dude" -ness.  When Grammy put it on him, she popped the collar and he promptly smooshed it back down.

Bling Frames

Today's photo is not exciting to anyone but me . . . and maybe Justin.  But probably not.  He just smiled and rolled his eyes when I showed him.  Anywho . . .

The above frames used to be brown!  And with the magic of sandpaper, primer (on one of them), and gold spray paint, they are now gold!  To match the other gold frames on the gallery wall in our dining room.  That will eventually be complemented by a grey wall, a la this photo here:

Seriously.  Not exciting to anyone but a newly-obsessed-with-home-improvement girl like me.

A Walk in the Woods

Today, we slept in (10:15!), had pomegranate mimosas & bacon chocolate chip pancakes for brunch (thanks, sis and bro-in-law for the birthday gift basket!), and took the pup on a three mile walk in the woods.  A perfect Sunday.

First Week of 365 Days of 30

Here it is - the first week of my 365 project!  Each photo has brief commentary below.  I originally thought I might post all 7 in one day, like I'm doing today, but found that I was uploading and prepping each day's photo on the actual day this week.  And if you notice, I didn't do any non-365 posts this week (probably b/c I was "uploading and prepping each day's photo on the actual day").

So as crazy as it sounds, I'm going to try to actually post each photo on its day.  We'll see how long and how well that works, but hey - no harm in having a goal, right?

A lovely warm morning at the lake the day after my birthday.  We had breakfast on the porch , then I lay about and read on my new Kindle (above right) for 13 hours!

After a busy weekend at the lake followed by dinner with friends in Portsmouth and a Board meeting for me, it was so nice to come home Monday night and crawl into bed to read and muck about online.

My wonderful husband helped me at work on Tuesday, digging a pit for my after-school archaeology program.  Normally, I'd have to do this all by myself (twice a year), but he was able to knock out the first part in a few hours.

My parents got me a new bookcase for my birthday!  Again!  Justin put it together for me!  Again!  And here it is (the short one on the left) waiting to be filled with books.  I did that job on Thursday night, so perhaps that photo will be one of next week's.

A cute puppy gazing out into the gloom of a rainy Thursday evening.  So nice to come home and be snuggly & warm after a long rainy day at work.

My view when I walked in the door on Friday around 6pm.  A cute husband cooking dinner - acorn squash stuffed with turkey, couscous, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and parmesan.  Again, soooo nice to be home with the family after a rainy day at work.

A sunny day at work!  I filled in for one of the tour guides on Saturday and it was a pleasant, breezy, sunny day in Portsmouth.  I love how the sunlight fills the dining room in this house!

365 Days of 30!

OK, so here's a thought.  I really liked seeing this 365 pictures/year (a photo a day, for those of us not following along) on Chez Larsson.  The logical day to start a 365 day photo project would be on January 1st, I suppose.  BUT!  I'm turning 30 this year, today in fact.  And I thought it might be fun to chronicle my 30th year with a photo a day.

I'm not sure yet whether I'll post each photo on the day, or wait until a certain day of the week and post all 7 at once (like Benita at Chez Larsson did).  Time will also tell how well I keep with it.  For now, though, here's photo #1: the hubster and Thing 2 playing computer games at the lake house this morning.