Snowy Nights and Sleeping Pups

I've discovered a close correlation to snowy night playtime

and slumbering, snoring, snuggled sweethearts.

No School Thursdays Rule

Seriously, I could get used to this!  

In two more months every night will be a no school night.  I am so beyond excited over here.

Today was the first day back at work after the glorious five day Christmas vacation.  Now it's two days on and then four more off for New Years.  In my long-standing but rather defeated opinion this much more fair split of days off to days on should be the norm.  That five/two thing has always bothered me. It seems grossly unfair to those of us who don't wish to live, breathe, and dream of their job, no? 

Oddly enough, today (the first day back at work) was a terribly rainy and windy, completely dreary day, much like Friday(the last day before vacation started).  It feels a little symbolic.  

I visited Lulu after work today for a touch-up on the bleached-to-brown ratio of my hair.  When I walked in the door I immediately ran into my friend from Boston who I have't seen in just about two years.  Between catching up with her and talking with Miss Lulu, the appointment felt like more of a social call than business transaction and it was over in a blink.

J called as I was on my way home to let me know that the Vegg we ordered on Christmas Eve showed up on the doorstop while he was out picking up Judd at the train station for practice tonight.  I've been excitedly awaiting its arrival all day.  This stuff is brilliant.  It's made of the simplest of ingredients -noosh, black salt, a coagulant and beta carotene.  It resembles, and tastes like, an egg yolk- the most difficult part of an egg to replicate for a good breakfasty food reminiscent of veggie-only days past.  I excitedly tore into the fridge and threw together the best vegan sausage, bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich EVER. And now I'm looking through the wonder that is Amazon Prime for a refill on the smoked salt I killed in my kitchen frenzy this evening.  The click once and it'll show up at your door the day after tomorrow thing is an internet shopping revolution.  My last two years of Christmas shopping were completely manageable thanks to Amazon Prime and I'm not ashamed to say that I love it as much as I fear it.  One click!  It's SO easy!  It's too easy... almost frightening to the standard-edition impulse shopper.

It's snowing!

The guys are practicing directly below me and they sound amazing.  Last Thursday's "secret" show went over very well, it was a total blast for all involved and for all in attendance.  Hopefully New Years Eve will be as fun.  We have a room at a fancy-pants hotel nearby, a bunch of friends coming up for the show Monday night and a brunch date with friends the following day.  It has all the makings for a great couple days.  J's voice sounds great, I'm just completely petrified at the idea of getting him sick between now and then (it seems like everyone we know or come into contact with is in some stage of awful flu and half the people I work with seem to have it. Creepy).  I don't wish to be the incubator/carrier who wrecks the night.  We can get sick Tuesday night.

Nothing of much interest to say tonight, just the ramblings of a mind jostled about by a bass-shaken room.

Home for the Holidays!

It happened!  Finally!  My "Home for the Holidays" dream came true.  Yay!

One quick Christmas Eve morning visit to my favorite vegan cafe/bakery for a lovely cup of ginger tea, a molasses ginger cookie, and some vpn payroll processing (I may be off, but business is not) and then I was home to stay!

We lit up the tree, lit up the fireplace, turned on the holiday flix, and then J disappeared into the kitchen where he whipped up a wonderful birthday dinner.  

He makes incredible homemade salsa, guac, cilantro-lime rice, and refrieds.  Combined with some oven roasted sweet potato slices (and lettuce, diced jalapenos, some greens, and a little daiya), the flavors are delicious.  It is a comfort food dream come true.  It's one of my all-time favorites.

The kitchen wizard in action

Birthday fiesta and a Old Speckled Hen

Vanilla-vanilla vegan birthday cake!

Cozy by the fire for birthday snuggles.

Home with my loves, cozy and warm.  No rushing around, no stress, just a peaceful night's sleep until Christmas.  It was as delightful and dreamy as I always imagined it would be.

Holidays - The Best Part

We had a pretty hectic weekend.

I ran out of work at 4:30 to meet J at the kennel where we board the pups for check-in (I like to call the place "doggie sleepaway camp" since it sounds less unpleasant for all).  We both really like the place.  It's where Lucy goes for doggie daycare a few times a week, it's located in a large veterinary facility, they get daycare during the day and they are allowed to share a large kennel at night, and the staff are so good with the dogs.  We hate ever having to board them, but when we don't have a choice, this place puts our minds at ease.  The boys were doing a two day stay without their little bossy long-eared sister, who was accompanying us to Connecticut for an early Christmas celebration with my family.  Three is too many to take with us when we invade my parents' house, an boarding two was a little more economical, especially considering we had another three day boarding of all three pups coming up in a week for New Years.  Yikes.

 

We stopped home to pack up the car and grab a quick bite to eat before hitting the road via a detour to East Providence for the wedding of a couple of friends.  It was a lovely - very warm and simple, wedding at their home with a smallish group of family and friends.  We visited for a little bit, attended the ceremony, and then said our goodbyes only a short time later.  We still had to make a couple stops on the way to CT and it was getting late.

A quick stop at Target for a couple things we forgot to get earlier and a coffee and we were on the road with a great playlist of holiday songs J put together for the drive.  I called my parents to let them know we were running late and it was looking like a midnight arrival.  They assured us it was no problem, just to let ourselves in and we'd see them in the morning.  We talked and sang along to the songs and had a fun little (unusually traffic free) journey to our homestate.

As we approached New Haven we encountered our usual quandry of whether or not to stop at Mamoun's.  Neither of us had eaten much during the day and we were making pretty good time.  It's become a tradition to stop in on our way in or out of town, or both, each time we visit.  Not willing to tamper with tradition, we decided to make a quick stop for a no meat combo plate and a mango iced tea between us.

Man, that place never disappoints.

 

We got to my parents' around midnight, made our way through the recently rebuilt downstairs (they had a bit of a flood downstairs a few months ago), and cozied up in our room with miss Lucy stationed at the foot of the bed (she lives for security detail).

 

We woke the next morning to the sound of someone hacking their lungs out upstairs.  I went up to say good morning and discovered my mother had what sounded like bronchitis, though she insisted it was nothing and she was on antibiotics that were making things better.

I took a shower and got ready for the day and tried to help with the cooking and baking as much as possible (my mom has this down to a science and any help has to follow strict guidelines.  Mainly, you don't do anything unless she askes you to).  My form of help usually involves hanging out in the kitchen and visiting with her as she swirls around the room pulling copius amounts of taasty food out of the oven in a way that often reminds me of the hundred clown emerging from a tiny clown car.

 

My brother and sister-in-law came by around 1 and my uncle wasn't too far behind them.  We talked and caught up with everyone for a while and then sat down to a fabulous and typically early holiday dinner.  Afterwards, we exchanged gifts and then visited with everyone a bit more.  Everyone left around 7 and we were exhausted.  Though we'd toyed with the idea of heading into New Haven for a little while, all we wanted was to relax for a little while and go to bed early.

 

After visiting with my parents for a little while Sunday morning, we were packing up and heading home to get the boys at doggie sleepaway camp.  We made one more stop at Mamoun's, because we have a habit to tend to, purchased a bottle of hotsauce and split our usual order before racing back to get to Warwick before the kennel closed at 3.

 

We got everyone home, we unpacked the car and played with the pups for a bit before heading out seperately to do some final touches on the Christmas shopping and making sure we were properly stocked for the Christmas evening get-together/open house/sit-by-the-fire-and-drink-cocktails party.

By the time we both got home it was getting late but my excitment at the prospect of having a birthdayxmaseve/christmas/dayafter all home with J and the pups, no running around, no work, no stress, is almost too much.  I am looking forward to spending 3 wonderful days with my four loves (and hopefully even with a little snow, too, if the weatherman isn't fibbing).  That's the best part of the whole holiday thing, spending time with loved ones, devoid of stress or craziness.  I have big (but very simple) dreams for this.
Hopefully that doesn't mean I'm instantly jinxed.

 

 

Holidays Bashes and Cookie Stashes

Friday night was the holiday party of the year.  Each year, for as long as I've known her, Jen has thrown a Christmas party.  Lots of good food and libations, Christmas trivia (a tradition now), holiday movies, carols, fun with friends ...it's always a great night that we look forward to for months.  J made ginger chocolate mini scones to add to the table full of goodies, Jen filled us with pomegranate martinis, and Shayne provided chocolate bourbon balls that are also (if I have any say in it) becoming a tradition in their own right.

Christmas Trivia card.  The game is rough!

Late night game of Christmas "Things" is underway.

J and I won the Christmas trivia game with our combined ballet/musicians knowledge (thank you Maria Tallchief & Tennessee Ernie Ford). We were very proud.  It was approaching 2 when we decided to head home to the pups.  We listened to some christmas tunes on the way home and talked about how soon everything is sneaking up on us and what we'd make for our Saturday night pot-luckish party.

We slept in and found ourselves in the reading room for quite a while discussing the heartbreaking events of the previous day.  We then tried to change course to more uplifting discussion by reviewing recipes and discussing the pros and cons of different dishes.  Before we knew it the day had already flown by us.  It was almost 4 before we ran out to hit the grocery store and grab a few slices at Nice Slice for our first meal of the day.
J made a delicious spicy chili, which we gingerly packed up and brought to the party.  It was so nice to see everyone there.  The house is gorgeous and perfect for a party.  The friends who are there are always lots of people we love but just don't see enough.  Conversations spanned from dog behavior to old Northeast hardcore bands and shows to the New Years Eve show and possible spin-offs and the big upcoming event our host is planning for September.
I don't even remember falling into bed last night, I was so sleepy and completely spent.

This morning J got up early to finish splitting wood before the possible rainy snowy mess hits us.  I wanted to do something to support his cold morning toil, so I made tea and chocolate oatmeal cookies with coconut and chocolate chips.  Holy wow, these things are delicious.  We already ate about ten of them.  I'm stashing these away until tonight to keep us from devouring them all before noon!

Today needs a good fire in the fireplace, some gift wrapping by the tree, and a fun dinner while we snuggle up and watch a holiday flick together.  I'm making Isa's mac and shews today.  I've been wanting to try the recipe forever, so since I'm on an early kitchen kick and we have all the ingredients, I might as well jump on it today.

Beer and a Babe

Today was the first non-stressful work day of the week.  I ensured a manageable day today by stressing myself to the point of asking for help yesterday.  I finally asked our resident excel wiz what I kept doing wrong in v-lookups that caused big ugly errors everywhere (I'm pretty handy with excel, but there are a couple silly things that give me trouble, so I naturally avoid them).  He showed me, and I applied my new skill to a daunting task that involved pulling lots of data from 12 separate files into one massive monster of a spreadsheet, and voila! a two day project of doom turned into a two hour piece of cake.

Yay!

To celebrate the miracle of me asking for help (or maybe it was just to encourage some de-stressing), J took me out for a much needed 'just us' night.  We stopped at the Wickenden Pub and had a beer while waiting for a table to open at Abyssinia.  We friended the waiter/host (J friends everyone he meets) and got a great table upstairs in a quiet spot with some amazing comp'd sambussa, and a delicious veggie combo for two.  I am very excited to note that they're starting to spice up their dishes a bit.  I'm hoping this will be the beginning of some great berbere overloads to come.  After dinner we walked Wickenden for a bit and made each other laugh until we couldn't even walk in a straight line anymore.  I'm sure we looked like crazy drunkies from the pub to the handful of people wandering the street.  We stopped at CE for coffees and sat and talked a little more. **I need to take a moment to say that I cannot convey in words the overwhelming appreciation I have for this guy.  He is my very best friend ever. We never run out of things to talk and laugh about.  We have so much fun together and I love him so much more than I could ever explain.  He renewed my faith (I was once so totally jaded) regarding warm fuzzies, and happy, loving, trusting relationships.  His presence alone warms me to my core.  He is my soul-hole filler (minds out of the gutter (or not)) and I am so very, very thankful for him.**( /gush)  

A fun night out led to a fun night in as we headed home to our pups, some warm radiators, and our pretty sparkling tree.  We spent some time hanging in the reading room while finishing out christmas plans and prep, followed by some American Horror Story before bed.

The only bummer of the evening is that the lateish coffee date gave J some wicked insomnia which he tried to rectify with a viewing of Human Centipede (despite my sleepy protests that it wasn't a great idea).  I only vaguely remember waking to him telling me it was seriously gross and not only could he still not sleep, but now he was thoroughly disgusted, too.  Poor, sweet, sleep-challenged boy.

I just got home from a long and exhausting class (8 more weeks and I'm done FOREVER) a little while ago.  Crowns practice was going strong, possibly as loud as my belly was growling, even.  I made an emergency vegan grilled cheese, a melty, delicious calorie-packed snack, which I ate in the dining room (which sounded like the inside of an amp).  I have a quick online shopping wrap-up scheduled while J drops one of the other J's at the train station.  When he's back, it's sleepy time for us old folks.  I am so excited for my bed and tomorrow night brings us the first of our double holiday party weekend!

Happy Holidogs

J is a pup photo master, as evidenced below:

This is what happens while I'm at work.

3 pups, one tree, oodles of expectation.  

It totally looks like they expect to be paid for this miraculous feat of epic proportions - the unmoving dog pose.

I think I may love this photo the most, more than every other photo in the world.

While the merry bells keep ringing, may your every wish come true.

May the calendar keep bringing

Happy Holidogs to you!

Tuesday of Tedium

The work week has been of to a semi-productive, but entirely stressful start.

I'm also the sleepiest person in the world this week. 

(no more late night Epic Rap Battles of History viewings by kindlelight w J)

The combined points above make for a slightly less-than-psyched-for-today me.

A sleepy, stressed, slightly less-than-psyched-for-today me.

Boooooo. 

And blah.

I cranked up some holiday tunes as I headed home from work tonight and felt the layers of ick start to melt away as I travelled closer to home, J, and the pups.  I glanced to my left and smiled at the sight of Nibbles the Big Blue Bug all decked out in his holiday splendor,  then traffic crawled to a stop and stayed that way just long enough for me to feel the ick working its way back through me.  It took a long time to get home.  It sucked.

I'm now upstairs wrapping up my online christmas shopping (I think).  It's a Crowns practice night and they're about halfway through the second run of the set that's planned for New Years Eve.  This means Mr Ollie, my unhappy bear, has finally given up.  He's no longer barking at the songs, he's crumpled to a sleepy heap on his dog bed, which I brought into the reading room in anticipation of this moment.  Necco and Lucy are curled up together on the sofa next to me.  I'm contemplating crawling into bed instead of preparing for Thursday's class.  Probably not the best idea, but an incredibly appealing one, regardless.

This weekend we find ourselves booked full of holiday party fun.  I'm looking forward to it, but then I'm also a little spooked at the realization that the following weekend J and I are going to Connecticut to  celebrate the holiday with my family.  Yikes.  That's soon.  

I'm very excited at the idea that this year we will be home, at our house, just us and the pups for Christmas Eve (my birthday) and Christmas day.  No rushing around, no traveling, ...hell, we don't even have to get dressed!

The plan is a loose one: gaze at the beautiful tree, hope for a snow storm, snuggle by the fire, watch every claymation special and Christmas movie we have in the DVD repertoire, make hot cocoa, and thoroughly enjoy the holiday quiet.  THEN have a little cocktail party Christmas night for our any of friends who are in town.

Two more weeks.

Wow.

Sleeping Dog Montage

  

Lucy and Ollie, snoring on the sofa

Necco and Ollie, asleep on the sofa.



Close-up of Ollie.  No words needed.

Lucy usually gets herself under the blanket completely.
 Looks like she was too put much effort into it.

Lucy, trying out the new reading room.

Post-Thanksgiving food comas.

Blanket sharing on the dog beds.

Nodding off, but trying hard to stay upright.

Ollie decides he's sleeping downstairs tonight.

Brothers

One of Lucy's favorite nap spots (she has 12).

Exhausted after raiding the laundry.

Happy (sleepy) furry family.



Completed Tree (the Continuation)

It's done (mostly)!

Unfortunately, cell phones and wonky lighting make for less than fabulous photos.

But, you get the idea, right?

It came out rather lovely.

Terminator Rex, making a plan for total tree annihilation.

I'll get a few close-ups of some of our favorite ornaments the next time I'm home when the sun is out (...so, a week. Sheesh!)

Happy Holidays!

Tree Trimming -TBC

We got our tree Sunday!

The foyer was cleared out to make room for the perfect spot (both asthetically and practically, since it's just a tiny bit too big for the ceilings).  I love that it will be visible twinkling through the sidelites at the front door, and it has a fully dedicated area of its own so it isn't crowded by furniture or anything.  This is THE tree spot.

Now, to decorate it! 

 We planned for Monday evening, but band practice at the house went a little later than planned.  By the time everything was settled, the dogs were completely zonked.  When J got back from the train station (he had to drop one of the guys off so he could get home to Boston), he sat on the loveseat for a moment to tell me about his day, and miss Lucy promptly climbed up, sat on him and fell asleep.  She looks like she's melting into J and the pillows in the photo below: 

Lucy, sleepily sinking into J and the loveseat.
Please ignore the step stool in the background. We were fully prepared to start trimming.

After some time had passed, J got up to take off his coat and settle Lucy into her little pillow and blanket nook.  Ollie jumped up in their place and was asleep before I even noticed he was there.  I've never seen his tail this relaxed! 

Ollie, fast asleep, lips pursed & tail unfurled.

We decided to give Tuesday a tree trimming try since we could dedicate the entire evening to it - hot cocoa, gingerbread fresh out of the oven, some holiday stop motion favorites playing in the background, concerned pups watching from under foot... What more could we want?

Then last night came and I got stuck in traffic on the way home.  I was starting to feel a little under the weather and J had spent the day dealing with a bunch of aggrivating and mentally exhausting stuff in addition to taking the title for errand man of the decade, so he was a little sleepy.  It just wasn't looking like an optimal tree trimming night.  So we decided it would be best to postpone it just one more time.

 

Ollie and Necco settled in for a bone-off (it seems like they're racing to see who'll be first to grind their bone to dust, so the event has taken on the name bone-off).  My sweet goofball decided to get in on the action:   

 No human to bone contact was made in the above picture.

 

We Netfix'd something, curled up on the sofa and fell asleep.

 

Tonight's the night!  I'm fully expecting all kinds of obstacles, but we WILL power through and trim that damn tree even if we're hanging (dropping) glass ornaments past midnight.

 

Happy Holidays!