Why I could live in Madison, Connecticut

Isn't that beautiful? This is the beach at East Wharf Beach in Madison, CT. Hubs and I took our little Valentine's Day getaway to this lovely little town. Not only does this town lie on the Connecticut shoreline, it has more to offer than just a beach. The town's center is quaint with a few restaurants of varying styles, a little movie theater, independent bookstore, and a few local coffee shops/cafes.

We stayed at the Scranton Sea Horse Inn which was a fantastic deal! Our room was cozy and perfect and we were served a delicious breakfast this morning with our fellow guests. I would love to go back in the Summer and spend another weekend there.
The Sea Horse is full of cozy little nooks and places to relax, like this sweet window seat. The Innkeepers Michael and Brian have taken the guest into account in every way at their Inn. When you enter the Sea Horse you are like a guest in their home. Their inn is cozy, inviting and elegant while still being very comfortable.
Saturday night we went to Elizabeth's Cafe, which is a homey yet elegant bistro-style restaurant that serves a little of everything. We went with seafood, hubs having the monkfish (he raved over it) and me the scallops (cooked to perfection). We finished it all off with vanilla cream and chocolate cake bread pudding.


After dinner, we walked the five minutes or so to the cute, little movie theater and saw, "Crazy Heart." That is the movie that stars Jeff Bridges as "Bad Blake" with Maggie Gyllenhal and Colin Farrell, in a profile of an aging, country troubadour. We really enjoyed the movie and the music was surprisingly good. Colin Farrell sang a bit on camera (I think that was him) and Jeff Bridges undoubtedly sang on camera. Bridges was surprisingly good and had a real Waylon Jennings meets Kris Kristofferson thing going on.
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All in all, it was a lovely weekend and my valentine and I had a much needed change of pace in a very romantic location. I hope that everyone out in blogland had a happy Valentine's Day as well. Whether it was spent with your significant other or best pals, I hope it was an enjoyable day.

Now I must retire, because unfortunately my place of business does not close in honor of our favorite Presidents. How lame. I'm all about celebrating the Presidents!

Anyway, bon soir!

Emerging... Bleary Eyed and Confused.

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*Don't say I didn't warn you - this post is the rambling mess of a woman just emerging from severe cabin fever.

For those of us who live in the 'burbs, inclement weather means that you are stuck in your house for long, long extended periods of time. I am not a person who is great at being cooped up indoors. Even a day is a stretch for me. I have to get out, walk around, see the sky and see some other people. So the isolation of the past few days has nearly driven me nuts. I've walked the empty streets of my town, amazed at how my neighbors can hunker down indoors, only emerging to shovel snow and occasionally curse.


Bored. I have been bored, bored, bored to no end. And the more bored I get, the more lazy I get! What a vicious cycle. We have played cards, video games, board games, watched movies and still have been so, so bored. Just talking about it makes me want to get up and do twenty jumping acks to get rid of all my excess energy. How do people who live in Alaska get through the winter without going crazy? But I digress...

Something exciting happened to me last night. I was able to get in my car with minimal shoveling, and back out of my driveway with no sliding, slipping or crashing and drive to my yoga class. I had other people to talk to, not just my dog and husband. And, I got to see what the rest of the world has been up to. For a person whose looked at about a 8 block radius for the last three days, this was a thrill!

Today I am at work, and for once I don't even mind it. The change of venue in which to sit indoors is a nice variance.


Now however, I am reminded at this moment of how thankful I should be to have warmth, a job, a home to shelter me through this terrible weather. And I am trying to be thankful, though I know not enough. This is due to the fact that boredom overtakes my thankfulness and makes me think crazy thoughts about taking roadtrips to Arizona just to be warmer.

BUT, I am thankful. I am thankful that I got out of my house. Thankul that I was able to practice yoga and alleviate my "shovel shoulder" condition (I am still having some difficulty in getting my arms high enough to shampoo). Thankful for the company of my husband and dog.

But dang, three days in a house is my limit!

Une vacance Francophone!

(Openair Market in Aix-en-Provence)

Do you ever feel the need to throw yourself a little pep rally? Whether it's a day at the spa to get ready for final exams, a day at the beach to gear up for your wedding planning, or just a long bath to muster the pep for another day in the office, a personal pep rally is often a good idea.

I am throwing myself a little "Go back to school for your Master's and Possibly Ph.D" pep rally this May or June. Although I'm not sure where I'll be going back to school, I can tell you that I'll be getting my Master's in Education /French in order to teach French. I am signed up to take the GRE on April 28th and I plan on being is school in August 2010.

So, my pep rally is coming in the form of a trip to France. My husband will probably not be able to come with me, so I am planning on doing it with a friend. I am thinking a trip to the South of France, maybe a little time in Paris will really get me back in Frenchy mode and motivated to go back to school!

I'm pretty thrilled about this prospect and looking to mark another 2010 destination off my list.


So here is a picture of the gorgeous city of Nice (pronounced like niece) to get us all in the spirit! I visited Nice many years ago when I was in high school and have always wanted to visit as an adult. It's French, beachy and feels like the landscape is straight out of a painting. Just too perfect!

I'll post my plans as they come together. Anyone have any tips for traveling through Provence/Cote D'Azur, please let me know! I'm so open to anything that might help me have a great trip and save a lil dough :)

Waffles, snow and homebrewing

Saturday morning we looked out our front door and found this:A big ole snow storm blew through Central PA on Friday night we got about 28 inches of snow. But, fear not, we were prepared. I made certain we were stocked with food and drink to make it through a weekend at home.

We knew that Saturday was going to be a whole a lot of snow-moving, so a hearty breakfast was definitely in order. Homemade buttermilk waffles topped with a apricot preserves and bacon sounds about right.


Now properly fed, my sweetie got to work shoveling our walk and getting his truck mostly free while I cleaned up the breakfast dishes and took our very antsy dog out for a walk.

Unfortunately, with snow up to his tummy, he wasn't feeling very comfortable taking care of business... alas. Our whole neighborhood was out in full force using their snow throwers, shoveling snow, plowing snow, but still in a very chipper mood. Mick got lots of attention, so he was happy.

I took over the shoveling duty and Tyler took a walk with Mick and he made really good progress, but here's what we were working with:
Yes, that's my little Toyota Matrix. So after about another two or three hours, we had both our cars free of snow and had shoveled out our neighbors as well.

My little valentine's day gift for hubs arrived on Friday afternoon (pre-blizzard) thus continuing my streak as best wife on the planet. For Christmas this year I purchased him a homebrew kit to make his own beer. And now we are about a week away from having a batch of homemade lager. But, hub is not much a of lager man, honestly, he's more into the IPA's, occasionally the Belgians. So I purchased this for him:
The "refill kit" with supplies to produce four more batches of beer. This means, he'll be spending a lot more time brewing in the kitchen and bottling in the basement. This will probably induce the purchase of another keg to be used for fermentation. But, what can I tell ya, I just want my guy to be happy.

I'll be wearing my gold star for awesomeness this weekend when we're enjoying MY valentine's day gift of a getaway to Connecticut. Yippee! And the plans are really coming together!

We're staying here:
At the Scranton Seahorse Inn in Madison, CT and I made dinner reservations at a place very nearby. It's going to be great!

And now we are watching the final minutes tick away on the Super Bowl. I really don't mind either team, but at the moment it looks like the Saints are going to take this one home. So, congrats NOLA! You all certainly deserve a win. Though I admit, I love my Peyton and am a little sad for him.

That being said, CONGRATS WHO DAT NATION!

Puppies!!!

Puppy Bowl is maybe the most adorable thing in the world and it airs this Sunday beginning at 3 pm. In case you are not familiar with the concept, 20 little rescue pups are put on a little fake football field with toy footballs and rope toys and they play. They play with each other, the run around, they roll and tumble with each other and it's precious. Like make me giggle with delight precious!

As special bonus for me, a member of the starting lineup looks just like my man Mick did when he was a pup. Oh the memories. Here he is, Carson of the Puppy Bowl, in all his preciousness.
Is that a little lump you could just squeeze or what?

And here's what they grow up to be:
Like how he has himself wrapped around that pole? He's an expert at that, but what can I say, he's mine.

Here are some of my other favs in the starting line-up. All adorable and all up for adoption.




Which leads us to my plug for pet adoption. If you are considering getting a pet, please consider adoption. While I have friends who have gotten lovely pets from breeders, there is something intangibly grateful about an animal rescued from a shelter. They know that you saved them, and they're so, so loving in return.

And don't forget to check out the Puppy Bowl this Super Bowl Sunday at 3 pm on Animal Planet. It'll be all the cuteness you can stand.

Lunch Hour Confessions: Part Deux

Remember Bobby Salesguy? My gregarious co-worker from my first installment of Lunch Hour Confessions? The one who is cheez-wiz personified? Well he has struck again today, much to my disdain.

The only thing that is cheering me up at the moment is the fact that I'm working on a Disability Insurance case for a guy named Rusty Nipple. No kidding, that's his name. The jokes that have come from this have been my salvation from Bobby Salesguy and helped me to repress urges to poke him in the eye with my letter opener!

So here's the deal. I am on my lunch hour (thus the title), enjoying my healthy choice chicken and rice soup and yogurt feast, reading the blogs I occasionally read when I left my book in the car and simultaneously writing an email to a friend. Here comes Bobby S. all fired up off some great sale or something stupid, into my cube to look over my shoulder to no only READ MY EMAIL, but asks EXACTLY WHAT I'M LOOKING AT ONLINE. What is that?

I give some explanation to him of what I'm looking at, as I eye my letter opener, on my lunch break and tell him "You are the nosiest person I've ever met." This then solicits a slew of apologies, ranging from, "I'm not going to steal your soup" to "I didn't mean to invade your space." You can't help but tell someone it's ok when they grovel like that! But in truth, it's not ok. Because this nearly fifty-year-old man has not learned ANYTHING from this interaction.

He didn't learn that he was wrong to pry into my private email (not sent from the company address) or that when you are on your lunch break, eating in ze cube (depressing) because you forgot your freggin book, maybe you should just be left in peace.

RAWR! Sometimes it'd be nice to have a dinosaur-like roar that you could let out at moments like this. Bobby Salesguy would soil himself.

Snooooow Daaaayy!

On Wednesdays and Fridays, I am off work and free to pursue whatever my little heart desires. As I said earlier today, it snowed last night, so Mick and I ventured out to take some pretty snowy pictures.

It was also time for a Mickdog photoshoot as I have not taken many pictures of him lately. He is my furry son and means the world to me (I could go on regarding my devotion to my boy and maybe I will later) and so I am remiss for not taking more sweet, candid photos. I righted the situation this morning by taking no less than 20 action shots.

Here are the highlights of Mick/our walk together:

This is what happens when you walk a hound dog. You sniff and sniff and sniff.

Me and my main man, little sweetheart and best pal. I love my dog!

On a side note, can anyone tell me why my pics sometimes post with giant spaces between them? What gives?