Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday, Goat!

To celebrate the birth of this individual, we are going skiing in New Hampshire for the weekend.  Well, others are going skiing.  I have a wide variety of books with me, as well as crocheting, and possibly a few nips of Bailey's to keep me company while the others are outside freezing and pretending to have fun.  I look forward to having much to report on once we return, hopefully with all limbs intact.

Amazing People

Today my blog post is dedicated to the Heart of my Heart, my dear friend, Meris.  Today Meris is starting an exciting new adventure and leaving for South Africa to work for the Peace Corps.

I think Peace Corps Volunteers are amazing and I really admire them for going off to help in some of the toughest areas in the world.  Mer is now going to be doing HIV Outreach in South Africa, which just blows my mind and makes me feel pretty darn lazy.

I can't wait to hear all about her experiences, and if you're interested you can check in with her blog: http://meristhatswhatshesaid.blogspot.com/.  And one thing that Meris and I share a love of is sending and receiving mail, so that's how I'm going to help her get through these 2 years away.  Even if you don't know her, I'm sure she'd love to see postcards or something reminding her of the good ole' U S of A, so if you'd like to send her a hello, let me know!  And you can help me out, at some point I'd like to send her a package with things she may not be able to get in Africa.  What are some things you'd like to receive from home if you were living in a foreign country without a lot of luxuries?

Good luck, Mer!  I think you're really incredible and I heart you muchly.

Christmas Desserts

For Christmas at my parent's house, I ended up making two desserts.  One, the Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache Tart that was already featured, and the second a Cranberry-Pear Crisp.  I thought this sounded rather festive and more seasonal than the other fruit based desserts I was considering.  My sister-in-law made an apple pie for our feast, so for the 6 of us, there was a dessert for every two people.  I like that kind of ratio.  I liked the Crisp a lot and would definitely make it again.

Courtesy of Martha Stewart.com

Cranberry Pear Crisp
Serves 6 - Hands-On Time: 20 minutes - Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Images of a Snow Day

Woke up early - couch time to catch up on my magazines.

Our street at about 9am.

Yeah, buffalo plaid snowboots!

I really like snow days.  Especially when Beet makes short ribs in the crockpot.  And I get to watch a marathon of 'Top Chef.'  It's just too bad I hate snow so much.

Did you get a snow day recently?  How did you spend it?

Meat Sweats

You have not lived until you've seen these fellows take down 200 wings.

Or maybe you'll just live a lot longer than they will.

Hotel Bars

If there's one thing I love, it's hotels.

And if there's a second thing I love, it's hotel bars.

And then thirdly, I love Beet.

Yesterday the three came together as we went to a delightful hotel bar downtown to celebrate Bert's birthday.  We chose to go to City Bar in the Lenox Hotel because the lovely Miss Schroeder gave me a gift card there for my bridal shower.  Are you thinking best shower gift ever?  Because then you would be correct.

City Bar

I'm not quite sure what the allure of the hotel bar is for me.  They're always overpriced and often crowded and the drinks are sometimes not the best.  But I like traveling and I like the people watching that you can do there.  Of course the best hotel bar in  Boston used to be the one at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, where no matter when you went the same crew of old cronies would show up to party hard.   They were a group of beyond middle-aged men and women, the men quite dapperly dressed, who would stand pounding drinks at the bar, waiting to proposition young women to dance.  This place was the best and I still mourn it's loss.