The winds of change are blowing my way (yet again!)

Some of you may have noticed that over the course of the last few months the frequency of post and the content of this blog has been changing.  There’s a reason for those changes.  My whole world has been undergoing something of a metamorphosis.  Not a Kafka-esque one, cause eww who’d want to turn into a nasty cockroach, but a series of huge changes none the less.  As some of you may remember I recently lost my dad, moved to middle America, bought a house (that needed a lot of TLC and some serious renovations), found a few job, and made some fantastic friends!  That’s a lot of stuff, right?  but that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s been going on in the last few months…  I’ve also ended a marriage, lost a bunch of weight, mostly finished renovating the house, found a job in my field, found even more great people, met a great guy, expanded my previously shrinking family, and decided to move (again)!  With all of that going on behind the scenes, I have to apologize for slipping with the frequency of my posts.  I am trying to keep up with as many of the topics as I can, but as my move to the southwest gets closer (and more of my stuff got packed – the craft supplies went 1st, then the books, and finally the kitchen equipment) it became increasingly hard to keep up.  I hope to be back up and running very soon, but just in case, please don’t forget about my out there in the blogosphere, I’ll be back with even more projects, adventures, reads, and recipes!

Now I wonder if you can make it from Ohio to Arizona by way of New York, Walt Disney World or Mount Rushmore…  We shall see!!!

Snapshot Saturday – Reliving Childhood Memories

I can’t believe my father has been gone for an entire year.  There are days when I feel like I spoke to him less than 24 hours before, and others when I feel like he’s been missing from my life for an eternity.  I decided to use this month’s Snapshot Saturday Posts to pay tribute to him and some of the places he loved most.  We spent a lot of the last few years revisiting some of the adventures we had while I was growing up. We went to ball games, amusement parks, the zoo, the movies, car races, casinos, and museums.  One of my favorite memories of childhood was going to the Bronx Zoo with my Dad, my brother and our Grandma.  The last trip I took with my dad was a return visit to the Zoo.  This is a picture of him outside of the Rhinoceros habitat in April of 2013.

Quest to Read Them All – Dark Witch

As I continue of my Quest to Read Them All, I have made my way back to an author who’s work I love.  As a young college student, I was introduced to Nora Roberts writing, and being the slightly obsessive person that I am, I went on to read everything she’s written.  In my 20’s I would scower eBay and Amazon looking for her out of print titles, because she didn’t have anything new out and I wanted to read something else.  The first set of books (she writes a lot of trilogies) I read – Finding the Dream, Holding the Dream and Daring to Dream – are still amongst my favorites.

This week’s book, Dark Witch, is the first installment in Nora Robert’s newest trilogy, The Cousins O’Dwyer.

Yes, as you can tell from the picture, it’s an eBook.  Due to space restrictions I have to be very selective about what books I keep physical copies of and which ones I will be happy to enjoy on my iPad.  We move around too much to add as many books as I actually read to my physical collection.  As it is, there are more than 16 totes (you know those good sized plastic buckets) of books waiting for the library/craft room to be painted so they can go onto shelves and breathe again.  But I digress…

One of the reasons I enjoy Nora Robert’s books are the characters.  I love how she creates these people who I can connect with so beautifully.  This was particularly true with the heroine of Dark Witch, Iona Sheehan.  She had rather uninterested parents a much deeper connection with her maternal grandmother, which, while not exactly the case for me, struck a resounding chord in my world.  All she ever really wanted was to be loved for who she was, and that is the gift she is given when she decided to seek out her destiny in County Mayo Ireland.  There are witches, sorcery, spells and potions in this book.  It has a good deal of fantasy and the paranormal, which is also one of Ms. Roberts mainstays and part of what keeps these stories so interesting.  I love how she introduced all of the key players, but kept the book mostly centered on Iona.  I cannot wait to see what happens next, and don’t have that long to go, because the 2nd book in the series, Shadow Spell, comes out on March 25th, 2014.  If I read the hints correctly, I believe this book will center around Connor and Meara.  However, we will all have to wait until November for the final installment, and the combustible heat that emanates from Branna and Fin.  Ghosts, witches, time travel, and spirit guides!  I cannot wait to finish this set of books!

Snapshot Saturday – Over the River and Through the Woods

This week I was reminded that we will soon be traveling to visit family for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday, and we can’t wait!

Let’s go Mom!

Snapshot Saturday – Puppy Love

Harley

Paddy

Murphy

This week I’m using 3 pictures instead of just 1.  These are my babies!  Murphy is 6 years old, Paddy is 16 weeks old, and Paddy is 9 weeks old.

Snapshot Saturday – Footprints

Today’s snapshot is meaningful in so many ways!  These prints belong to Murphy, he is our 6 year old pug.  We got him a little brother, Paddy (a Puggle), in the beginning of September.  Today we are picking up the third piece of our family puzzle, Harley (another Puggle)!  Thankfully our house is almost liveable, because a 3 flight walk-up with 2 puppies is just not going to be fun…

Snapshot Saturday – Sunset

I chose this week’s photo because I am feeling a bit sentimental.  This weekend marks the close of a huge chapter in my life.  I’ve left and come back to Holbrook, NY about a hundred times, but this is my probably my final goodbye.  I’m not one to say never again, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to stick this time, as the main siren calling me home is no longer here.  I’m going to miss some of the people, places, and traditions that we’ve been surrounded by, but I’m so ready for the next step and what a step it is!

Oh, by the way that’s a picture of the sun setting over the Grand Canyon from our 50 States Road Trip…

Tasty Tuesday – Honey Grilled Peaches

It’s summer time over where I live, so most of my kitchen adventures tend to either lead to the freezer or the backyard BBQ.  This week we are headed outside for a surprisingly good grilled dessert!

As usual, I found the recipe on Pinterest, but made it my own…  I’m really bad a following directions exactly, especially by the time I get to the dessert recipe – it is at the end of the meal, after all.  The original recipe was much more complicated than I was willing to experiment with after a long hard day, but I loved the idea of Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cheese.  Now, mind you I didn’t have any Mascarpone in the fridge, but it is summertime, so we always have vanilla ice cream on hand.  Which lead to the main change in this recipe.

Here’s what I did…

First I washed and halved 3 very nice ripe peaches.  It was the best peach splitting experience I’ve ever had.  Usually I massacre at least one of the peaches while trying to cut them neatly, but this time I didn’t squish any! (Happy Dance performed at the kitchen counter!)  Once they were cut and cleaned, I headed out to the trusty BBQ and put them on cut side up over a medium high heat.  Once they were all settled, I coated the cut side with some honey and flipped them over to get some nice caramelization and grill marks.

 

The hardest part of grilling is leaving the stuff alone and not checking on it too often.  I suck at this, it’s that whole lack of patience thing.  I’m trying and this is one of my more manageable challenges in that department.  Once they’d had enough time to get a nice color and warm all the way through I took them off (it took about 6 minutes total – 1 before the honey and 5 face down over the flame).

 

Then it was back inside for the fun part!  I took half a peach and placed it in a bowl, added a smallish scoop of vanilla ice cream and a pretty drizzle of caramel sauce.

Once I took my pictures for the blog, I called the rest of the crew in to make their desserts.  Some followed my lead, others added enough caramel to make my teeth hurt, but to each their own.  Overall this was a great success and a new way to each peaches!

Snapshot Saturday – Road Trip

It’s Snapshot Saturday and this week’s topic, as we continue with our ongoing theme of summer fun, is the almighty Road Trip!

A quintessential road trip photo!  I love shots like these.  This is Utah, another stop on the Quest to Visit all 50 States from 2009.  I love road trips, and given the restrictions that my family circumstances place on travel, they are the best and most economical form of vacation available to my little family group.  We quite enjoy getting in our car and hitting the road!

We still have 13 states left to visit, mostly in the northwest corner of the country.  I hope to get to make that trip sometime in the Spring of 2014.  Any one have any must see things in that area?  The kitschier the better – giant ball of string, Cadillac Ranch (I know it’s in Texas, but something like that)…

Snapshot Saturday – Father’s Day

Author’s Note – I scheduled this post a couple of weeks ago, and went back to look it over tonight after having made one of the hardest decision of my life.  I am going to have to use these wonderful tickets without my dad this year, as it is with heavy hearts that we said goodbye to him this past Thursday.  I cannot imagine my life without him and will strive to continue our traditions in his honor.  So think of us and our empty chair at this year’s ball game.  I won’t forget to buy you a beer and some crackerjacks…

It’s Snapshot Saturday and Father’s Day weekend, but alas I used a photo of my fabulous father last week in honor of his birthday, so what should I share this week???  Well, how about something that symbolizes the gift we give him every year for Father’s Day?

Who knows what stadium this is?

While the rest of my immediate family isn’t very big on true traditions, Gwen and I are completely on-board with the idea!  So we started giving my father, a lifelong Yankee fan, a fun-filled family trip to a Yankee game.  For the last 2 years, we’ve gone to one of the late season rivalry games against the Red Sox, but as we aren’t sure what the Fall will bring location wise, this year we will be attending a mid-summer game not so rife with animosity on multiple levels.  We will be adjusting this tradition in another way as well, by changing the people who will join us.  We used to share the game with my brother, sister-in-law, and sister.  This year they will not be invited to join in the fun, instead we are going to bring our extended family and friends!

So who can tell me what field this is?  It isn’t the obvious choice…