Wednesday, November 30, 2011

WKRP Turkey Drop

I hadn't seen this for a while, and it's just as funny as I remembered:


We're just about through the last of the leftovers from our Thanksgiving dinner - just about time to think about Christmas cookies. Weather here is just like late spring, but without the daily rain. It's hard to think about holiday baking when you don't even need a coat yet.

 A word of warning to friends and family - I am planning a trip west to visit Oklahoma City and Denver in mid-January. It will be a quickie - just a couple of days in each place. I am so looking forward to seeing the friends and family I've been missing for so many months. In the meantime anyone with a GMAIL account and a webcam has access to free video chatting which I would really love to do with anyone with a little time to spare. It's great to be in touch through facebook, email and Twitter, but it sure would be nice to see your faces from time to time!

With no gratuitous Roxy picture to share today I'm sharing a picture of Samuel Adams standing in from of Faneuil Hall in Boston. He sure does make a tasty beer (haha) !


Monday, November 28, 2011

Consolidation Time

You may feel like you are doing your civic duty by carefully choosing your media outlets, but here's an eye opener:

Media Consolidation Infographic
Source: Frugal dad

Street Scene Beacon Hill
If you don't already, take your media content with a grain of salt and do your homework online. By the way, Frugal Dad is a good resource for a lot of interesting information and coupons. Check it out if you haven't already! I was just pointed his way by Annie Modesitt, who is one of my knitting heroes. In spite of a lot of personal challenges she continues to produce some of the most interesting and inventive knitting around.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Holiday Fun


We spent the holiday with family and friends, ate too much, took a long walk, and came home in a state of collapse. We have a great supply of leftovers and Roxy lives in a constant state of unsatisfied yearning for a plate of turkey.

I went to Sandwich Wednesday to visit the Sandwich Glass Museum again. Our house guest loves antique glass, so that was the obvious place to go. There was a seasonal display of creches in an amazing variety of materials and styles which we really enjoyed. The only down side to the day was that I needed to deliver my car to the shop and pick it up later in the day (early, because of the holiday). After two extra trips to Falmouth it turned out that the chronic flat tire issue I spent about $30.00 to fix returned in less than 24 hours. I'll have to get the car out there again next week to get the issue settled. First World Problems, of course.

For the first time in years I was not at home for Black Friday. In my retail years I worked it every year, so in all the following years I either stayed home or went to the mall to sit on the sidelines and watch the crazy people lose their minds. This year I am back in retail and on the front lines. Fortunately at my workplace we did not have any door busters or middle of the night openings, so it was pretty civilized although really busy. I did notice that a lot of the purchases were for very small amounts, single ornaments purchased as gifts were pretty popular.  I was shocked and ashamed of my fellow man to hear about pepper spraying at WalMart and other violence in the race for cheap junk.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Hitting the Tourist Traps

George Washington
Mature Beech Tree at Boston Common
We have a house guest this week from Oklahoma and an excuse to run around to the tourist traps. I was "Off Cape" for the first time in months this weekend trying to hit every possible tourist attraction. Usually when Shana and I go to Boston we have two or three things we want to see or do and wander around casually for the rest of the weekend but since our guest will not have the luxury of returning soon we tried to see as much as possible. She had a list and we had some ideas.  Major museums were out because of time constraints, so we did some tours and a lot of walking to get her out and enjoying the flavor of the city.

After a fortifying breakfast at the wonderful Moonakis Cafe and a quick stop at the Christmas Tree Store at the Sagamore Bridge to test the limits of tackiness we went to Boston Commons and the Public Gardens, checked out Beacon Hill and the "Cheers" bar, slipped into a designer store and a nice bar on Newbury Street, went to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, ate a sumptuous dinner at Villa Francesca  and bought cannolis at Mike's Pastry on the North End. Then we rode the T out to Cambridge to see the campus of Harvard (inaccessible because of security forces trying to prevent OWS from coming on campus) and Harvard Book Store. We finished our first day off Cape with drinks in the bar at our hotel.

Night view from Quincy Market
The next day after breakfast at the hotel we went out for a Duck Tour, then shopped a bit at Prudential Center. We thought we might like to check out the observation lounge on the 50th floor, but admission was more than $10.00 per person and we did not want to pay that much for a quick look around,  so after a (free!) peek past the gatekeepers we checked out Julia Child's recipe for Boston Baked Beans on display in the lobby and returned to earth. Then we retrieved the car and our luggage from the hotel and set out for Salem. In Salem we had a giant lunch at Red's Sandwich Shop (home style cooking with a varied menu and everything is fabulous) followed by a visit to the Salem Witch Museum. After that we met our guide for an entertaining (and cold) walking tour of the town before heading back to the Cape. Today we are sticking close to home for errands and to let our guest's tired legs recover. We often (like everybody) get a little turned around in unfamiliar places and it's MUCH more tiring to back track on foot! While Boston and Salem are pretty compact and suitable for walking two days of constant action can be a lot for someone who does not walk much in daily life.  I've been working retail for the past five months so I have had time to build up endurance - an unfair advantage!


Gratuitous Roxy Picture
We are lucky in our weather this week. Our first day in Boston it was unseasonably warm, and although temperatures fell all day yesterday the sky was brilliantly clear. Today for errands and Thursday for the ceremonial frying of the turkey will be clear, with our only wet day being one already planned for indoor activities.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

A Little Before and After

We've got most of the big indoor projects done here on Cotuit Road, but of course there is always some kind of crafty project under way.

In needlework I've got a secret project about a third done - as always I seem to work backwards from the deadline and start things only when I know I will be done 15 minutes before it HAS to be complete. As usual I don't know why I put it off because the secret project is in crochet and I love to crochet although my wrists are not so fond of it as they used to be. I've got three knitting projects well underway which are not at a photogenic place. That's not counting two hibernating projects that are partially done. One of those will be finished at some point and one will be torn out yet again and reknit in a more suitable pattern.



Yesterday I set my needlework aside in favor of a decorating project. I think a guest room should have some kind of a mirror so your guest can see if they look like a wolverine before they join the family.. After a fair amount of scouting around I finally found a mirror for my guest room at D's Home Again in East Falmouth. I wanted something small that would fit the available space and that I could decorate. Shana was disappointed when I showed her the oval wicker mirror because it looked like something everyone on earth has owned at some point. I pointed out that it was just what I needed however boring and she agreed. Yesterday I found myself with time and motive and got to work. Several hours and a lot of hot glue later (and only one little scorch on one finger!) I am pleased with the result, and I feel like our guest room is complete, just in time for our first house guest's arrival this weekend.


One process note - I did not realize how hard it would be to get a presentable photo of a mirror! My first effort yielded a really nice detailed picture of the original mirror reflecting a nice clear image of the basement rafters! In general it's easy to hone in on your subject and not realize that there are unintended things in the background calling attention to themselves. A photo will also give you a different look at a project - looking at a project in a digital photo during the construction will improve your result because you will see things in a photo that you don't notice looking at your work in progress.

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Paulsen for President

I recently saw a segment of the Rachel Maddow show suggesting that the Herman Cain campaign is an elaborate practical joke. Of course this immediately brought to mind the Pat Paulsen election campaign. The Rachel Maddow segment, with my apologies for the oddly placed Exxon ad:



The 2008 Paulsen for President clip featuring his son:




There are loads of Pat Paulsen clips on YouTube, all well worth another look.