SNOWMYGOD, the recap.

Spoiler alert:  we did fine. 

Ricky and I both were at home on Friday, which was key because then we wouldn't need to fight our way onto the last train out of town.  I could also make a crock pot roast to feed us all week.  It was nice to see the snow lightly falling during the day.

After dinner, we did a pre-emptive shoveling, but it didn't matter because we were covered in snow so badly at the end of it.  We also tried to walk and see what the water looked like, but the conditions were so bad that we had to turn around five minutes in.  It was so windy and white out that we couldn't see, and feared walking into a plow.

The next morning, we woke up to the most snow we'd ever seen in Salem.  At least 2 feet, possibly more.  It was to the top of my boots, whatever that may be.  I tried to walk and see how it looked, but nothing was plowed so again I turned around.

Ricky and I made egg sandwiches, then spent an hour shoveling.  We'd end up doing another pass at it once the snow stopped, and then cleaning up our cars on Sunday.  My arms are still sore from shoveling.

We took a walk to see the snow once it stopped and the plows had been through.  It was crazy how desolate the city looked.  since there are so many historic buildings in Salem, it also made us feel like we went back in time with the barren streets and no cars.

At night, the city began to wake up again and we walked to Howling Wolf to meet up with friends and get tacos.  It was nice to see people again.

Sunday things were getting back to normal.  One crazy thing was that there is nowhere to put this snow.  Most of the sidewalks are still covered in snow, not because people didn't try... but because there is nowhere to put it.  It'll be warmer this week, so hopefully the accumulation will melt a bit.

Here are some of my photos from the storm.

Our street on Friday night.  Not a lot of snow at this point, but a lot of snow is falling.

Derby Street, Friday night, in the middle of the white out conditions.  You can't see the harbor straight ahead of us, but you can see two people who had a similar plan of taking a snow storm walk.

Yard, Saturday morning.  I had shoveled this last night, but it was all for naught.  This is at least 2 ft of snow.

Custom House, completely covered in snow.

Salem Commons, looking like it's 1900.

Fifty Fifty Movie Round Up: Movies 11-15

I haven't updated this in a bit, and since I'm at home I figured why not?

11.  Lincoln (11/17/12).  SO GOOD.  OH MY GOD.  It's a quiet movie that says a lot and is riveting.  There's no crazy action scenes and the only special effect is good acting.  Daniel Day-Lewis is pretty much a shoo-in for Best Actor and he deserves it.  Ricky loved watching all the political wheeling and dealing.  It's also great that a book like Team Of Rivals can get a movie deal.

12.  She's Having A Baby (11/21/12).  Very sweet and cute.  It's a weird movie at times, but I enjoyed it.  The end credits is pretty much made for John Hughes fans.  I loved young Elizabeth McGovern, especially since we're in the midst of our Downton Abbey watching.

13.  The Last Waltz (11/25/12).  This movie has been on my mental queue for years, but I wanted to wait until we had a bigger TV.  Well that finally happened so I rented it.  It's really beautiful and good, a loving tribute to some of the best musicians from the 70's.  Oh, and so much coccaine.  Soooo much coccaine.

14.  Miracle on 34th Street the 1947 version (12/21/12).  Neither of us had seen this movie, so during our Christmas movie stretch we made sure to watch this.  I liked it, a lot more than the remake from the 90's.  The end feels a little rushed.  It's great seeing what parades and deaprtment stores from the 1940's looked like.  And the guy who played Santa Claus... I'm pretty sure he's Santa in real life.  He was that believable and filled with mirth.  I read that Natalie Wood thought he was actually Santa, and was disappointed that he was not.

15.  Les Miserables (12/26/12).  Day after Christmas we made our pilgrimage to the Salem Cinema to see this movie.  Ricky enjoyed it, but me being a fan of the musical enjoyed it.  Yes, some of the performances were bad (Russell Crowe) and he used too much upclose and didn't mix it up at all, but I had realistic expectations and they were met.  This won't win Best Picture or even Best Actor, but it was enjoyable.

Inauguration 2013: an ode to the photobomb

While watching the Inauguration on Monday, I was struck at the sheer number of photobombing happening.  There was Malia photobombing a picture of her parents that her sister Sasha was taking...

...then there was former president Bill Clinton photobombing Kelly Clarkson...

...but my favorite was first brother-in-law Craig Robinson photobombing president Obama.

Gotta love a good photobomb!

The Gift Outright

I always love the ceremony of the Inauguration.  I always get goosebumps during the oath.  And I'm a sucker for nice winter gear.  The poem is always great to hear, too.  My favorite of all the Inagural poems is Robert Frost's poem, The Gift Outright.

Television PSA

The West Wing is streaming on Netflix right now.  All seasons.  GET ON IT.

Also, there's a storm coming, so I think today might be the best day to watch all of season 1 and get started on it. 

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 12

Christmas Eve!  This has been fun, albeit often done in bulk.  Tonight, we're featuring one of my favorite songs of not only Christmas but probably of all time.  That'd be True Blue Miracle from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.  It's such a beautiful happy pretty song, and I love the idea that all the Sesame Street gang takes the subway to a different area of the city to get Christmas trees and go ice skating, then have to take the subway back to town.

Ricky and I have spent the last few Christmas Eves watching Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.  It's been a fun way to prepare for Christmas... and this special is so nostalgic and fun.  I strongly recommend it.

I hope you enjoyed this mini series.  It's been fun talking about what festive things I've done and thinking about what songs I like.

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 10

It's been a crazy weekend, so I am woefully behind on this.  Saturday night was Friendmas.  Friendmas is the annual Christmas get together my friends from high school and I have every year to get together and catch up.  We have a Yankee Swap and play weird games.  It's really fun, and as we've all been pairing off and settling down it's been nice having the spouses be a part of it.

This song doesn't have anything to do with Friendmas, but I wanted to talk about it for a moment.  This day, I thought I'd take a moment to talk about a favorite one of mine from the 80's.  I am of course talking about Christmas in Hollis by Run DMC.  It ends Die Hard (a Landry brother Christmas movie favorite) and it always makes me laugh. 

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 9

Tonight was one of our favorite Christmas traditions:  decorating stockings!  For the last few years, Ricky and I have been painting stockings for ourselves and the pets.  It was very nice to have some egg nog, paint, and watch Bob's Burgers.  I will post our stockings soon.

Speaking of pets, can we just take a moment to appreciate this photo of President Obama shopping with and for Bo at a Petsmart?!?

HOW CUTE IS THAT?  He's picking out some snacks for his dog Bo.  How great is that?  There are also photos of Bo meeting a poodle named Cinnamon.  Worth checking out.

Anyways, back to Christmas music.  We watched a favorite of mine for the last 20 (!!!) years:  The Muppet Christmas Carol.  I've loved this movie since it first came out in theatres, and no season is complete without a viewing.  In honor of that, here's my favorite song from it, It Feels Like Christmas.  Keep your eye out for the cutest mouse Muppets ever, which Ricky loves.

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 8

Caught up on this!  Huzzah!  Tonight I had perhaps the least holiday-ish thing:  a dentist appointment.  But it was a necessary evil, I suppose.  Clean bill of teeth health, though I need to get a filling replaced.  The week is winding down, and we're getting closer to some Christmas parties, and the big day itself.  Tomorrow is my last day of work for the year, and we get out early which is nice.

Today we'll play some super cheesy music... I'm of course talking about Paul McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime.  I feel like it's super cheesy (and possibly highlights why Paul needs someone like John to edit him and keep him from going into super cheese fest).  I do like the music video because it's so dated and of that era.

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 4

No surprise, I've let this slip, so I'll just do a bunch of catch up right now and talk about what I was doing on each day.  On Sunday, I worked.  I've been doing some holiday hours at a gift shop on the weekends.  It's been fun, and as Ricky says, fulfills my high school desires to be Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail.

So let's do something a little classic.  I've always loved The Nutcracker, and I feel like it's so pretty.  So here's the dance of the sugar plum fairies.  Whenever I hear those bells, it brings to a moment when it's cold and snowing and there's lots of lights everywhere and evergreen.  Here's a version of it I heard recently and am a big fan of.  It's from a favorite band of mine:  Pamplemoose!

12 Days of Christmas Music: Day 3

Feeling a little better today, less overwhelmed with the sadness of yesterday's events.  I think it helps that I spent the day helping friends move back to the state (yay!) and then went to a super fun Christmas party hosted by good friends Mike and Christine (yay times two!) at night.  They have a yankee swap where everyone needs to bring a gift from their house, and it's always entertaining to see what crap people have lying around.  My coworkers should be expecting a sushi maker on Monday at our work swap, as I try to pass it off as a nice gift.

I think in the vein of old friends, I'll post a song by the Royal Guardsmen.  The reason being is because when I was in elementary school chorus we had to sing this song, which I always thought was a crazy song.  Then, years later, I found out that someone wrote it in the 60's sincerely, and it was a pop hit... not just something weird our chorus teacher thought up.  I also felt the same feeling of "wait... people knew that song in real life?" when I found out that he wanted us to sing an Alan Sherman song at a concert.

Weird song performed quite sincerely by a bunch of Brits.  I promise tomorrow's song won't be Peanuts- themed.

Sunday Morning Snuggles

Woke up to this on Sunday morning. The best.

Why am I not doing NaBloPoMo this year

I've been hemming and hawing about whether or not I'd challenge myself to blog every day for the month of November.  And Ultimately, I decided not to.  Though it was sad, I think it's best.

I have an insane amount of projects going on.  Getting married in a year.  Completing a fellowship at work.  Training for a 5k in the spring (this time I think it'll actually happen).  Doing a fifty book and movie challenge.  Writing for a new and cool website coming up (more on that later).  And I just felt like the looming personal pressure to blog every day is too much right now.

That's not to say November will be a ghost town (though 2012 has been a big of a ghost town on this blog).  It just won't be every day.  Also, you may have noticed that on dryer days I'll just post a photo or a song, and i always felt like that was cheating.  So if I actually want to post a song, I will.  Just not to post for the need.

So it won't be a daily post, but I still think there's a lot going on in November for me to post often.  I just finished book #5.  I'll discuss the new blogging project I'm taking on.  I'll be watching more movies to discuss.  And I'm sure a lot of pretty photos of the area.  Oh, and did I mention I'll be live blogging the election?  Yep, that's happening again, though perhaps not as booze-filled since we'll be at an election night party.

So keep an eye out for fun things, and get pumped for a lot less random photos or songs on this site.

Fall update

While we weren't able to pick apples, we were able to have a few of these bad Larrys:

Mmmmm.  Seriously, this is what makes fall for awesome.

Fall Inspiration

A few weeks ago, Ricky and I drove around the North Shore to check out farms.  We had two goals:

1.  Get decor inspiration for our wedding.
2.  Find a cider doughnut.

Due to insane lines, we only were successful with goal #1.  (seriously, I'm not waiting 45 minutes in line for a doughnut)  I'm hoping today we're successful with goal #2.

We want to decorate with pumpkins and berries and leaves for the tables, namely because they're so pretty and seasonal and I'm not crazy about flowers.  I'm also not crazy about someone else making the centerpieces when I am more than capable of doing it.  As are about half of my bridesmaids.

I loved the look of the different colors and shapes of all the pumpkins piled up!  I also found a neat project where you can decopage leaves onto white pumpkins.  I'm going to get a white pumpkin in a week or so and try this myself.  That could also be neat decor around the barn itself and also lining the gazebo where the ceremony is going to take place.

I also tried to take photos of flowers and pumpkins, but I came to the conclusion that I am not crazy about the outdoor flowers that are available.  I've been seeing a lot of mums, which look a little sad and dried.  Great for a yard, but not for a table.

This is about as far as I've come with wedding plans so far.  Just some pumpkins.

Every Sunday Morning...

I drink coffee, read Post Secret, and listen to this song.  It's a really nice to start the last day of the weekend and prepare for the week.  I highly recommend it.

While watching the DNC...

...and I see all these old grandmothers with hats that are adorned with the pins of old Democratic presidents, it makes me think of my grandmother.  Who has two embroidered portraits in her basement, and dried floral arrangements at the base of each of those portraits.

Those portraits are these two men.

And when I saw it for the first time, she asked me straight-faced "are you familiar with our presidents?"

Please keep in mind that these two men had not been in office for 61 and 43 years, respectively.

She then asked if I wanted her wedding dress -- a wedding dress that was at least 3 sizes too small -- but that's a story for another day.

One more thing from Julia Child

The Huffington Post shared some of their favorite quotes from Julia Child, so I decided to follow suit and share some of my favorites from their list.

I think careful cooking is love, don't you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a Valentine as you can give.

Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.

Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed. Eh bien, tant pis. Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile, and learn from her mistakes.

And my favorite, which makes me think of Tim Duffy:

The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken. Bon appetit.  

The wedding cardigan

Photo credit:  LovelyGirls

My wedding is a long time away (as this is a public blog, I am not sharing the exact date here) and minimal plans have been made.  We've booked the venue, the DJ, and the photographer.  I have a loose idea of colors.  I realized it probably makes sense to forgo my dessert bar for just a cake (more on that later).  I have a bridal party and a good friend to officiate.  I know the men folk won't be renting tuxes and just wearing suits.  I have a first and last song.  I'm probably not tossing my bouquet.  And then it trails off.

The other thing I have realized I want is a wedding cardigan.  My friend Michnya has teased me for years (actually he's been teasing me about cardigans for a decade, I'm realizing, and feeling a little old and removed from college) that I own a ridiculous amount of cardigans.  Doing a quick count in my head... I have at least 10.  Maybe more.  I wear a cardigan at least 5 of the 7 days a week, including in the summertime when it's frigid in the AC.

Since I am getting married in a colder month, I've decided I want a cardigan. Originally I was thinking of knitting a wedding wrap for myself, and I may, but I'm also worried about running out of time with the other crafty projects I'm planning to do for the wedding.  So I may just resort to buying a wedding cardigan.

Yes, I get it.  You're thinking "what the hell is a wedding cardigan and why would you want to cover up that much on your wedding?"  First off, a wedding cardigan is a cardigan you wear at your wedding.  Duh.

A cardigan feels very me.  I like the practicality of knowing that if I get chilly I have something waiting for me to throw on.  I also like the modesty of something to throw on as well.  And it feels classic, like the color navy blue or a string of pearls.  I realize I'm making myself sound like a prude, but I promise that I am not.

I've found many photos online of beautiful brides in cardigans, and it makes me more sure of this.  The following article from LovelyGirls Weddings + Events shows many fine examples of this.  I've had the photo of the bride and groom lying together in the grass saved on my computer for quite some time*.  It's truly lovely.

Photo credit:  J Crew

The Jackie Cardigan from J Crew (pictured above) is great.  It's reasonably priced and comes in beautiful colors every season.  I am digging it in blue for my something blue, too.  How cute would it be to walk down the aisle wearing a sweet cardigan?!  It's also not as warm as cashmere, so I won't sweat during the ceremony.  And also, it's not almost $200 for a sweater like J Crew cashmere tends to be.

I'll keep browsing for a nice wedding cardigan as the months progress.  I also need to find a dress first so I know if a cardigan would look good or weird with it.  I will keep you posted!




*Full disclosure:  I've had it saved on my desktop at work months before Ricky and I were even engaged.  A girl can dream, right?!

Skipping over the ocean like a stone

It's a cover, but it's still amazing.  I showed Ricky this week the documentary Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talking About Him)? which he liked.  I think it's slightly biased and sycophantic-ish, but still worth checking out.  And it's been streaming on Netflix for months, so it's easy to access.  Ricky realized how much he liked Harry Nilsson's music, if nothing else.

Here's Everybody's Talking, from Midnight Cowboy, which is perhaps one of his biggest songs.



And here's One, which I used in college (both the original and the Three Dog Night cover) in a play I directed to try and set the tone of the beginning and end of the play.