Awww Erich is so cute!
September 26, 2007
My Hair
I'm through with braids (for the moment anyhow) and I've moved on to a weave. For those who don't know a weave is when fake hair is sewn with a needle and thread over my real hair, giving me a completely new look and obscuring my hair entirely.
Hurray for weaves!
Here are some pictures of the new 'do!
Hurray for weaves!
Here are some pictures of the new 'do!
Food Stuffs
Well, I am still meat free; I can’t believe I’ve made it so far. It’s amazing; my stomach feels so much better. I had been feeling so bloated and gross and now everything is peach-y. Boo for meat and hurray for veggies, I also have a lot more energy. We’ll see though because I might have a piece of sausage tonight, which is one of my weaknesses, it would be just a small amount because I’m making a pizza for dinner and Ron prefers to have pizza with meat or no pizza at all.
New Colors and Layout and a Purchase!
I had some free time today and I was looking at the various different blogs out there and to my shock and horror it turns out that our dot design is extremely popular. SOO I decided to pick a new template that hopefully is a bit more unique. Though frankly, the options are rather limited.
Huzzah! Thanks to Ron's quick e-mailing capabilities he has won his companies monthly contest 3 months in a row! So he suggested that we purchase a pressure canner that I have wanted for EVER! I'm so thrilled to buy it and even happier that's its free! So now the soups can be made in bulk and sevred year round. Hurray!
Huzzah! Thanks to Ron's quick e-mailing capabilities he has won his companies monthly contest 3 months in a row! So he suggested that we purchase a pressure canner that I have wanted for EVER! I'm so thrilled to buy it and even happier that's its free! So now the soups can be made in bulk and sevred year round. Hurray!
September 23, 2007
Dunnellen Street Fair
I was working today at the Street Fair trying to get some people to join the data base at work. I think i said "Get paid for your opinion" about 60 million times today. But I got a couple of good deals.
A) Set of queen sized sheets for $20 bucks! Deep Pockets too, 400 thread count. Score!
B) Newspaper subscription for 15 dollars for the year! (Sunday and Thursdays only). Now that's a good deal!
P.S. Ever wonder what a British, Vegetarian eats everyday for a year?
I did too. But not anymore! http://www.eat22.com/
I find it interested because I am giving up meat. NOT entirely just mostly, and its for a variety of reasons. Here they are, in no particular order....
1) I think meat is more difficult to digest
2) I am upset by the conditions of slaughter houses in America (therefore I will be eating food my husband shoots, and pulls from oceans and streams without hesitation)
3) I am trying to lose some weight and I think that eating less meat and dairy will help that.
4) My intolerance to lactose seems to be increasing unfortunately.
5) The meat is typically (but not always) my least favorite part of any meal.
Anyhoo, I'm still eating meats and dairy in some respects because my husband is the worlds biggest carnivore and it would be too much work to make two meals sometimes, but he will likely be eating less meat too unless he decides to take up cooking (doubtful). When possible I will make myself a protein meat substitute, like when we BB-q steaks, I have been having a bean burger with the same flavorful sides that Ron has. And when we make chicken breast open face sandwiches I have imitation chicken patties. (which are REALLY good by the way)
But bear in mind that today for lunch I had a delicious sausage, pepper and onion sandwich and for dinner I had pork chops. So I will take the yummy or easy way out at some times. I'm not going to beat myself up about it though. Anything is better than nothing.
:)
A) Set of queen sized sheets for $20 bucks! Deep Pockets too, 400 thread count. Score!
B) Newspaper subscription for 15 dollars for the year! (Sunday and Thursdays only). Now that's a good deal!
P.S. Ever wonder what a British, Vegetarian eats everyday for a year?
I did too. But not anymore! http://www.eat22.com/
I find it interested because I am giving up meat. NOT entirely just mostly, and its for a variety of reasons. Here they are, in no particular order....
1) I think meat is more difficult to digest
2) I am upset by the conditions of slaughter houses in America (therefore I will be eating food my husband shoots, and pulls from oceans and streams without hesitation)
3) I am trying to lose some weight and I think that eating less meat and dairy will help that.
4) My intolerance to lactose seems to be increasing unfortunately.
5) The meat is typically (but not always) my least favorite part of any meal.
Anyhoo, I'm still eating meats and dairy in some respects because my husband is the worlds biggest carnivore and it would be too much work to make two meals sometimes, but he will likely be eating less meat too unless he decides to take up cooking (doubtful). When possible I will make myself a protein meat substitute, like when we BB-q steaks, I have been having a bean burger with the same flavorful sides that Ron has. And when we make chicken breast open face sandwiches I have imitation chicken patties. (which are REALLY good by the way)
But bear in mind that today for lunch I had a delicious sausage, pepper and onion sandwich and for dinner I had pork chops. So I will take the yummy or easy way out at some times. I'm not going to beat myself up about it though. Anything is better than nothing.
:)
Okay more on the road trip & stuff we did
Whew its really hard to get on the computer to do this!!!
Jersey Shore Pictures Woooo!
We spent most of our weekends in September at the beach, either staying at Ron's parents beach house (which is so very kind of them). Or just taking a drive there. I have always been okay with the beach but in love with the boardwalk, the smells, the sounds, and the sights. Althoughy lately some have the sights have been a little bit raunchy for my tastes. (Come on people put some clothes on!)
Here are some pictures from the boardwalk and the beach. They have this new "ski-lift" thing. It broke down at LEAST once a day but Ron and I still rode it. Fun fun fun and peaceful.
We went to Allaire Village which was fun and a simple day of quiet New Jersey history.
Allaire Village was founded by the very industrious James P. Allaire. He founded the small town around iron bogs in Farmingdale, NJ. For a time, Allaire was home to all of the workers who worked in the bogs. It was really fascinating as a commune too in which there was universal education and health care (such as it was) there was also 100% employment with children (age 3 and up) working. The young children of course didn't do anything to dangerous...they just worked in the NAIL FACTORY!!!!
Allaire Village
So lets see where did I leave off with our trip? Happily, I have just finished working on the photo album for it. So I'll have that to go through.
After we went to Massachusetts we drove up and over to southern Vermont. Which is simply lovely. Everything about Vermont is majestic and beautiful. The people are kind and we appreciated the different pace of life. It did take some getting used to of course, how strange that people wanted to talk to us pretty much anywhere we went.
We did some "down home" type of things here. We went to the small but chock-full Norman Rockwell Museum, which is staffed by people who modeled for the artist. For several years Rockwell lived in Arlington Vermont. He moved there after deciding that New Yorkers were becoming a little too wealthy for their own good! He enjoyed the life and found what he considered to be the Americana worth capturing. His portraits of Arlington natives are some of his most compelling and famous works. (such as The Four Wants).
Our food situation was a bit limited in this respect but we went to a sweet little place where I had homemade chili and the prices were fantastic! (good for cheap Ron and Nikki)
We did cheese shopping and saw Harry Potter, and drove around looking for covered bridges. We also went to something that has really disappeared in New Jersey. A book store where the employees both love and know books. It is so annoying to go into Borders or Barnes and Nobel (my only options) and ask idiot clerks where my literary selection is located. Not only do they not know, they don't care and they would rather I help my self at the kiosk. Not at this place, here they not only had heard of Nathanial Hawthorne (not exactly an unknown, I know) but they had READ all of his works. They could recommend a selection that would be best for me. Amazing!
We also had an okay dinner at a Colonial Restaurant. The building was really cool, but truthfully it the food was just average. I had Tom Turkey (big in Vermont) with stuffing and vegetables. The weirdest thing, I had like 1.5 lbs of turkey and only 3 carrots....their method serving the vegetables was to first bring your your entree and then the waitress brought out something the size of a small dessert plate with a few baby corn spears and carrots on it, then she asked Ron and I if we would like some and then she divided it between the two of us, and took the rest (yes there were leftover veggies on the plate). I thought that was so weird why not just give us everything. Plus its Vermont in the middle of summer is there nothing green to be had? It was pretty pricey too so we expected more.
We stayed in a cute little cottage in Vermont. It overlooked a mountain and we had our own bathroom and bed and air conditioning. It was heaven and perfect timing since it rained everyday we were in Vermont.
Next we drove to the border of VT and NY. We crossed Lake Champlain in our car on a barge. Peaceful, slow, and very very wet since it was pouring at this point. We spent the day in Fort Ticonderoga, which has a gruesome history that really fascinated Ron. Our macabre is so different. I find death by disease really interesting (as in black plague, influenza) an he favors learning about death by man. Either way its a little dark. (I found the small pox outbreaks really terrifying.)
Unfortunately due to the terrible weather several of the walking tours were cancelled and we couldn't or I should say didn't want to go and see the gardens.
Moving on we drove down to Lake George, NY but we decided to rent a hotel room for an extra night mainly because of the weather and because we like air conditioning. Since I didn't know we would be looking for a room I didn't have time to price hunt and it was the more expensive then our two nights in Vermont! Still, watching TV in a/c was totally worth it as it was pouring outside. It certainly beat tent camping :).
The next night we went to our reserved campground which was truly disgusting. I didn't even bother to go into the bathroom because it was so gross in the campgrounds. Ron did however, and he told me I made the right decision. So, stinky and gross ugh...moving on.... we started to do some activities. We were lucky enough to see some free Shakespeare in the Park. "the Comedy of Errors". It was pretty good actually.
<>
Next day we drove up to the top of a mountain to take in the view.
Went to Fort William Henry (French Indian War Era Fort that had Civil War souvenirs for some reason?)
Went on a GREAT dinner cruise on Lake George. It was nearly empty while the Minne-ha-ha(another cruise boat on Lake George) was sold out. Dinner was good but the view was better. Lots of lovely little islands, huge homes, and great views of the mountains.
Then we went home but not before we stopped at Saratoga National Historic Site, but I was hungry and don't remember what we did. :)
Hurray for the Road Trip!! One day I will try and add some more detail where I skimped :)
Jersey Shore Pictures Woooo!
We spent most of our weekends in September at the beach, either staying at Ron's parents beach house (which is so very kind of them). Or just taking a drive there. I have always been okay with the beach but in love with the boardwalk, the smells, the sounds, and the sights. Althoughy lately some have the sights have been a little bit raunchy for my tastes. (Come on people put some clothes on!)
Here are some pictures from the boardwalk and the beach. They have this new "ski-lift" thing. It broke down at LEAST once a day but Ron and I still rode it. Fun fun fun and peaceful.
We went to Allaire Village which was fun and a simple day of quiet New Jersey history.
Allaire Village was founded by the very industrious James P. Allaire. He founded the small town around iron bogs in Farmingdale, NJ. For a time, Allaire was home to all of the workers who worked in the bogs. It was really fascinating as a commune too in which there was universal education and health care (such as it was) there was also 100% employment with children (age 3 and up) working. The young children of course didn't do anything to dangerous...they just worked in the NAIL FACTORY!!!!
Allaire Village
Here is a video I took with my camera. This is called a Wulitzer, a military band organ.
The highlight up the trip for both Ron and myself was a tour of Allaire's former home. Really what made it interesting was this lovely woman who gave the tour who was really interested in the subject and incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. Truly some of the best tours we have ever had have been nearly empty with just us and the tour guide. I think at some time we would have been shy about such an intimate tour but experience has taught us otherwise.
So lets see where did I leave off with our trip? Happily, I have just finished working on the photo album for it. So I'll have that to go through.
After we went to Massachusetts we drove up and over to southern Vermont. Which is simply lovely. Everything about Vermont is majestic and beautiful. The people are kind and we appreciated the different pace of life. It did take some getting used to of course, how strange that people wanted to talk to us pretty much anywhere we went.
We did some "down home" type of things here. We went to the small but chock-full Norman Rockwell Museum, which is staffed by people who modeled for the artist. For several years Rockwell lived in Arlington Vermont. He moved there after deciding that New Yorkers were becoming a little too wealthy for their own good! He enjoyed the life and found what he considered to be the Americana worth capturing. His portraits of Arlington natives are some of his most compelling and famous works. (such as The Four Wants).
Our food situation was a bit limited in this respect but we went to a sweet little place where I had homemade chili and the prices were fantastic! (good for cheap Ron and Nikki)
We did cheese shopping and saw Harry Potter, and drove around looking for covered bridges. We also went to something that has really disappeared in New Jersey. A book store where the employees both love and know books. It is so annoying to go into Borders or Barnes and Nobel (my only options) and ask idiot clerks where my literary selection is located. Not only do they not know, they don't care and they would rather I help my self at the kiosk. Not at this place, here they not only had heard of Nathanial Hawthorne (not exactly an unknown, I know) but they had READ all of his works. They could recommend a selection that would be best for me. Amazing!
We also had an okay dinner at a Colonial Restaurant. The building was really cool, but truthfully it the food was just average. I had Tom Turkey (big in Vermont) with stuffing and vegetables. The weirdest thing, I had like 1.5 lbs of turkey and only 3 carrots....their method serving the vegetables was to first bring your your entree and then the waitress brought out something the size of a small dessert plate with a few baby corn spears and carrots on it, then she asked Ron and I if we would like some and then she divided it between the two of us, and took the rest (yes there were leftover veggies on the plate). I thought that was so weird why not just give us everything. Plus its Vermont in the middle of summer is there nothing green to be had? It was pretty pricey too so we expected more.
We stayed in a cute little cottage in Vermont. It overlooked a mountain and we had our own bathroom and bed and air conditioning. It was heaven and perfect timing since it rained everyday we were in Vermont.
Next we drove to the border of VT and NY. We crossed Lake Champlain in our car on a barge. Peaceful, slow, and very very wet since it was pouring at this point. We spent the day in Fort Ticonderoga, which has a gruesome history that really fascinated Ron. Our macabre is so different. I find death by disease really interesting (as in black plague, influenza) an he favors learning about death by man. Either way its a little dark. (I found the small pox outbreaks really terrifying.)
Unfortunately due to the terrible weather several of the walking tours were cancelled and we couldn't or I should say didn't want to go and see the gardens.
Moving on we drove down to Lake George, NY but we decided to rent a hotel room for an extra night mainly because of the weather and because we like air conditioning. Since I didn't know we would be looking for a room I didn't have time to price hunt and it was the more expensive then our two nights in Vermont! Still, watching TV in a/c was totally worth it as it was pouring outside. It certainly beat tent camping :).
The next night we went to our reserved campground which was truly disgusting. I didn't even bother to go into the bathroom because it was so gross in the campgrounds. Ron did however, and he told me I made the right decision. So, stinky and gross ugh...moving on.... we started to do some activities. We were lucky enough to see some free Shakespeare in the Park. "the Comedy of Errors". It was pretty good actually.
<
Next day we drove up to the top of a mountain to take in the view.
Went to Fort William Henry (French Indian War Era Fort that had Civil War souvenirs for some reason?)
Went on a GREAT dinner cruise on Lake George. It was nearly empty while the Minne-ha-ha(another cruise boat on Lake George) was sold out. Dinner was good but the view was better. Lots of lovely little islands, huge homes, and great views of the mountains.
Then we went home but not before we stopped at Saratoga National Historic Site, but I was hungry and don't remember what we did. :)
Hurray for the Road Trip!! One day I will try and add some more detail where I skimped :)
August 27, 2007
Our Road Trip #1
Well Ron and I had a fantastic time visiting different ares in New England this summer. We began our trip by renting a car from Enterprise with a GPS unit. This would have been great except that the cars charging port (formerly known as the cigarette lighter) wasn't working. Soooo after we had completely packed the car and almost started on the road we were forced to change vehicles. All of this took some time to decipher of course, we originally thought our GPS was malfunctioning, (but in yet another instance of God working in mysterious ways) when we were packing the car the cell phone charger simply broke into 6 different pieces for NO reason at all. Literally Ron was just holding the thing and it exploded. This led us to purchase a new charged from Target and then we had to test it, when our cell phone charger also wasn't working we figured it out. So two hours late, we were on our way to Mystic, CT.
Mystic, CT
This bit of our trip was frustrating for us. We had intended to arrive in Mystic for lunch but with our car & charger mishaps and 5 HOURS of traffic driving through New York we were quite late. So, we got there around 5 p.m. and had dinner at Mystic Pizza (the one from the Julia Roberts 80's movie). The place was packed when we got there just before the dinner rush but it was positively ridiculous at 6 when we were leaving. We both thought the pizza was good, nothing too special but there is lots of movie memorabilia on the walls. It's a good tourist-y stop.
Actually one of the more interesting aspects of Mystic was that we had our first run-in with a non New Jersey-ian. We were waiting online for the bathroom (of all places) and we struck up a conversation with a resident from New Hampshire who talked to us like we were long lost friends, by the end of the conversation she had invited us to her home. We declined because we weren't going to be anywhere near northern New Hampshire but it was an interesting glimpse into the surprisingly friendly country that exists outside of NJ.
After dinner we looked briefly at the pier there with its historic ships and then hopped back in the car (me driving this time) and we headed towards Sippewisset Camp Ground in Massachusetts.
Sippewissett
Is a truly disgusting little campground with some very nice people who work there. It was FULL of pirates.
pi·rate n. - A person (mostly found in large groups) who are very loud, drink alot and litter. They are often cursing profusely and don't care about the sleeping habits or needs of others. Sometimes they are known to sing bawdy songs, often quite friendly and want you to join their reverie. A fine lot of people really, just not for us.
Our campground there was quite crowded and loud, our tent was located about 4 feet from our neighbors and we heard EVERYTHING they said. The party to our left was a family with one frustrated father who yelled often and often loudly at his whiny children.
We went to sleep at Sippewisset and left early since I decided I could not bring myself to "go" in the facilities located there. The shower had spiders in it and so did the bathroom. This concludes the negative reporting from our trip (for the most part).
Happy to be leaving the campground we took a drive (using our trusty GPS) to Plimoth Plantation. This is a wonderful living history museum, which gave us the first of several bits of information about the Native Peoples of the North East. The museum is broken into four parts, the first is a physical museum with media presentations and exhibits (including a scathing one about Thanksgiving in Americans recent history). The second piece is a re-creation of a Wampanoag Homesite consisting of several huts and work stations. There was also a small field of corn that had been planted in the traditional method of making a small mound, putting a dead fish in that lump of earth and planting the corn in groups around the mound. This is a very successful method of planting but it's odd to our modern eye to see such irregular rows of corn. The Homesite is staffed by people of Wampanoag decent who answer questions you may have about the lifestyles of Native People's in the 1600's.
Then we moved on to the 1627 English village. This was fantastic! The people in this part of the museum are actors who have re-created lives of 1627 immigrants to the New World. The people there have so thoroughly researched their characters that you can literally ask them any questions and they are quick to respond in character. I mean minute details like: who are their neighbors? where does this person sleep? They really created 1627 for you. It was just amazing, the only downside was that they were SO good that Ron and I almost felt uncomfortable taking their pictures! We took much less pictures here than any other place on our trip for that reason!
The third part of the museum is a craft center, which has a couple of exhibits on seasonal eating habits of the natives and settlers. The larger part of the this center is devoted to artisans who work full time creating beautiful pieces of pottery, arrows, baskets and more! Those handmade crafts are then put in the craft store there.
There is also a re-creation of the Mayflower but we didn't have time to see it. So no comments there!
More to come......
Mystic, CT
This bit of our trip was frustrating for us. We had intended to arrive in Mystic for lunch but with our car & charger mishaps and 5 HOURS of traffic driving through New York we were quite late. So, we got there around 5 p.m. and had dinner at Mystic Pizza (the one from the Julia Roberts 80's movie). The place was packed when we got there just before the dinner rush but it was positively ridiculous at 6 when we were leaving. We both thought the pizza was good, nothing too special but there is lots of movie memorabilia on the walls. It's a good tourist-y stop.
Actually one of the more interesting aspects of Mystic was that we had our first run-in with a non New Jersey-ian. We were waiting online for the bathroom (of all places) and we struck up a conversation with a resident from New Hampshire who talked to us like we were long lost friends, by the end of the conversation she had invited us to her home. We declined because we weren't going to be anywhere near northern New Hampshire but it was an interesting glimpse into the surprisingly friendly country that exists outside of NJ.
After dinner we looked briefly at the pier there with its historic ships and then hopped back in the car (me driving this time) and we headed towards Sippewisset Camp Ground in Massachusetts.
Sippewissett
Is a truly disgusting little campground with some very nice people who work there. It was FULL of pirates.
pi·rate n. - A person (mostly found in large groups) who are very loud, drink alot and litter. They are often cursing profusely and don't care about the sleeping habits or needs of others. Sometimes they are known to sing bawdy songs, often quite friendly and want you to join their reverie. A fine lot of people really, just not for us.
Our campground there was quite crowded and loud, our tent was located about 4 feet from our neighbors and we heard EVERYTHING they said. The party to our left was a family with one frustrated father who yelled often and often loudly at his whiny children.
We went to sleep at Sippewisset and left early since I decided I could not bring myself to "go" in the facilities located there. The shower had spiders in it and so did the bathroom. This concludes the negative reporting from our trip (for the most part).
Happy to be leaving the campground we took a drive (using our trusty GPS) to Plimoth Plantation. This is a wonderful living history museum, which gave us the first of several bits of information about the Native Peoples of the North East. The museum is broken into four parts, the first is a physical museum with media presentations and exhibits (including a scathing one about Thanksgiving in Americans recent history). The second piece is a re-creation of a Wampanoag Homesite consisting of several huts and work stations. There was also a small field of corn that had been planted in the traditional method of making a small mound, putting a dead fish in that lump of earth and planting the corn in groups around the mound. This is a very successful method of planting but it's odd to our modern eye to see such irregular rows of corn. The Homesite is staffed by people of Wampanoag decent who answer questions you may have about the lifestyles of Native People's in the 1600's.
Then we moved on to the 1627 English village. This was fantastic! The people in this part of the museum are actors who have re-created lives of 1627 immigrants to the New World. The people there have so thoroughly researched their characters that you can literally ask them any questions and they are quick to respond in character. I mean minute details like: who are their neighbors? where does this person sleep? They really created 1627 for you. It was just amazing, the only downside was that they were SO good that Ron and I almost felt uncomfortable taking their pictures! We took much less pictures here than any other place on our trip for that reason!
The third part of the museum is a craft center, which has a couple of exhibits on seasonal eating habits of the natives and settlers. The larger part of the this center is devoted to artisans who work full time creating beautiful pieces of pottery, arrows, baskets and more! Those handmade crafts are then put in the craft store there.
There is also a re-creation of the Mayflower but we didn't have time to see it. So no comments there!
More to come......
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