T is for A Labor Day Cookout

Happy Tuesday ladies (and gentleman). Another T for Tuesday has arrived.

Tuesday is a good day to share your drink (and also food or adventure if you have some) stories with the T Gang over at  Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog . 

So the first weekend in September is the Labor Day  holiday weekend in the US. Although not the astronomical end of summer, it is the end of the summer season.

So in the summer we keep our boat in the field of a local marina. It allows us to just pop the boat in the water when we want to go out for a ride and not have to tow it back and forth from home. (And leaving it in the field is substantially cheaper than renting dock space and leaving it in the water. It's also cheaper than the extra gas we would need to put in the truck to move it every time.)

Every year over Labor Day weekend the marina has a cookout for their members. They provide the food and some live music and it's a nice evening to sit and watch the sunset.

This year they had barbecued chicken, salad, coleslaw, potato salad, bread and some sweet treats.

 For drinks, they have water, soda, wine and beer.  I had a delicious cup of Allagash White Ale, though you can't see much more than the foam on the top of my red plastic party cup.

 The company was great though, my daughter

 and my goofy husband . Although the dogs went out in the boat with us that day, they didn't get a cookout invite and had to wait in the car.

 And the view was awful pretty too.

My thoughts are with all those folks in Florida and the Caribbean  who took damage from Hurricane Irma. And my thoughts are with you who are now dealing with the tropical storm. Hope you stay dry.
Happy T day.
Thanks for visiting!

T Stands for Tasting

Happy Tuesday everyone. T Day has arrived again. If you don't know about T Day its when we share some drink photos and stories (and often food and other adventure stories too).

Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog and join in the T Gang fun.

So this week I am going to share some photos from my long weekend adventure to the Finger Lakes Region in New York state.

This area is known for vineyards, and boy were there a lot of them.

There are areas where you could walk for 10 minutes and visit 10 different vineyards. We went to only one and went to a wine tasting. It was actually quite fun. 

My brother-in-law  bought a few bottles, and that's my husband holding the really big bottle of wine.  No, we didn't buy it because that bottle cost $500. I would have been afraid to pick it up.

And no, you don't get enough wine at one of these tastings to actually get tipsy (but probably if you went to several in a row you might), but we were being goofy and decided it would be fun to pretend we had too much to drink around these wine casts.

Ha-ha-silly me.

But we did got to a few breweries and taste some beer. I'm not a big drinker but I do enjoy a pint when the weather is warm.

The breweries would let you purchase a flight, which is 4 or 5 small glasses with samples of the beers you wanted to try. My husband and I split them each time.  We even shared with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law so we ended up having a sip or 2 usually.

This particular brewery's beers were not my favorite.

But I did really enjoy the beers at the Grist Iron brewery.

 This beer in the photo below was my absolute favorite: Fippeny Apple Graff Ale. I bought 2 growler sizer cans, so when I open these I better have a few friends to share with because these are huge cans with around 4 glasses in each.

 

But of course it's always nice to have an actual beer with dinner.

Cheers!

Thanks for visiting me today.

T is a Million Calories Today

Hi everyone. It's Tuesday and T Day. And to all my blog friends and visitors who live in the US, Happy Independence Day as its also a big summer holiday here. We're in for some beautiful weather here in New Hampshire, and even better, its time for a cookout and some swimming up at my mother-in-laws. This is a bigger holiday in my husband's family than Christmas I think.

I made this page in my calendar journal. The stripes at the top of the page are really dark blue, although they look black here. I had the  USA and patriotic flag stickers, and I added in this cute little TH cut out girl. Fourth of July is a great summer holiday tradition in my life so I am joining up at Art Journal Journey as the latest theme is Summertime Love. Elizabeth is our hostess this month and I think she's pick a great theme.

And happy T day everyone. Time for a little vacation indulgence.

Back at the end of June my husband, daughter and myself went to Downeast Maine, way up on the Canadian border. We stayed in Eastport, which is a small city on an island called Moose Island. There is a causeway with a road onto the island, so you don't need to take a ferry to get there.

One day we walked around Eastport and checked out the shops and city itself. We discovered this bakery there.

 They had 2 cases of yummy looking goodies. It was so hard to pick.

 These cream puffs were calling to me though.

Even though it probably had a million calories.  Good thing we were going for a hike that afternoon.

The diet coke that is my drink was left over from my lunch, so I figured I would just sip on that, although I must say water would have tasted better.

So my cream puff was a killer with pastry cream and real whipped cream inside. the chocolate sauce on it was rich and pure heaven.

My husband and daughter each had an eclair, and in reality, we could have just split the cream puff. But we were on vacation and up for a little indulgence. 

Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what the T Gang has been up to.

Hope its a wonderful day everyone and thanks for stopping by!

T is for Delicious World Food

 Happy T day everyone. Its Tuesday again and that means its time to visit   Elizabeth's blog   and see what all the T Gang members have been eating and drinking lately.

So last Tuesday I went with one of my teacher friends out for a late lunch after school. She couldn't believe I had never been to this restaurant in Portsmouth, New Hampshire called Street 360. Its specializes in world street food.

It was a gorgeous afternoon so we went and sat outside in the little patio area which you can see off to the left of this photo. I didn't know what to order as so many items on the menu looked good.  I finally settled on this giant Korean dish called Bibimbop.

It was HUGE, (big enough to bring some for lunch to work for 2 more days) but so delicious. It was made with sticky rice, mushrooms, spinach, zucchini, carrots, bean sprouts, some spring onions, sesame seeds and a fried egg. You had your choice of protein and I choice Korean marinaded steak.

These photos all come from the restaurants web site as I was so busy chatting with my friend I forgot to take any photos. This is the link up : Street 360.

My drink of choice was a diet coke.

I'm not sure borrowing all these photos is in correct form but I wanted to share this yummy meal with you. 

I want to go back and have it again sometime. Next time won't you join me and I will remember (I hope) to  take some actual photos. :)

Happy T day.

Tuesday is Meatloaf Day

It is another Tuesday and another T day.

This week for T I am sharing my Saturday evening supper.

This past weekend my husband and I were out all day Saturday running errands. We ended up traveling to Manchester, New Hampshire for one of those errands. Its about an hour drive from our house. Manchester is the biggest city in our state and there are lots of places to eat there. One of my favorite places is called the Airport Diner. They serve lots of old fashion home style foods that taste great and also, they have pretty fast service. Since it was later in the afternoon and since we still had the drive home, we decided to stop and have dinner first. 

The Airport Diner is open 24 hours a day and is over near the Boston-Manchester Airport.  They are part of the Common Man family of restaurants which is locally owned and so far can only be found here in New Hampshire. 

I had a favorite meal.

Home-style meatloaf, mashed potatoes, carrots and a dinner roll. And a glass of water. This meal was only $8.99.

And yummy!

And even better than the meatloaf was the dessert the hubby and I split.

This "little" hot fudge sundae. The only bad part was the hubby got to the cherry before I did. But that's OK because I let him pay. :)

Also this past weekend I watched an old movie. I actually watched it by accident, as when I got up Saturday morning the hubby was watching it on TV. I got sucked into it, and luckily we can record it from the TV, so Sunday afternoon I managed to watch the whole movie.

Any of you remember Highlander?

The hubby had seen it already (along with the sequels), but for some reason I had never seen this 1986 sci-fi cult classic.  Yes, parts of it were a bit hokey, and it is so 1980's-which might be why it seemed pretty hokey in parts, but I must say I did enjoy it. 

Now I want to see the sequels.:)

Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's Blog  and join in the T Day fun. You can share your drink/food posts and join the T Gang for a little blogging fun.

Have a great day!

               

T is for Superbowl Sunday from a Patriots Fan's Viewpoint

(WARNING for you any out there Pats haters- this is my Patriot's side Superbowl story .)

Happy T Day everyone one. A big welcome to the T Gang ladies here at my blog today.

So this past Sunday night it was the Superbowl here in the US. Some of you may be familiar with it, but if you aren't, it was the final game of the (American)  football season between the 2 remaining teams after the rounds of already played play off games. The winner of the Superbowl is the national champion. This year the Superbowl teams were the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons.

Now I live in the 6 state area known as New England, and I am a Pats fan. Here, this game was a huge deal. There were billboards up and signs on businesses and homes wishing the Pats good luck.

My husband and I were invited over to our friend's Sherry and Keith's home for dinner and the game. Not a big crowd, just the four of us. They live about 5 minutes away from us and we've watched the Superbowl with them before. 

So before the game really got going we had dinner.

Keith made this fantastic chili with turkey and veggies. I had mine with a glass of prosecco, because we were starting to celebrate a victory. Of course we didn't know whether the Pats would win or not, but they were the favorites by a 3 point spread. And as a fan, you've got to be optimistic!

By the end of the first half the score was awful for us Pats fans. Atlanta had 21 points to our 3. The commentators were even saying it was going to be hard for the Pats to come back at this point.

We were all in a state of disbelief, because even though we thought Atlanta might be ahead, we didn't expect it to be that big of difference.

Atlanta looked good and the Pats looked terrible.

By the end of the third quarter, Atlanta was still ahead 28-9. We were seriously subdued. The commentators again said there was no way the Pats could catch up. They even were predicting that Atlanta's quarterback would be the most valuable player.
 I had brought a cake over for dessert (store bought at Costco), and we all decided we might as well eat that  because at this point, there wasn't much else  to be excited about.

Noticed the prosecco was gone and I (as well as everyone else) was drinking water.

And then, it was the fourth and final quarter. All of a sudden, New England turned it on. The Pats started scoring. We got louder.  My friend Sherry couldn't watch. She got up and cleaned. Broke a couple of glasses right around the turn around time. As the quarter went on and the Pats were scoring, we told her to go break a few more glasses. She kept pacing saying her stomach couldn't take this. It was too stressful.

(OK, a little  dramatic, but, it was funny).

So New England kept moving forward. Score. Stop the Falcons on their drive, and then the Pats scored again. The Pats had momentum in their corner and they were showing the commentators that yes they could come back from the point deficit.

We were shocked and thrilled, but the game ended in a 28-28 tie.
First Superbowl to ever end in a tie.

Overtime began. You can't have a tie in a Championship game. Somebody has to be the National Champion.

We were on the edge of our seats waiting for a little mistake which would turn the ball over to Atlanta. But the tide had turned. The Pats won the toss and got the ball first, which is huge because they get to move towards the goal for a score. Its not a guarantee though. Any little mistake and Atlanta could get the ball. And score.
They had done it earlier in the game. They are a good team.

And then

the Pats

scored.

I guess all you need to do is get the ball over the touchdown line to score.

It was wild.

Well as wild as 4 people can make it
(Keith, Sherry , Me and my husband Dave)

The Pats had won the game 34-28!

Time to open a new bottle of  prosecco and toast!

Pardon my lingering excitement. I don't mean to bore you.

Now for non-football followers, this game is sweet for several reasons. I won't bore you with those, but needless to say, it was a HUGE win.
And if you rooted for Atlanta, they are an awesome team.
Monday at work most of us walked around in that weird state of being too tired but still so excited. It was a wild finish to the game. Probably even more memorable then the Pat's last Superbowl win 2 years before. And that  one was still being talked about.
Being a late ending game, and then being so wound up, I don't think anyone who watched the game got much sleep Sunday night.
Even the kids at school were in the same state of mind.  That and the fact we have some bad weather coming in and they are all hoping for a Tuesday snow day.
But as I write this Monday evening, that information is yet to be decided.

So I am linking up to T for Tuesday at Elizabeth's Blog. Stop by and link up your drink related post.
Thanks for stopping by to visit.

Meet Pete

When my daughter graduated from college she moved in with her boyfriend and they adopted a rescue dog named Pete. Then she and her boyfriend broke up and she moved home with Pete. Since she's been home  about 1 1/2 years now, Pete has become as much our dog as hers. He's a Labrador and hound  mix, and a usually very sweet guy, whose a little nervous around strangers.  But he has one MAJOR love in his life, and that is chasing squirrels.

I've had many dogs who enjoyed a good squirrel chase, but none that went on patrol at first light in the morning, no matter what time first light is. (Our other dog will sleep as  late as you lounge with her, even if its noon. Not that I lay in bed until noon!. :) )
But not Pete.  As soon as the sky brightens he is sitting in the window where he can see my bird feeders.  As soon as you let him outside he races off, and with his long legs he can really move, chasing those squirrels into the wood the behind the house. Once he knows they are back up in the trees, he returns, comes in the house, and starts the process all over again.

Except on Christmas morning. My husband let Pete out and he actually managed to grab a squirrel in his mouth. Of course whether he knew what to do with it then or whether the squirrel wiggled free, we don't know, because a moment later it was lose and up the tree.
Of course, maybe Pete thinks the squirrels are going to sneak into the house and steal his bones, and that's why he chases them away too. I guess I will only have to hypothesize about that idea.
I think you've seen this before, but this is Pete.

So I am linking my page up to Art Journal Journey, where the theme this month is "Every Journal Page Tells a Story". I made my page by doodling Pete and the tree as well as the bones.  Then I stamped the squirrel a few times, and I used a little tape and some stickers.

Stop by with your story journal pages.  I look forward to seeing what stories you have to share.

Also, today is Tuesday, so I am linking up to

So you get a double view from me for a switch.

Stop by 

 How about a large diet Coke and a really delicious taco salad?

A huge salad, that I once again couldn't finish.

We tried a new restaurant called Cactus Jack's, which is a sister restaurant to the place where I usually get my taco salads, and which many of you in the T Gang might remember me having.
It was yummy and it makes me want another one now!
So I managed to get most of my holiday decorations put away this past weekend, as well as watching a few more movies on the TV. And now, its time for the work routine again. It was a good break. But like every break, it was too short and too fast. :)
Happy T Day everyone.

A Monday Evening Adventure

Happy T Day everyone and a special big hello to the Tuesday Tea Gang.

 Monday was a snowy morning,and  then when storm cleared out, it ended up being a beautiful winter evening.

I needed to run up to a store in a town near mine to get the hubby a little gift for the holiday, so my daughter came along and we ended up doing a little window shopping, holiday light viewing and had a yummy  dinner out.

The sunset was actually quite stunning, with the fresh snow and the not yet frozen lake.

No boats tied up to these docks at this time of year.

And we were planning on stopping at the grocery store to get something for dinner, but then we passed the crepe and coffee/tea shop, which was almost empty, and it was a beautiful winter night but we were hungry, so we decided to do something different.

 I had this yummy crepe sandwich made with turkey, avocado, bacon and cheddar cheese along with this tangy sauce. It came with this side salad.

My drink was a hot mulled cider. It was warm and a little different. I really enjoyed it and thought I;d take a photo of the sign so maybe I could experiment making it at home.

Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog and join in the T Day fun. 

One more beautiful holiday tree on a festive night.

Thanks for visiting.