A lovely send off...

Last night was Dana's last night in town for awhile. Rucchi will also be taking off to Champagne, IL for a few months at some point to be with Dana and to do something entirely new. Fun! Last night, a group of us got together to share some great food and conversation at the Bearded Frog in Shelburne, Vermont. They sat us at the table right in front of the fireplace-not a bad way to begin. I started with a Bleu Martini, complete with bleu cheese stuffed green olives as a garnish! I moved on to the Waldorf Salad, (my personal favorite) and then the Chicken Statler filled with ham and melted brie. Oh my. Finally, we shared this little number below for dessert: Dark Chocolate Sorbet, Mocha Earl Grey Sorbet and Citrus Sorbet. It was just the right amount for 6 of us after a large meal. Rucchi managed to survive his bite of sorbet that may have had some sort of nut remnants on it-despite his allergy. Victory!

It was so good to see everyone, smiling (with the exception of a shoulder punch here and there) and sharing the day's news. There was talk of the life that was saved yesterday by someone at the table, (Heimlich Maneuver!), the friend in the process of getting some information patented for work, promotions, new homes, new creative ideas and more. Thanks everyone for a great night. Let's do it again soon!

Wait. What day is it?

Wow. It's January 12th already? Where has the month gone?

I've been busy healing from the only cold I had in 2009, also known as the cold that has claimed every day of 2010 so far! I've finally come close to beating it entirely. Today, I plan to work out and hopefully WORK IT OUT of my system for good. So, there.

My new place has also been occupying a good part of my days/nights. It just takes time to make a place feel like home. I'll post pictures once things feel put together.

I've also managed to score a pretty great roommate to share the new place with me. My dear friend Steven Hazen Williams will be moving in shortly. One of my new goals is to make my hard earned dollars go further. While making the move into a lovely, spacious, renovated Victorian seems like it might be a step up, it was really a decision I made to help me retain more money each month. One bedroom apartments in Burlington are spendy so, when I found this place I saw the potential and that feels good.

Those are some of the bigger updates so far in 2010. I'll be back soon, promise.

If you have the choice, don't ever move during the winter.

I returned to Burlington last Monday evening and moved into my new place the very next day! I knew I had caught a cold during my visit with my sister and her family but, I didn't know that it had plans to stick around for the next 13+ days! I've learned that moving in the winter is the pits. But, moving in the winter while you're sick is even worse. The antibiotics are hard at work now and I'm feeling better already.

So, about this move...it was pretty eventful. I went ahead and picked up my U-Haul on Tuesday morning. While I was filling out the paperwork for the truck, I was asked, "insurance or no insurance?" I initially went with it but, the more I thought about it the more it seemed silly. I thought, I'll be driving about 2 miles total. So, I decided to pass. My new friend Dan, at the Pine Street U-Haul location, made a mistake and ended up printing out my contract with the insurance. In an effort to get out of there quickly, I kept it on the contract and left. Back to my house I went. We loaded up many of the smaller boxes, furniture and my plants and headed down the street about 5 blocks to my new place. I selected a good spot to park the truck and began to pull into said spot at about 3 mph when, out of the blue, a giant tree branch came crashing down on our truck! Nelia and I looked at each other totally shocked by what had happened. We decided to call the police to come and survey the damage. They arrived and took our info down. They also called Burlington Public Works to come, cut up the branch and take it away. (Hi, I'm new in the neighborhood and sorry to take down your tree during my move!) We determined that the branch had fallen because the top of my truck (which I didn't have a good sense of) pushed the branch just enough to break it off. I guess I'm not as skilled a driver as I thought I was. Oh well.

Thanks goodness Dan made the mistake and kept the insurance on the contract. I'd say $15 is much better than $600. What a blessing.

Here is a picture of the damage to the truck:

Where the branch broke off from the tree:

Grins and Ghosts.

It's been a full week down here in Virginia. We've managed to make Christmas last the entire length of our visit together: family members coming and going, opening a couple of presents each day, trips to the playground, walks around the neighborhood and of course lots of tasty meals together.

Sometimes it's overwhelming to watch my sis live her life at such a crazy pace. When I visit her, I find myself running around too. Even though the experience is temporary, I still run out of energy! Someone in their household needs something during most moments of the day. Somehow my sister and her husband Jonathan manage to accommodate each need with patience and the appropriate response despite how fast they are moving. There were evenings when Jenny was so focused that she would literally trip over me in the kitchen and keep going in an effort to get everyone's meal on the table before, "meltdown". She knows. She is a veteran parent (of 3) and a pretty damn good one.

It's hard to live so far apart. It means we only see each other 2 or 3 times a year-the mini's grow and change so quickly and I don't want to miss it! Here are a few more pictures of our visit. Enjoy!

Adaline:

Oliver:

Adaline:

The Family in Colonial Williamsburg:

Playing with flour:

The Little Ghost:

Christmas in Virginia!

It's been a busy few days leading up to Christmas but, I finally made it down to Williamsburg, Virginia to be with my sister and her family. We've had a lot of fun in the last day and a half painting ornaments, playing in the leaves, watching Gretchen play a sheep in this year's Christmas Eve Pageant, preparing for Santa's arrival and convincing Gretchen that the reindeer wouldn't hurt her once they got into the house! It's nap time for the kids right now and honestly, I may close my eyes for a few minutes too. Christmas Day with three of them has kept me on my toes.

We're off to the airport tomorrow morning to pick up my Dad and Jane. I haven't seen them since this past summer so it will be nice to catch up few days before I head back to Burlington on Monday afternoon.

In the meantime, I hope you're all having a lovely holiday! See you soon.

Silly ducks.

Hello WINTER in Vermont!

I woke up this morning to frost on my living room window! It's been cold in Vermont but, not this cold. It was a frigid 2 degrees this morning. It has since warmed up to 7 degrees, (feels like -11 with the wind chill). This is the kind of cold that makes it hard to breath and the kind of cold that makes your hands hurt if they are exposed for more than a few seconds. I'm bundled up today and happy to be inside watching the lake steam for the first time from our rooftop conference room. What a site!