Happy Halloween!

I used to love Halloween... back in college, I used to go to halloween party and dress up. I remember one year, I dressed up as Punky Brewster. For a while that's what my nickname was, Punky. Life was so much easier back then, in college. Not that life is so difficult now, but you sort of take dressing up and trick or treating for ganted. My sophmore year in college, my roommates and I dressed up and went trick or treating, door to door. We dressed like 80's girls, with big, crimped hair and all. You didn't have to worry about curfews or "bad" candy. Ahhh, those were the days. Anyway, Happy Halloween!

Color me RED

I've been having some blogging issues lately, which is why I haven't posted anything in the last couple of days. So, I've listed the links at the bottom of the page instead of linking them to the actual words. SO, bare with me and hopefully I'll get this thing back to working normally sooner rather than later!

I was at my parents house last night for dinner and my brother, sister in law and their 2 little boys came as well. My sister in law was wearing a very plain, but cute navy long sleeved shirt. On the bottom left hand corner of the short was an outlined red triangle. The shirt in general was cute, so I asked her wear she got it. She said it was part of the RED program that many companies are a part of. Oprah debut it on her show, when the program was launched on October 13th. The program was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver to raise awareness and money for blog themselves!

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200610/20061013/slide_20061013_284x426_301.jhtml http://www.theglobalfund.org/EN/
http://joinred.blogspot.com/

My first pumpkin... of the year.

It's offically fall, and Halloween is officially just around the corner. I usually wait to get my first pumpkin closer to the end of October. I don't know why, but I always feel like if I get it too early that I'm accepting the colder weather and the end of the year and little faster. But this year, there aren't a lot of pumkins. Due to the amount of rain we had this Spring, there just aren't as many pumpkins. Which is why I felt like I needed to get one before they were all gone. Todd and I ran some errands... first we stopped at Star Market on Rt.9 to bring some coins to the coinstar. I had never done that before, I was must say that I was entrigued. Unless you are turning your change into a "gift card" only to be used at the grocery store, coinstar takes about 10% of your total and gives you back the rest. Although we didn't quite agree with that, we continued to pour our change into the machine. After turning the change into dollars, we went and took Todd's car for an oil change at Valvoline. After that, we went to a church in Needham where they were selling pumpkins on their lawn. There wasn't a sign saying they were raising money for anything, and until we asked one of the volunteers, we weren't even sure the pumpkins were for sale. They were unloading a huge truck full of all different sizes and shapes of pumpkins. So, Todd and I walked around to all the different piles and found 2 large one's that we liked. We took them home, carved them, took out all of the seeds and toasted them. I have to say that I really look forward to making and eating pumpkin seeds. I think that I really like them and can't wait to have them because you can only make them once a year. And as gross and messy as it is to carve a pumkpin and clean it out, as well as the seeds, it's totally worth it in the end. Mmmm, pumpkins seeds. So tasty.

Why can't every weekend be in the 70's with crystal clear, blue skies? This past long, holiday weekend couldn't have been more perfect. It's a little rare for it to be as nice as it was this past Columbus Day weekend. Usually, October means cold, crisp temperatures, but not this past weekend. It was between 70 and 80 all weekend long. Great Apple Picking weather, and even better weather to go for a walk, which Todd and I did. We went for a walk around the Reservoir in Cleveland Circle. There were people running, people walking their dogs, people sitting on the benches, and people like Todd and I who just went for a casual walk. The distance from start to finish (start meaning from wherever you decide to enter the reservoir) is about a mile, so it took about an hour. After our walk, I was pooped since I had been sneazing most of the walk, and I think I was coming down with a cold or allergies. So,I took a short nap and then we went for lunch at Friendly's in Watertown. I think I would have to say that I agree with todd when he that that Friendly's does not exactly have the best service. I think for the most part, wait staff in general are never at your table when you need them - they only stop by to make sure everything is ok when you don't need them, especially when you have food in your mouth and you can't complain! After having lunch, I really started to feel crummy, so we went to CVS to buy some allergy medicine, b/c I was certain I had allergies. I took a Benedryl and at 2:30, I woke up, feeling worse than I did when I went to bed and not only did I realize the Benedryl had worn off, but what I had was no allergies. I had a sinus infection. I'm not sure if you have ever had one, but these are not fun. Luckily it turned into a cold in less than 24 hours - boy was that painful. I didn't even need a doctor to confirm this, I knew what it was because I have had one before. I also double checked WebMd to make sure that I was diagnosing myself correctly. The pressure is uncomfortable and It won't go away on it's own. But the Benedryl has been working well, especially helping me sleep at night, which I wouldn't be had I not taken it. I absolutely hate being sick. I mean, I'm not sure that anyone really likes being sick, but I really don't like it. Especially when it's not quite bad enough to use a sick day, but you know you'll be miserable at work. Besides, who wants to be around you at work if you're sick? I don't even want to be around myself! I ended up calling in on Tuesday, but only for a few hours. Instead of going in at 8, I went in at 11, worked until 2 and then we had an outing for work, which I couldn't have been less happy about, but I had to go.

nothing beats picking apples and drinking wine

I went apple-picking with Todd and a bunch of his friends on Saturday. I went last year with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, and their 2 little boys. We went after it had rained for about a week straight and there was mud just about every where you went. It was cold, windy and cloudy but all that mattered was that the boys were having fun. This time, there were a few clouds in the sky, there was no wind and it was wamer than usual out. There were about 12 of us and we all met at Honey Pot Hill, which does not have a website, but the orchard is huge. There are endless rows of apple tree's that are filled with apples from the top to the bottom. Usually you need a ladder to pik the apples because the good ones are at the top. But this time, they were all over the treee's. I have to admit, apple-picking is probably more fun for kids. I don't think it's as exciting for adults to pick apples off a tree as it is for kids. I almost think kids would be more willing to eat an apple if they picked it themselves. Adults fill a large bad of apples, and most of the time they bring the bag home and they just sit on the counter. No one ever eats all of the apples they pick. They either make an apple pie, an apple crisp or apple sauce. After about 2 hours of apple-picking, we got some cider and cider donuts, which were really good. We then went for lunch to T.C Lando's, which is the brother restaurant to Carl's. T.C Lando's was pretty good, even better if you like steak, which is their specialty. They have about 20 different kids of steak subs to choose from, and although I do not eat meat, Todd's "Cheery Bomb" was, no pun intended, the "bomb". It was filled with steak, bbq sauce, pepperoni, peppers and there might have been another ingredient somewhere in there. But when he opened that 12 inch sub, he was pretty much the center of attention. He didn't feel so good afterwards, but it was well worth it, according to him! I had a Veggie Baja (vegi burrito) to be exact. That was good too, can't complain! After T.C Carlo's, we went to Nashoba Valley Winery for some wine tasting and wine drinking. That place was absolutely packed with everyone from little kids running around with their parents, to older men & women in canes and walkers. We walked in and the wine tasting was to the left, which had long lines and the wine racks filled with wine all around. There was a tour that we could have done, but it was 45 minutes and we just wanted to talk our time to look around, and buy some wine. And we did just that. We decided that we weren't quite ready to leave yet, so we bought 2 extra cold bottles of wine, had them opened at the wine-tasting corner, found a table outside and between about 10 of us, we all polished off 2 bottles of wine, 2 bottles of beer and a block of rich cheddar cheese. We sat outside for about an hour until Todd and I had to leave for a dinner date with some other friends.

Thanks for your hard work...

Today was certainly an adventure. My dept at work went to F-1 today - it was a "thank-you" from them for all of our hard work throughout the year. F-1 is short for Formula One, which is a race track. I had never been there before but I had heard from others that it was really fun. When we got there, we had a catered lunch, which was actually pretty good. We had a variety of pizza's to choose from, a giant caesar salad, a pasta dish, chicken dish and meatball dish. We had bottomless glasses of soda and water, coffee and tea with chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies. Everything was really good. We then were inructed on the "rules" of the game. Let me just say that I was pretty lost from th beginning. There are a number of different flags and they all mean something different. But when you're out there on the track, you sort of forget what they mean. There are so many things to be focused on between making sure you don't turn your race car into a bumper car or crashing into the walls that when they wave those flags, it sort of makes you panic. After the rules were explained, we made our way down to the room filled with the "gear" we needed to put on. We had to put on a racing suit, helmet, neck brace, and black head sock (we looked like we were going to rob a bank!) It was pretty cool, but nerve wracking as well. We got into the race cars that made our brains shake from the vibration and waited for our green "go" flag to be waved. Lucky for me, I was the first car and since I had no idea what I was doing, I went pretty slow at first. After we were cleared to go, off we all went. All I can say is that if my car can turn corners the way these race cars did, without the risk of tipping over, it would make driving a little more fun! In the end when we were done with our 15 laps, I came in 8th place. That's 8th place out of 10. When you're out there, you have no idea where you stand in the race, so you don't know if you need to go faster or if you can the same pace. But I'm fine with being in the place I came in.

49 cent coffee today!

Just an FYI to those of you who are Dunkin' Donut's hot coffee drinkers! Today, October 4th, Dunkin' Donuts is offering a Medium hot coffee for just 49 cents! They did this a few weeks ago and they're doing it again! It's all day folks, so if you don't have time to stop this morning, you can certainly get one in the afternoon to wake you up! It's not on their website, I heard it on the radio this morning on Kiss 108. But if you stop at a Dunkin' Donuts, be sure to wave back at the person dressed up as a medium hot coffee - you can't miss him if he's there!