Breakfast Anyone?

Walking to the train this morning and what do I see but this bushy tail before me! Ha Ha!! Well this is going to be one fat, happy squirrel today.   Sorry it's blurry, I didn't want to get too close when the Buffet is open!

Spooooky MAMA

okay---so a billion trillion things have happened since just last Thursday and my return to work!  Some so dramatic it almost feels like I was in an episode of New Jersey Housewives.  eeehhh Em, so I will spare you the horrific details and remind you that it is October and Spooky is just what the doctore ordered!

I didn't much feel like cooking and with a house full of leftovers I asked ...why?  So dinner was ready and the Giants were terrible and so it goes...Dan asks "do you want to watch a spooky movie?"  Of course I reply!
His pick and we watch MAMA.  Have you seen it?  It was scary for the first 40 minutes we were both jumpy and had goosebumps but then it just got dumb.  Why do they do this?  It could have been terrifically terrible and given me nightmares.  instead I overslept--through my alarm which goes off at 5:30 am...um mm I arose at 7:24.  whoops somehow I made it to work on time.  But what a great nights sleep!  Another horrible horror movie anyone?

List maker

Since being home I have become the list lady.  I have always made lists but the last 16 days I have been furiously making lists of all kinds... List for grocery, lists for cleaning, lists for travel, lists for holiday gifts...oh you get the point!  I have tried Evernote but I just prefer pencil and paper any day of the week.   Cute paper and colored pencils because I'm just that kinda gal!

This Do or Die pad is from one of my favorites ...Rifle Stationary Co.

From Rifle Paper Co.

COULD IT BE....

 THE SUN?!!!

Oh thank heaven for small miracles!  We have had rain and a dark grey sky for 7 days straight.
 I thought I might have to resort to vitamin D injections and a few hours in a tanning bed... or better just a plane ticket to Florida.  Hooray for the SUN!

Birthday Dinner

While the furlough has been disruptive and  the timing pretty bad I have truly been trying to make the most of it.  For my Moms birthday this year I had more time than usual to prepare so I made Brasato.  In my opinion, anything that has to marinate in a beautiful melody of herbs and an entire bottle of wine for 24 hours has got to be good!  I photographed the steps below however I did not include the searing of the meat.  A delicious recipe and with the leftover rapini and beef we made panini's the next night. yummy!!  Dan made pumpkin ravioli from scratch with sage butter as a starter for birthday dinner.  He roasted the pumpkin, pureed the filling and made the pasta.  My guy didn't just take my name he became an Italian chef!  We finished with some special pastries from our local french bakery. Delicious! 

                                      

Football star

We have a football star in the family!  We went to Colin's 3rd flag football game and he did super!
The team is co-ed, mix of 6-9 yr old age range, it's quite the span and they all really play well together.  The coach is great, he gets the kids in a huddle and reminds them every game; "what's the most important thing we do today?, ...HAVE FUN! the kids shout in reply"  its wonderful!  Colin had an opportunity and took it;  he ran the ball 3/4 of the way down the field before a tall blond gal yanked the flag from his waist.  Isn't it always the tall blond never a brunette! (wink wink).
 We are really proud of him.

Shutdown DAY 11

Holy Moly ---11 days of no work but no worries I have been as busy as a bee!
Last week I cleaned out 3 closets.  Wow, I know it was a huge task and long overdue!  The best part about it is most of the items have made it to their donations centers.  I have a few things to consign on Monday and some items I will post on Ebay.  Two more  closets to go and then its on to the bookshelves...

Last Friday I had a wonderful surprise visit from my very good friend Rachel Cassiman.  We spent the day at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Garden being fabulous because it is where fabulous lives!  This is the estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post and it is filled to the brim with Russian Imperial and French Decorative Arts.  The two of us spent the afternoon catching up and pining over the all of the beautiful decorative objects.  It was wonderful to see her I only wish it was for a little longer!   

 

  

Day 2 Furlough

What do you do with all this time? Ohhhh lets see...make lists on what to do with all this time!  

And then...go shopping!  Ha ha 

Well not really, I did head out for a bit to run some errands.  Of course I stopped in one of my favorite stores and tried on a couple of winter coats.  That is such a hard decision.  you never know what kind of winter we are going to have.

Then I hit the market for a few essentials to make chicken soup from scratch!  

It was delicious, Lorenzo (my kitty boy) would not stay out of the kitchen, he loves chicken and the aroma was making him loopy meowing like a fool.  Daniel ate two bowls.  It's funny anyone will tell you I'm not a huge fan of soup especially when it's warm out, yesterday we had a high of 85.  I usually eat soup when I am sick-only unless its Pho so, I guess the furlough thing got to me.  (Turning off news now)

This particular recipe has white wine, carrot, celery, onion, garlic, thyme, flat parsley and small pasta. 

 It called for egg pasta but I don't care for the large egg noodles. 

Wallah!  I will make this again.

Happy Birthday!

To my super fabulous Mommy!  You are so creative, passionate, talented, courageous and inspiring!  I'm so lucky to have you for a Mom my best friend, my advocate the woman I strive to be most like.

I love you with all my heart, XO 

Non-essential Club Member

Shut down the government, what a disgrace.  At midnight last night the shut down was official however as a government employee I was required to report to work today for 4 hours to receive my furlough papers and perform any necessary actions to shut down my office.   It was so surreal to check in only to return home indefinitely.  I have been working since I was 17 years old, all through college and so on, there has never been a time in my life where I was not required to be somewhere...this is so strange.  

I have a laundry list of things I can do around the house including packing for our upcoming trip to Europe for my BIG 40 birthday!   I will try to use my time wisely and maybe even take an extra yoga class or two...goodness knows I will need it if this carries on too long!!