Attitude of Gratitude

We are so thankful to be able to hangout together and as usual we engaged in some hi-jinx for your reading pleasure.  Here are some images from our recent encounters with the wonder that is a MA shopping day.

We only go to the best establishments in town to start our day.

What else do you need other than coffee and cigarettes to start your day?  Since we aren't crazy youngsters, we don't need cigarettes, but a cup of large coffee is often a great eye opener.

After fondling $500 boots at the shoe store while picking up some resoled boots we headed to the land of holiday gift giving enchantment...Target-boutique.

For those of you looking for gifts, we have compiled a collection of what are sure to become the hottest trends of the season, and some could even become treasured family heirlooms.

For the women in your life - a collection of festive sweaters...yep it lights up!

To add a bit of pizazz to the office holiday party try this...

Hmm, just make sure HR or the PR department isn't around if you are going to share it with someone.

Looking for a jazzy yet practical accessory for a special lady in your life?

Perhaps an impressionistic wallet for Gramma?

Something classic for the Stephanies and Erikas in your life.

 

Or some sparkle for your favorite aunt to match with her purple school gear (hint, hint!)

Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about the guys - try this on for size.

Finally, here's a bit of nature to bring the outdoors inside for all the city-folk.  We think these are sure to be the heirlooms that your kids will fight over.

Such as this lovely bear pillow and complementary ottoman...

Or the classic deer head -- look at the number of points on this guy!  People are sure to be impressed.

After all the glitz and glamour of our adventure we caught a glimpse of the big city Boston skyline on the way home.

No matter where your holiday shopping leads you remember to always be cool, kitty cats.

c & k

You can't make this up (aka why we should have our own reality show)

This post can be filed under the "you can't make this up" category.  The day started like any other Thursday during the school year.  I began my carpool to work this week on Tuesdays and Thursdays in an attempt to get me home earlier and to get my colleague to stay at work later.  On our drive in today one of the questions we discussed was whether we would want children.  My response was that I have a pretty awesome life and am free to come and go as I please without them at this point.  Tonight was a prime example of this.  After being dropped off at home, the plan was to take a 45 minute walk to Nut Island. What happened was a phone call from one of my closest friends Ned that went something like this:
Me: Hello
Ned: Good evening how are you?
Me: I'm well, how are you?
Ned: I'm well, are you at home?
Me: Maybe, why?
Ned: Well, because you weren't anywhere else I tried.
Me: What do you need?
Ned: A drink, people are crazy
Me: I'll meet you at the Wharf

Fast forward 30 minutes where we meet at Wharf 88 and then proceed to the Farmers Market before settling in to prime seats at the end of the bar.  We are greeted by our regular bar tender (who we believe is named Brian).  We know many things about him, where he goes to school, that is he a single dad, what he wants to do after college, etc., but haven't exactly got the name thing down.  After determining that Fall sucks for drinks since people tend to put pumpkin in things and declare it a fall drink recipe, we order our regular summer drinks and an appetizer.  Everything is on track for a lovely evening, we plan vacations, talk about work, have some laughs, and then it happens.

Ned's eyes get big and I hear a little "oh look" and as I turn we see Brandi and Sandy.  These were two characters that we met several months ago -- Ned believes it was a year ago, it was really about 5 months ago.  They are regulars at the bar, but call themselves frequenters because regulars sounds too well, you know.  They sit down next to us and we chat about drinks, work, and that we never connected like we said we would since the last time we saw them.  Then I hear a "oh no" and as I turn and look I see Frank enter.  Frank is a regular at the Wharf and makes his way around to all the patrons.  He cal tell you why we know drink vodka and martinis, any number of things about Presidents and film trivia, and many other topics of no consequence to anyone.  The last we we saw him he insisted that Ned freed the Irish from persecution.

Brandi and Sandy insist that Frank is going to sit next to Ned, at which time he tried to take up as much space as he can at the bar.  This doesn't work and Brandi and Sandy let us know that Frank is in his 80s and we need to be more kind to him.  Ned continues to mumble "you can't make this shit up" under his breath.  At one point, our dinner comes, Frank, Brandi, and Sandy are all talking to us, and neither of us are listening to any of them.  I look at Ned and ask "Is he talking to you?"  Ned replies, "I think so, but I don't care".   Then Sandy and Frank decide to play trivia and begin loudly asking questions that come to their heads about various topics.  At this point another woman (maybe Susan) comes in and Brandi goes to talk with her while Sandy and Frank continue to quiz each other.

At the end of the night our bill arrives and Ned writes a note to our bartender that says:
"This was a completely crazy night at Wharf 88.  We love you!"  Brian had all he could do to keep a straight face while he ran our cards and returned the check to us to sign.  Ned (the extrovert) hugged all the folks on the way out, while I (the introvert) did a subtle wave and he promised Brandi and Sandy we'll catch up soon. The entire staff escorted us out when we left and were laughing with us when we made it to the parking lot.

And as I drove home to the sounds of the Frozen soundtrack I was reminded of the morning conversation where I stated that I wouldn't be able to have spontaneous adventures if I had to think of taking care of a kid.  I think tonight was a perfect example of that.

Pickles, Pretzel Buns, and other random nonsense

The Banjos and Brastaps team was back in action this Labor Day weekend.  Since KBW had doggie duty she and Luna headed for Boston with a bag full of cucumbers and a dream of making pickles. She also dropped some hints about the need for jam and so we squeezed a few jars of peach pear jam in as well.  At the end of the weekend we had sweet and spicy relish, bread and butter pickles, and dill pickles made along with the jam.  Here is a lovely magazine like photo of half of the bounty.

We'll share the recipes later in case you want to try the same at your home.
We also spent the weekend walking at the beach, eating Chinese food, playing Crimes Against Humanity with our gal pals, and shopping for school clothes.

KBW also thought we should share some quotes from the weekend with you so here we go:
1. Nobody owns Carrie Cokely.
2. You have to establish your dominance, that's why I ignore the dog.  I saw it on the dog whisperer.
3. I like that game, crimes against humanity.
4. Are you trying to see if I'm in a coma?
5. You've got to make your own adventures Luna!
6. Can I tell you something without it sounding like sexual harassment?
7. Oh goodie, I get to learn about white people!
8. Have you ever eaten a Wendy's pretzel bun burger? Yeah!  It's like a pretzel, but it's a bun and a burger.  It's great.

In the end I think while we were enjoying ourselves, the dog couldn't make heads or tails of what was happening as evidenced by the picture below.

That's it for now Banjos and Brastraps fans.  We'll try to post more often in the last half of 2014, especially now that I have the correct password!

we are busy people (or not)

HA!!  I just decided to check the blog and while I know I haven't been able to add any super duper important things to it for a few weeks or months, I was assured that my compadre Mizz Carrie was dutifully discussing the complexities of being a wild single career gal in the big city of beantown.  Alas, this was not true.

How could this be?  What has she been up to?


HA HA!!! That was a lie!  Sort of, she has been busy but never promised to continue the blog although we have discussed it at length, somehow we haven't been able to keep up with this.  To let you know we are still doing important things for humanity, this is the Congressional Edition of our blog - YOU decide what is truth, semi-truth or a falsehood.  If in doubt, contact the NSA, they know what's going on.

1.  The first is easy, since last we posted in July 2012, Carrie, me and a gang of nefarious characters have had dinner with P!nk right before her concert.

False!  We did go see her in concert thought and it was with a gaggle of nefarious individuals:

 2.  (Damn I can't get this blog to format correctly)... Ok so both of us moved, I am now living in Hanover NH with my partner Daisy, some kids and various animals  that live inside and outside of our home.  Carrie purchased a new home in lovely Houghs Neck MA - right on the ocean pretty much.  You can decide who lives in which place:

  


3.  Carrie decided to to finally admit she loves animals and got a new house pet:



4.  In addition to moving I decided to go back to school and earn my MPH (Master's of Public Health).  Here's a picture of some friends of mine from the program who just finished:



5.  At the risk of shameless self-promotion - Carrie just got a promotion to Associate Dean of the College (aka. Ass Dean) and Daisy and I just published an article on screening for substance use and pregnancy in the Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health.

6.  I think this is enough to prove that we are still alive and kicking.  Do stay in touch and we'll try to do something - whether its interesting or not - and maybe yack about it here, in less than 11 or so months.  Oh, we decided to make a documentary about our friendship - here's the promo for it - let us know what you think:


toodles

Apparently We've Been Busy

Yo B&BS pals - if there are any left that is - guess we've been busy since it's been seven months since we've reported any shenanigans.  Here's a brief update on our combined activities.  You can decide who's doing what and one of these days we'll get it back together and try and get this blogging thing going again.

Life's happenings for CC & KW - things we've done / encountered / etc.

Went to the Beach - had a cookout - got a new job - got a new house - traveled to Cali - traveled to NC, twice - went to NH, went to MA, drove through PA, NY, went to VA, MD, VT - drove - posted stuff on facebook - had relatives visit - had friends visit - drove - visited relatives - visited friends - ate lots of yummy food - fought mysterious unwanted illnesses - ate not so great food - drove - DIY on the house - wrote reports - made graphs - wrote papers - drove - got into graduate school - planted flora & fauna - discovered deceased things in the yard - met the neighbors - mowed - drove - went to concerts - went to plays - went to shows - drove - saw fireworks - did laundry - had semi-famous people stay over - mailed bills - mailed letters - cleaned the house - drove - went shopping - picked up dry cleaning - bought random things that were and were not necessary - drove - talked on the phone - texted - got lost - registered for classes - drove - visited each others houses - got caught in the rain - slipped on ice - went to the dentist - went to the doctor - hung out with friends - drove - hung out with family - made plans to move - moved - working on renting or selling the house - had ice cream - watched movies - watched a little tv - played with the Wii - joked around - giggle - sneezed - drove - saw beautiful wonderful things - flew on planes - rode on trains - took the bus - drove the car.

The BIG Game Weekend

To celebrate the last weekend before the start of the semester, Carrie traveled to Maine to have a fun-filled weekend with Kristina. 

Here's the breakdown...

Fun Friday: Carrie arrived to a snowy Maine where she was able to view a beautiful sky and the pyramids of western Maine from the comfort of Kristina's chichin.

We then talked about important things at "seminar" with KBW's friends Ashley, Chris, Kristen, Tom, Drew, Sarah, and Stephanie.  We had cool drinks and a nice snack and headed home for enchiladas and a Skype date with Gretchen and Ruth who are in Paro, Bhutan.  We learned about Ginger cookies, the meat market (where there are piles and piles of meat), hats from Assam, India and the difference between where they are and North America.  We then settled into part I of the Yahtzee tournament.

Super Saturday: We began our day with Carrie noticing a new DIY project for KBW.  What started with the simple phrase "Did you know your medicine cabinet is a little lean-y ended with this:

Don't worry b&b fans it's under control!

With screw measurements in KBWs pocket, we headed to Daisy's for a lovely breakfast of popovers, fruit, omelets, and all you can drink coffee and tea.  We were entertained with animals chasing each other and watching high schoolers have a floppy wrist fight while trying to avoid a case of caffeine psychosis.  The seven year old was smart and played legos by himself in another room.

FINALLY after 7 years of waiting KBW finally took Carrie to the elusive town of:

WATERVILLE!  While here we took in the movie The Descendents and while shopping for dinner afterwards couldn't quite figure out what the big deal is with that movie except that Clooney cries [oops spoiler alert].  We then came back to Farmington and made a chicken dinner and prepared to go back to Daisy's for part 2 of the Yahtzee tournament where we learned that probability theory doesn't help you win at all.  Clearly this is why KBW excelled at the tournament.  Good thing Carrie got her groove on and was able to manage to win one round -- although this did happen the time that she started keeping score.

Snoozy Sunday: After recovering from Saturday -- meaning we slept in past 8am -- we celebrated by having pancake Sunday.

 

Once we got our carbs on we decided to round out the game weekend with some ladderball. [Don't try this in your own home -- it really should be played outside -- but it's cold in Maine and our moms weren't here to tell us "don't play ball in the house!".]  If you aren't familiar with the game you toss these balls at the frame from about 15 feet away -- we had just enough room from the living room to the chi-chin.  Once again KBW won -- she's fulfilling her horoscope that said she would have a good year.

Sometime during the weekend, we won't tell you when, we played a game with cherry stems from our drinks.  Guess which of the b&b team could do this:

Yep there's a knot in the stem and you can't use your hands!

Until the next adventure, all we can we say is -- we've got balls!

KBW's Heterosexual New Year :)

A couple of years ago Carrie traveled to Maine to celebrate the new year with Kristina and her lesbian friends.  This became known as Carrie's Lesbian New Year.  So in keeping with our tradition of celebrating the new year together, Kristina came to Boston for a 'low key' new year celebration.

The beginning plan: eat bad food while watching some cable TV and playing games

What it morphed into -- dinner party for 4 and a rousing game of Mall Madness and what will now be known as KRISTINA'S HETEROSEXUAL NEW YEAR!!!!!!

After doing some late day grocery shopping we mixed up some cosmos and began making dinner.  Apparently you shouldn't do this if you are planning to made risotto for dinner or someone will lose track of what she is doing and dump the entire 2 pound bag of rice into the pan instead of the 1 cup that was needed.  Needless to say that dish was an epic fail -- good thing we had appetizers, steak, candied carrots and cupcakes!

During the evening with Ted (Carrie's cousin) and Sarah (our awesome friend who resembles Wonder Woman) Kristina kept track of her favorite quotes on this index card:

Here's the translation:
1. [Carrie to Kristina] Be careful, you don't want to wack your nuts!
2. [Ted] No one is going to beat Ted Kamas at Mall Madness!  ...{Carrie won}
3. [Sarah to Ted] That's not an elevator that's a fountain.  It's cute you went swimming in it. [Ted] Where the hell's the fuckin' fashion boutique?!
4. [Sarah] If you were a superhero what you would superpower be? [Kristina] Ummmm  [Carrie] Invisibility  [Kristina] Ummm I think I would choose the power to make everyone in the world do the right thing [Carrie] Huh? I thought you would have picked the greatest superpower of all.... [Kristina] What's that? [Carrie] Heterosexuality!  [Ted shouts woo-hoo and throws his arms in the air] ...[Carrie] The power, the paradox and the promise!
5. [recovery day] While watching the Big Bang Theory [Kristina] We're smart like this.  [Carrie] No we're not.

Here are some picture highlights from the evening...

Cousins

Attention Mall shoppers.....

KBW and SAS

Party on!

Oh two final highlights of the weekend -- we decided to call Friday free furniture Friday in honor of the 2 tables that we reallocated to ourselves from the side of the road.  And we learned about the honey badger -- click the link to learn more.

Happy 2012 y'all!
c&k

Things I've done since Carrie's post

Helped with a surprise party, been name Fairy Godmother to an awesome little one, applied for random jobs, gone to a pathetic state sponsored job fair, applied for grants for a project I'm doing on substance use in pregnancy, gone through a training and gotten a hospital i.d. for the project, worked on another research project, applied for more jobs, worked on a veterans habitat for humanity build, went to another fun birthday party, found the mediocre deli, got a little lost, helped a good friend get her house ready for renters while she's out of the country, practiced banjo, got expensive repairs done on my car, shoveled snow, finished winterizing the house, went to two Thanksgiving dinners, ate leftovers, worked on grants, applied for jobs, went to the rheumatologist, goofed off, did mysterious things, wrote and read emails, kept applying for my unemployment, wrote a very long run-on fragment sentence.

Cool things about my job

Most days work is pretty routine, but the past 2 weeks I've got to do some pretty cool things...

On October 21st, I hung out with Katie Hnida (blonde in the middle), the first woman to play and score in a Division I football game.  She came to campus to talk about sexual assault.

On October 27th, my class helped out with a Halloween party for children from a local after school program.

On November 2nd, I went with another one of my classes to the Greater Boston Food Bank where we helped sort 6,198 pounds of food which will provide 4,760 meals.

Today, I went with my class to the Naval War College in Newport, RI to tour the USS Buckeley.

All in a days work!

looking for jim

Well B&B fans, it seems Kristina's madcap travel adventures were not quite completed for 2011.   Currently I'm sitting in a swanky new Hilton Garden Inn in the fab suburb of Maple Grove MN.  My Uncle Jerry passed away on the 20th from Alzheimer's and so the bulk of the remaining Wolff clan gathered together these past few days to bid our farewell, reminisce, reconnect a wee bit and set aside short and long standing feuds and grudges.

The last three days have involved a trip to Boston which included an evening watching three lovely ladies get fancy new hairdoos at Che Itzak & Ned's, two semi-bumpy airplane rides to exotic places like Milwaukee, many restaurant meals and blowing out the lights in my first hotel room (turned out to be a busted computer cord after all and the hotel maintenance guy gave it a big tug to prove it was busted - ahem).  It's been harder to find a replacement cord than I expected but I'm working on it and the hotel has provided one for me for now.  

The ceremony for Jerry was short, small and sweet - complete with a thoughtful video with many pictures to tug at one's hearts and induce appropriate levels of happy thoughts and sadness.  After we (yes, once again - partially due to birth order - I was chosen to be a pall bearer) loaded Jerry into the hearse we had the appropriate roll/ham sandwich with church coffee snack and headed out to Ft. Snelling cemetery for Jerry's final trip.  Erika and I played some pretty great sad songs on the way but at one point she didn't switch the ipods quickly enough (we were sharing them) and a more dance-y song came on.  As Jerry liked to have a good time, we figured it was appropriate to enjoy the music.  My cousin Kelly didn't quite see the dance moves at that time but did see us boogieing another time and said it made her think of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ-CDE_r_wg 

Yeah that's right, I've been driving around the suburbs in a Kia Soul (not by choice) - at least it's a pretty dark grey blue.

There are many awkward, tense and funny moments that have happened the last few days and as you may guess, quite a number of amazing quotes - many of which were fueled by multiple adult beverages but to capture the family a bit, I thought I'd mention one of the more memorable instances.


We were gathered at my Aunt Jean and Uncle Craig's house for dinner and as I was walking back into the dining / family room I heard my aunts (Jean, Connie & Mary who are the sisters of Jerry,  Jim and my Dad), uncles, cousin's and a family friend talk about whether or not they wished to be cremated or buried.  I learned important family facts like that our grandparents now have a monument instead of simple flat headstones, which was mentioned because a couple aunts did a 'cemetery tour' today.  They then were debating whether or not it was ok to break with Wolff family tradition of burial and go for cremation - people were talking about where they wanted their ashes distributed and in the midst of this one person noted they wanted to be in a sarcophagus.  Suddenly my Aunt Jean burst out - "I need to find Jim; I need to see if he's here."


Yesterday Jim's kids were talking about how he made his presence known to them after he died via flickering lights and messing with their tvs (just trust me on this one).  So I thought my aunt was going to turn on the tv.  Nope, she jumped up and went over to the fireplace and started shaking things - then she pulled down a vase and looked inside - "Nope, he's not in here."  Then we realized, she was looking for his ashes (she doesn't have all of them) which are kept in a small velvet bag.  She thought 'he' needed to be on the table, to join us in the conversation.  Suddenly Craig (her husband) jumped up to help her look for him - they were roaming all over the house - talking about where Jim was:  "Maybe he's upstairs,"  "I think we put him over here in the kitchen," "Jim, Jim Jim.."  "Oh wait, did we stick him in the junk drawer?"  All the while we were laughing and of course offering suggestions and noting that 'Jim' really wasn't there.  While Craig was running all over the house looking for Jim, Jean was poking around near us and then would have to stop momentarily to explain where she thought he was, why he was moved and what her plans were for 'Jim'. Apparently he is on his way up to their cabin on this tiny lake because she wanted to "spread his ashes across the lawn."  We didn't ask why he wasn't going to be scattered / dumped into the lake.


Soon she gave up looking and we started to move onto another subject when suddenly - a velvet bag was dropped onto the middle of the table.  "JIM!!" Jean yelled, as her hubbo stood there proudly having helped out his wife.  "Where was he?" she asked, "upstairs in our bedroom.. in the top drawer in the dresser" said Craig.  "Oh yeah," Jean said, "that's where we keep our treasures."  I noted I thought it was a little creepy to keep him in their room especially since you didn't know what part you had - "what if it was his big toe and backside?".  This promptly got Jean and my Aunt Connie to simultaneously go into detail as to how cremation worked - as I tried to stop them, Craig also jumped in to clarify things.  Of course I was finally able to tell them that I knew how it worked and that I was joking.  For the rest of the evening we all hung out with 'Jim'.






 

Things to Consider on Labor Day Weekend

Hello B&BS fans - here's a random list of 10 things that have crossed our minds this Labor Day Weekend.  These may or may not be inspired by actual events.

1.  You can never make too much jam and adding vanilla or cinnamon to jam makes it "infinitely better" but I guess only works if you like cinnamon or vanilla and are not allergic to either one or both.

2. Don't give your bank information to someone who is posing as someone from the Red Cross and tells you its' safer to give your information on paper than it is on-line because that's how they used to do it in the olden days.  This is especially true if you're at Downtown Crossing.

3.  When meeting a snake, remember it is impolite to look at its "package".  

4.  Wine is a drink.

5.  Beer tastes great after hauling and splitting wood all day. The jury is out on how it tastes after seeing certain snake parts.

6. One of us has a new understanding as to why people don't make tomato paste at home.

7. St. Anthony makes way more money at the end of the festival than the beginning; probably because the ending takes ten hours.

8.  The Food Network should not advertise Hamburger Helper.

9.  Hurricane's and tropical storms do strike people who live far away from the ocean and that doesn't make them bad people.

10. You can get your period after you make a baby - even if you make one at home in less than five hours. 

jam-mania

Howdy B&B readers!  Some of you may have heard that if you get a tattoo that you'll catch the 'bug' and want to get many more.  Well we're here to tell you that the same is true for making jam - once you start, you may not want to stop {pop culture reference: or like Pringles, once you pop you can't stop}.

     sidenote: Carrie would like to note that she doesn't have any tattoos.

While Kristina was visiting Boston last week, she reminded Carrie that she knew of a particular backyard of a house that is for sale and doesn't have occupants in it that had some blackberries which needed to fulfill their destiny of becoming jam.  Once she added the "free laundry at my house" enticement, Carrie decided to come up for a visit even though it would mean that we had about a 50 hour break from one another which sometimes pushes the bff-ness a bit.  Example:  K says to C "you should really drink more water, that's why you get headaches all the time."  C replies: "I don't get headaches all the time, just when I'm around you".  [B-Zanga!!]

Carrie arrived on Friday evening and heard about Kristina's grand plans of finishing mowing the lawn, having friends over for dinner, finishing her porch windows, painting the rest of the porch and making jam - all between that evening and Monday morning.  Carrie made a great pitch to start with jam so Saturday morning after breakfast we checked out fruit opportunities at the local farmer's market (as there were no farms in the area that had what we were looking for and the result at the market was nil fyi unless we wanted the beautiful tomato fruit).  We then headed toward the free organic wild blackberries.  Here's our haul:

We picked roughly 12 pints of berries.  Feeling energized, we picked up a few more jars, lined them up and started to plan out what we were going to make.  I should have been concerned when Carrie pulled this out for consultation:

We decided to take stock of the jars we had to help us figure out what to make.  Here's what we had to fill:

Our first two batches were blackberrry jam.  We then branched out and using some leftover berries from last year made peach, blackberry, raspberry jam.  After that we decided to ease off on the blackberries and made peach pear ginger jam.  Finally, we thought we'd tackle the box of crabapples (which technically may or may not be considered wild.  If you saw the tree in my backyard you'd probably say "wild" or simply, "messed up").  Here's what we had to work with:

We thought that we'd need a whole bunch of crabapples but it turns out that we needed around five or six to make a crabapple blackberry jam / compote.  We're going to try and whip up a crabapple compote tomorrow before Carrie goes back to Boston but after two days / 12 hours of solid jam making, I think we aren't going to be making major batches (oh, there's also 2 cups of blackberries left too).  As of right now we have 74 jars of jam (a mix of 8 and 4 oz jars) and close to four dozen more jars to fill.  Here's a closing foto to see some of the end product - the crabapple blackberry is the one without the label.

FYI if someone tells you that your eyeglasses are dirty about five times and finally says "do you want me to clean those for you," it might be a good idea to clean them.  I'm thinking about how pear sage honey jam would taste (I have a lot of sage in my garden) and I think Carrie is just ready to get some sleep.  Yes, the kitchen is clean and ready to go and we're planning on having eggs, bacon [believe it or not pals, I'm actually eating and cooking this stuff once in a while even though the cooking smells turns my tum-tum a bit] and cheese biscuits to give us the energy to keep jamming tomorrow. 

ta-ta, toodle-oo, poopied-poo, jammiedy-jam-jam-in-your-jams to you! 

Lookin' for Gnomes in all the Wrong Places....

Searching for Hillary Clinton's Gnomes

Today the Banjos and Brastraps team took a trip to Lincoln, MA to take advantage of FREE summer weekdays at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.  Even though it was raining we walked the grounds outside to capture some of the art for the 2 of you who follow this blog.  Here's the link to the museum site if you feel like checking it out http://www.decordova.org/  One of the rules at the museum is as follows:

After learning this, we decided to make our first B&B videos for the blog -- here they are!

Here's our second attempt at providing you with some culture:

After we visited the museum we then literally went and checked out some new brastraps to add to our collections.  With the help of Marie the "bra fitting expert" the girls will be high and dry.

We then had a quick bite to eat at the PF Chang's bistro where KBW is certain that Max the waiter has never eaten anything spicy because his concern over the spiciness of her ginger beer and chang's chicken was unwarrented - let's just say she was adding lots of chili oil and paste to her dish while saying "this isn't spicy at all!".  Nice try Max!  We are going to try to recreate the ginger beer -- check back for that recipe.

Then for the highlight of the night we zoomed to Doyle's in JP for Tuesday Night Trivia.  With insightful answers like "Bull Run", "Bobby Fischer" and some comments from the team like "How many superbowls have we had?" and "Is Bangladesh a country or a city?" and a little bit of reenacting of a midnight oil video, the 9 person team of "Ineligible to win" came in 3rd place and beat our archrivals "trivia newton john".  With this win we now have two of the following trophies in our possession - sans beer:

We're off to be good citizens by donating some books, KBW is heading back to Maine today, CLC will be joining her soon for another Maine adventure -- until then:

aug blog

The mighty Dr. Cokely and I have been randomly discussing various things we wish to post on the blog and then we get off the phone, she does mysterious things, I get distracted by something shiny and it remains nothing but an ever-changing memory [insert shout out to postmodernists here and random reference to an episode of Six Feet Under for a Ms. Megan Fearless Ferland].

So here's the random stuff that I've been doing (again Cokely is doing mysterious things so I cannot write for her except to drop another passing reference which will be: "Trivia Newton John" to see if it will bring her back to the blog - [You've been served! - ahem]).

1. A few last fotos of Oahu.  On my last day I drove along the Windward Coast as I had some time between leaving the condo and starting the long trek home.  All I'll say about the flight back is that it took three hours from arriving at the curb of the airport to get to my gate.  I first went to the Valley of the Temples to see the Byodo-In Temple.  It was wonderful.


I rang a peace bell before entering the temple and then just sat in front of this amazing Buddha statue.  It was very peaceful and the place was certainly (no joke here) one with its natural environment.  People were just hanging out, there was a little jazz concert for peace and it was just what I needed - calm, no expectations, beautiful, people hanging out with nature, swans, carp, all kinds of great things - sorta like living in Maine.  I couldn't resist - although I did wait for someone else to do this because I didn't want to break any rules - I took a picture of the Buddha.  I have no idea how big it is and it really was the only religious statue I've been in front of that was completely  calming and welcoming.  Here he is:

After that I drove the island,I actually ended up back in Haleiwa, had lunch and headed back toward Honolulu.  I saw really great things, a beautiful windmill 'farm', Coconut Island (I called my Mom from a park looking at the island - she's been there too - it was cool to look at this place and know that she and my Dad had been there before), and a bunch of other interesting sites including a shrimp truck that was pictured in the guidebook I had and the ranch where Lost was filmed.  

On my way back toward Honolulu and the airport I saw a sign for the Laie Temple [no offense to my pals who hold this place as sacred, although I recognize I'm testing our friendship a bit here].  I remembered reading about it but could not remember why it was important.  When I turned into the drive, everything changed - the landscape went from a very natural and at times a bit beat-up and rugged site to a very manicured and homogeneous landscape.  It was like going from rural Maine into a suburban subdivision.  As I drove in, I saw this very white, bleached looking, squared off building that made me think of old US government or military buildings from around WWII.  It was very impressive, controlled, and clean.  I pulled into the parking lot to check things out.  

I walked into a pretty building, although it was also a bit stuffy and stiff.  There's was a very nice man (in black pants, white shirt and black tie) and a pleasant woman in a blue, floral mumo who greeted me.  As I looked around I realized where I was - I was with the Mormons -  all the women were dressed in these very proper matching mumos and men in the same pant/shirt combo - it was as if the Stepford Wives and Brady's Go to Hawaii merged together.  As I was talking to the woman who greeted me, I looked over and saw this panoramic scene with a giant, alabaster, floating Jesus above a replica of a traditional Hawaiian village and all I could think of was colonization.  I stayed and talked with a very nice young woman who was fulfilling her mission year and also what she wanted to do with her life.  The fascinating part was differences between the Eastern and Western ideologies and most striking was the very stark physical contrasts in both actual human-made objects and the atmosphere / feel of the place.  My trip back to the mainland was uneventful and ended as I began but in reverse; I woke up looking at the Pacific and saw the day ending over the Atlantic.

2.  I arrived home with two of the eight trees the electric company said they were going to cut down in front of my house were indeed cut down.  Eventually the rest went too and as of right now, there are a few logs left in the yard.  My 'husband' Neil came to visit and we planted two little gardens in the yard - one adjacent to my house in the back between the basement door and back steps and then put enough plants around the roses to make it look like a flower garden.  The garden is doing quite well, in fact it really is doing what it wants even though I pretend to have some control. The foto above is about four weeks old (hey, that's a month!) - right now the squash and tomatoes are competing for complete domination.  I think the squash has more staying power.  I picked my first mini-gross of hot peppers today.  It may not look like it but there are three kinds here: jalapenos, anaheim and chili peppers.

3.  During the end of June / beginning of July, I did exciting things like mow the yard, weed the garden, as noted previously - plant things with Neil, cut things down, work on my refinishing my porch windows, go to fun social events, revise an article for publication (due in Sept or Oct if you need something to fall asleep to I'll send it to you once it's out), apply for jobs, sleep a bit, go kayaking, swimming and buy a ticket to Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in upstate NY.


4.  What's Falcon Ridge Folk Festival?  Well, it is this amazing event that officially last for three days (Fri-Sun) but unofficially runs for four and one-half days in Hillsdale NY.  My pal Ruth Hill went last year and simply described it as "rejuvenating".  Officially, the festival is in a ridge (Duh!) - there are four stages where people perform / hold workshops: the dance stage, family, workshop and main stage.  Music starts on Friday from 12 noon to 12 midnight but some days it starts at 10:30 (not main stage).  Starting at 7am, you can go to the amphitheater and lay down a blanket / tarp and chairs [seating is no chair / low-chair, high chair, and no rules - aka shelters and little tents] to mark your place.  If you aren't using your spot, someone else can.  Since I apparently don't sleep like most people, I ended up waking up around 7 (or before) on Fri and Sat and so found a couple of AWESOME places to set-up in front of the main stage.  It is very relaxed and non-confrontational.  You simply set-up camp and do whatever the hell you want.

My friend Ruth and I left on a Wed. with the belief that we would be able to buy a few supplies, drive the six hours to FRFF and set-up camp before dark.  Despite our best efforts we were unable to do so partially because the major camping stores we visited did not have the stuff I was looking for [just trust me here - too annoying to recap].  Plus it was during the muggy hot heat [redundant, I know] wave so we ended up staying in Great Barrington NY, near the MA and VT border at a humid Comfort Inn which, for free, provided us with a lovely smell of newly sealed tar and around 10ish at night I managed to set-off the car alarm.  You're welcome, FYI, to all those who stayed near us.

However, being the lucky gals we are we had an 'awesome' Thursday.  First, on our quest for breakfast, we stopped at K-mart where I got the chair, umbrella, tarp and a few other things I was looking for [take that fancy schmancy camping stores] and then we had a nice local breakfast at Martin's.  I realized while we were there that my standard Kristina uniform of black and navy tee-shirts might be uncomfortable in 100+ degrees or so, humid weather so I decided to splurge and purchase a tee-shirt. 

Picture this: there I was on Saturday, another hot day, trying to be practical - wearing a white shirt (which I think this is actually the second white tee-shirt I own), listening to the indescribably wonderful Mary Gauthier (who I think had a perfect or near perfect set), sing about dark things [my favorite] in this GD happy tee-shirt.


I wished for my Carolina Roller Girls skull shirt but alas, all I could do was try to downplay the ridiculously cute dorky shirt I now own.  As a jammie shirt it's pretty GD awesome I must say but not really what I wanted to wear seeing MG.  It's hard to describe FRFF.  It was the first I'd been camping since the mid-80s - I's like to note that the last time was camping in February (or maybe March) in Minnesota.  All I can say is: chilly.  I had a great time - really - even the porta potties were ok.  We set up camp on Thursday - arguably the most difficult day weather wise - two tents, a communal shelter and a joint shower.  This is the view from out site - the teeny white on the right side is where the main stage is.

Plus Ruth (who is most generous - no comment about me, ahem) helped our neighbor with her camp site.  I think we had one of the best places -  it was higher up on the ridge - we could hear all the music from the main stage really well and it was removed from the usual hubbub.  Most people just camp and go see music but there are quite a few that after the official music has ended at midnight, they go to a number of larger campsites (below us in other camping areas) where people perform in a lot of ways - primarily in song-circles or in mini-performances.  The music will last until 4 or 5 am.  On Thursday night there was a good size stage set-up in a camping area with musicians performing - some were part of FRFF, some had performed in previous years and others were new.  Ruth and I went to that - it was pretty interesting - I went back to the camp after it was done and she roamed around and performed in the other "informal" areas.  That's basically what we did for the whole time - listen to music, walk around, talk to people, listen to music, eat, pee+, listen to music (or jam if you're Ruth), sleep a bit, repeat as needed.  I saw some great established bands, newer / "unestablished" musicians and some who I was not impressed with both "known" and "unknown" but it was all well worth it.  A new band from VT - Split Tongue Crow - hung out with us and jammed with Ruth.  We also had neighbors from VT who hung out with us a bit.  We also found out from a FRFF regular that our camp was where Gillian Welch and her band stayed a few years ago which just added to the magic.  I  highly recommend it and hope I can return.


5.  During FRFF I noticed that I had a little bit of a reaction to poison ivy, which very easily and most like came from my very own yard.  Of course, I had thought about bringing medication and forgot.  The end result is that it spread to my arms and legs and after going through multiple tubes of ointment, I started on steroids (the dreaded predinose) last Monday.  The result?  Well the usual crying over ridiculous things (if you buy me a beer I'll tell you the parking space story), is not happening.  Instead, I feel hopped up so the end result is little sleep and lots of production.  I could provide the genealogy to the events but here's the major end result: porch windows are still waiting, dining / music room has been stripped of wallpaper, primed [the main house color is two coats of primer], painted w/a legit color, cleaned and previous and newer art/pics have been hung-up.  Also, the wall by the stairs has gone through a similar process, the stairs have been painted and the ugly, stained wallpaper above the stairs has been taken down.  There are pics on facebook but here are a few more:
 

Here's what the stairs used to look like (without the runner) and the new paint job (sorry can't quite get the two pics right next to one another):

Then with all my extra steroid driven energy, I also stripped the wallpaper, with multiple borders from the dining / music room.  Here's one picture of the final result:

Last but not least, as with any home reno project, once one begins there's a chance that more projects will get started then ended.  So that said, thanks to my friend John's initiative, here's what the top of the stairs now looks like.  The good thing is that the loose, in some places water stained, wallpaper is gone.  Even though its the traditional yuccky green color that the previous owners enjoyed, it is way better than what was up there a few days ago.

I think that is all.  Many other small, fun things have happened but the blog is long, I am tired and it is late so I shall end here.  Thanks for reading.  I'm sure there will be another post in August, which I guess could be good or bad depending on who you are and if you subscribe to a purely dualistic way of thinking about and seeing the world. : )  Until the next entry.....