Last Snow of 2010...According to Mumble

Late December saw the first real snow of the Winter season...and the last snow of 2010. And it began like all other snows...cold, wet, constant. But I won't be telling you about my observances about the snow...but rather Mumble's....

Our inflatable penguin. He saw a great December this year with hardly any disturbances...until late in the month. The ambush of snow caught him by surprise and he felt "weighed-down" by the on-slaught.

The weather was so depressing to Mumble that he felt that he just wanted to disappear.

And within 24 hours, he did just that.

Today, Mumble is with us, but only in physical form. Let's just say that the "spark of life" inside him went out...and he will be missed.

Christmas 2010 in Review

The morning began just like every other Christmas morning....the smell of bacon permeated the apartment as I fried it up. Better than coffee...I think. I was working on the finishing touches to my Christmas tradition...the breakfast.

For as long as I could remember, we would have a breakfast souffle that just could knock your socks off. Sure...its one of the simplest things you could make...but its not Christmas until I have it.

Anyway, I was cooking the bacon to top it all off...and Robyn emerged from her room...

"Mmmm, bacon.....Merry Christmas!" Well...I agree in the order of priorities!

Anyway...I put the breakfast in the oven, Robyn started her coffee...and the it was STOCKING TIME! Yes, stockings take place before presents and before breakfast...and its a free-for-all!

Once we finished were finished, , I played "elf" (as Robyn's father says) and passed out the gifts from under the tree. Then breakfast came out of the oven and we enjoyed the tastiness of the season!!! YUM YUM!

Now...down to business. Traditionally...in my family, we open gifts from youngest to oldest. With only two of us...we just switched off opening presents.

One of Robyn's gifts was 50 cookie cutters from Andy...which she was thrilled about, calling it "her own Animal Cracker set."


We continued to open presents, back and forth, and finally Robyn opened her final present...from me...that I told her she had to open last....and this was why...

That's right....her very own Kitchen Aid mixer...which ps, she hugged and didn't let go of for a while. She is now trying to decide what recipe to break it in on. Haha!

All in all...it was a very nice Christmas...

With a lot of dead wrapping paper left...displaying the battle that we won...

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas...and won your own wrapping battles!

Happy Birthday To Me...

This week was my 'birthday week' as deemed by a couple of people from work. And boy...what a week it was!!!

It all started with a trip to NYC with Andy! We drove down to New Haven to catch a train into the city. Once we arrived we had a few things to walk around and see before the main event of the day...

SO we headed to Le Parker Meridian...a high-end hotel near Carnegie Hall. They were having a Gingerbread Extravaganza and the theme this year: Movies In New York. Local bakeries created their renditions of some classics...


....like West Side Story...

....or Ghostbusters...(check out that Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man!!)

...and King Kong (whoa there....big monkey!)....

...and Andy's favorite....BIG!

We then headed out on our walk to Times Square....and saw a bunch of neat things on the way...

(those are some big ornaments)

(but damn...those are big lights!)

Once we got to Times Square...we visited the M&M store before heading to the main event...BILLY ELLIOT!! It was such an amazing show with great songs and awesome dancing!!

We then headed out for dinner (ps...really good) and then decided to go look around a little more...hitting the Disney store and then down to Harold's Square for Macy's...

I had never seen the windows at Macy's....hell, I'd never been to Macy's in NY.

Once we experienced Macy's (including heading up the 8 floors to see Santa Land)...I finally hit a wall...and we headed back to Grand Central to catch a train back home...

It was a long day...but an amazing one!! And definitely, a birthday I won't forget...ever!

Into The Woods...

So...this is a late blogpost about this...considering this morning had a little left over frost/snow...but the Fall is my favorite time of year. It's cooling off from the summer and the colors are the best of all.

I had a 'bf' or 'best friend' day with Andy which was filled with walking around our outdoor shopping center and alot of hanging out...but my favorite part was the hike we went on.

There is a one-mile trail right around where we live that was beautiful. There is a reservoir that trickles out into a stream along this path so you could hear the small babbles of the water while we were crunching along in the leaves.

I really want to come back to see this trail during every season...particularly in the snow!

7 Times in One Night...

Oh get your mind out of the gutter!

I'm talking Haunted Houses! Yes, it's that time again... Time to for the leaves to change color, the weather to get cool/cold and time to frightened to death! YAY!

Ok, I'm a HUGE fan of Halloween. It is my favorite holiday (yes, I'm crazy) in my favorite season of Fall. I don't know what it is exactly: the weather, the colors, the candy or the ability to become someone or something else for a night. It's just amazing to me.

So my best friend and I drove up to New Hampshire to go to Nightmare New England, said to be the #1 Haunt in the North East. I wanted to test that theory. It boasts a Monster Midway along with 7 haunted houses/attractions.

The attractions were as follows:

THE CATACOMBS

RAVEN'S CLAW CEMETERY

THE COLONY

FREAK SHOW in 3D

ETERNAL DARKNESS

TORMENT

SLEEP STALKERS

I lost it in the Freak Show when a clown came up to me (which I'm terrified of) and wouldn't leave me alone. I did leave the house in tears and poor Andy had to hold me until I calmed down. I was just glad I didn't save that one for last...

The two best were I think the last two we did: Eternal Darkness and Torment.

Eternal Darkness you walked through with just a glow stick to light you way and everything was pitch black. Freaky! It was so cool because you had no idea what the hell was going to come out at you next. We had monsters come up to us individually saying "good luck" and "did you miss me" in whispers. Creepy!!

Torment was for your fears. It was all based on phobias. This included snakes, spiders, bugs, enclosed spaces and (yes, again) clowns. This was freaky because they employed things to make everything freakier. Strobe lights to make the snakes move, gobos to have moving roaches, an inflated hallway that you had to literally squeeze through. Luckily for me, the clowns were at the end and I could hustle through them.

Ok...I'm sure someone is wondering, if you are so scared of clowns, why go into haunted houses with them. Damn Tim Curry...I blame him and Pennywise the Clown. Because of the movie IT, I'm terrified of clowns and my way of facing that fear is to go to haunted houses. Why not a circus? Because I really don't like circuses.... I'll go to a haunted house with killer clowns from outer space before I'll go to a circus with happy-go-lucky clowns. I'm just weird like that.

Anyway, we finished the park about 5 hours after beginning and we were frozen from head to toe (or at least I was) but it really was a blast. So all in all, the 11 hour adventure was well worth the time and $35!!! I'll be looking into it next year too!!!

Get your spook on!!

How do you spell F-U-N?

So this year was the 4th Annual Community Spelling Bee hosted by Achieve Hartford! and we were apart of it once again. It was my second year to participate in the Bee and I at least had an idea of what happens at these things from last year.

I complied a team of myself and two additional apprentices, though we did have to make a last minute substitution, and we participated as THE BEE-LIST STARS.


Our goal: do better than our team last year (who went out on the second word).

Was it completed? YES!!

We made it to the fourth word (which truly is better than we have done in the past) and pretty much everyone in our round got out on the word: LAPIDEOUS.

Oh well, we had fun and of course it was to benefit the Hartford Schools, so we were happy to be apart of it again. We had a small but good cheering section, like last year, so that was a plus as well.

Goal for next year: WIN!!


We'll see....tune in next year!!

Things I Wish Connecticut Had...

There are plenty of things that I like about Connecticut:

1) Located in New England, meaning close to some family members

2) Better foliage (let's face it, I'm a sucker for fall leaves)

3) Food (let's face it again, I love food...)

There are things I don't like about Connecticut:

1) Missing The Container Store

2) Missing Qdoba

Two of my favorite things...and they don't exist in Connecticut.

When I lived in Texas, one of my favorite things to do was walk around The Container Store. I was obsessed with organization (though I lacked it in a lot of aspects of my life). I loved the idea of it though. If I had the money, I would buy everything from there and put it all into use. I remember when I would participate in sports and particularly when I was a cheerleader, we would be assigned a teammate to prepare gifts for before a game. The Container Store was where I would find all of my boxes, tins, bags, stickers, etc that I would use to put the gifts in. It was incredible. To this day, it is still one of my favorite places to visit and browse and buy from.

All of my life, Mexican or Tex-Mex food was my favorite to eat. When I lived in North Carolina, I encountered a place that I would fall in love with called Qdoba. It wasn't the first time I had a burrito like this, but it was by far the best (at least to me). I would drive there at least once a week (sometimes more, guilty as charged) to eat the food. I made believers out of classmates and friends. They make a Chicken Queso Burrito that I love and would drive great distances to have.

Because both of these places don't exist in Connecticut, I had to drive to the closest locations: Massachusetts. It's usually about an hour and a half one way....but I guarantee, it is worth it, for both of them.

And on the way, you might see something crazy...(Disclaimer: You shouldn't photograph and drive at the same time. Please don't try this on your next drive.)

So get on the ball Connecticut...you finally got a Sonic (and soon to be two of those), now make it happen for two of my favs!!!