Weekend in Review: Puppies, Wedding, and Bruncheon

Can I just take a second to say "I love summer hours"? Oh, I can? Okay then: I LOVE SUMMER HOURS!

Summer hours means I get to work a half day on Fridays and start the weekend early, which has led to such glamorous Friday afternoon activities as getting the car inspected and mowing the lawn. Okay, okay, okay...I know that's not exactly glamorous...but it still makes me happy for some reason!

Anyways, a little photo montage from this past weekend...

*My mom and grandmother stopped by to show off their new puppies!*

*They're 10 week old Border Collie/Spitz/Pomeranian mutts and they are adorable!*

*On Saturday, we attended a lovely wedding at the beautiful Pierce House in Lincoln, MA.*

*It was a really nice wedding...elegant and fun, with great food, and of course, a beautiful couple! (The bride was my manager at my previous job, and she & her new husband are just wonderful people)*

*My hot date, appreciating the architectural details in a room that bears a striking resemblance to the inspiration photo in my last post.*

*On Sunday I hosted a little ladies' bruncheon (no, not a real word. but i like it.) for a couple of my best girls. We all enjoy cooking, so we BROUGHT IT...I made cranberry scones with lemon curd (YUM!) and toasted bagel bites made with honey mustard, ham, tomato and dill Havarti. My girls brought a fantastic veggie quiche and homemade granola with fresh berries. We've decided we need to do this more often.*

And today...back to the GRIND.

Frugalista Find: Groupon

I just discovered an awesome website...Groupon!

It's basically a deal-a-day kind of website, with fantastic discounts (frequently 50% savings and up!) on a variety of products and services, anything from helicopter flying lessons to restaurants to spa treatments to yoga to whale watching to...well, you get the drift. AWESOME stuff.

Anywho, Groupon works out these deals with business owners, who agree to it because they know they're reaching thousands of new customers and creating BUZZ for their company. And there's the catch...the deal is only "ON" if enough people (predetermined as part of the deal) participate in the promo. Apparently your mom was right, there IS power in numbers.

Click HERE to see a quick video explaining how Groupon works.

Groupon is operating in numerous cities, including Boston, and was just launched in Providence.

Give it a gander, you might just find something good!

P.S.-On a completely unrelated note, I just saw a commercial for a new show on the National Geographic Channel called Expedition Great White in which a team of fisherman and scientists actually catch great white sharks with a HOOK and haul them out onto a specialized platform to tag them and take biological samples. (Holy cannoli.) I'm definitely going to have to check it out. Premieres June 6 @ 9pm ET (Additional article about the show HERE)

Lovely Lupine

Remember this lupine I had to liberate from the weeds last summer?

Lookie what it's doing this year!

Our buddy Mr. Robin, who has a nest in the nearby rhododendron, apparently wanted to get in on the photo shoot.

Notice the big nasty caterpillar he's snagged. (click to enlarge) Is it just me, or does he look proud?

South Africa Trip!

One of the many reasons for my recent absence from the blogosphere: a 2 week trip to South Africa!

Just like the Paris trip last November, this trip came together rather suddenly, after weeks of trying to put a trip to South America together and not making any progress. I was ready to give up on going on a trip in April and our travelmates had pretty much decided on a "default" vacation to the Caribbean...but Steven (who did not get to go on a trip last year because of his ACL surgery and therefore suffered from the worst case of wanderlust) was all "never say die" and proposed South Africa.

We had plane tickets 2 days later. And flew out of JFK 16 days after that.

Overall it was a great, but exhausting, trip. We spent the first week in and around Kruger National Park doing a "self-drive" safari (read: rent a car and drive around looking for animals) and the second week exploring the Cape Town/Western Cape area. My favorite parts were anything having to do with wild animals...from the game viewing in Kruger to coming face to face (or warm-human-i-have-a-soul eye to cold-soul-less-killing-machine eye) with GREAT WHITE SHARKS off of the South African coast.

I'll blog about the trip some more when we get all our pictures together (and maybe even a video clip or two!), but for now here are some safari shots courtesy of our travel buddies Tom and Robin...

*Rhinoceros crossing the road*

*Lion, as seen through our windshield (!!!!)*

*Spotted Hyena chowing on giraffe bones*

*African Elephant*

Aren't they amazing?

Some Recent Pics

*Yummy brunch at the beautiful Art Nouveau-inspired Loie Fuller in Providence*

*Spring has sprung*

*Skinny Cat, Fat Cat*

*the impatiens cuttings have sprouted roots*

*J.P. Licks-an integral part of our Meat CSA pickup routine*

*Windows open & fresh air blowing on that one beautiful Saturday*

I could definitely stand another one of those sunny, 75 degree weekends....

We have Create TV!

The other day, I sent Steven an email with the following subject line:

I'm so happy, I could weep.

The cause of my excitement? I discovered that we DO have the Create TV channel as part of our cable service. I used to watch this channel all the time when we had free digital TV in Salem, but couldn't find it when we moved. Now I'm catching up on all my favorite travel, cooking, gardening, and home improvement shows, such as:

*Cultivating Life is a great (Rhode Island based--woot, woot!) show that focuses on outdoor living, gardening, cooking and entertaining*

*EQUITREKKING. Traveling the world on horseback...need I say more?*

*Everyday Food. Part of the Martha Stewart empire, this show shares simple and fresh recipes for everyday cooking.*

I can't get enough!

Blog Crush

I came across the A Country Farmhouse blog this past week and fell in love. Talk about living the dream! The blog is all about a couple who bought a horribly wood-paneled and crooked farmhouse somewhere in the pacific northwest, in the BEAUTIFUL countryside, and then renovated it into a lovely, light and bright, cozy home. And when the author, Trina, is not writing about the home renovation, she's detailing a charming life full of fresh flowers, mountain views, and elk migrating through her yard.

Here are some of my favorite images from this inspiring blog:

(her adorable dog taking a swim in the lake)

(her kitchen BEFORE)

(her kitchen AFTER)

(bathroom BEFORE)

(bathroom AFTER)

(I felt so encouraged when I saw this pic of her husband installing the same floor tile we just purchased! Silly of me, but I felt like it was a good sign!)

(sigh)

(The reality of this woman's "outdoor dining" stuns me. This is her front porch.)

(rustic, yet light & airy. love it.)

So I don't have a mountain view and I don't live in the country. So what? Fresh flowers, natural light, beautiful home? It's doable, right?

Meat CSA

I finally did it.

I’ve been wanting to participate in the Stillman Turkey Farm meat CSA (community supported agriculture) for a couple of years now, but never felt I could justify it. I recently decided to just DO IT, and signed up for the 6 month/half share program, which is 10 pounds of meat per month for 6 months. That 10 pounds can include beef, pork, chicken or lamb, and is roughly 5 lbs. of ground meats or stew cuts, and 5 lbs. of premium cuts. Most importantly, it is local, free-range, hormone-free and conscientiously-raised.

Since I’ve been wanting to do this for quite a while, it was with great anticipation that we drove up to Jamaica Plain on Saturday to pick up our first share. It contained: ham steak, Italian sausage, pork chops, chicken breast, raw bacon, smoked pork butt, and as an extra “bonus“, a bag of pork neck bones (for soup, stock, etc.).

Hmmm, written out like that it sounds like a pretty good haul…but I have to say that my first impression was that it must be a cleanout month for the CSA, since this share was so pork-heavy. And of course, this little frugalista wants to make sure she’s getting a good value. At the end of the day, this meat is costing $7.50 per pound.

Of course, when I refer to value, I’m not just talking about the meat itself. I recognize that part of what we’re paying for is almost political in nature. With our financial support, we’re saying that local agriculture, humane husbandry, and traditional small-scale farming are a good thing and we want it to stick around. Even from my relatively elementary experiences while growing up on a hobby farm (we had nearly every barnyard animal you can think of, except for sheep), I know that what these farmers are doing is not easy. Furthermore, it’s rarely lucrative. So I really appreciate their willingness to live that life, preserve old New England farmland, raise heritage breeds humanely, and make it available to the rest of us. It’s not an occupation that many of us would have the guts to pursue.

Anyways, now comes the fun part…choosing/designing recipes around the meats that we received. I’m actually really excited for this part, and to see what’s in next month’s share…it’s like a grab bag of meat! I’ll keep the updates, recipes, cooking tribulations and triumphs coming…

In the meantime, if you are interested in these sorts of topics, I thought Fast Food Nation and Real Food were great reads…

Cat Owner PSA: Great Litterbox

Okay, I realize cat litter is possibly the lamest blog topic ever, but a great product is a great product. And since I have benefited many times from others' product recommendations, I thought I'd share this one for any cat owners who love their feline friends, but HATE cleaning the litter box.

I never thought I'd eagerly await my cat's next visit to the litter box, but that's exactly what happened the night this non-motorized self-cleaning litter box arrived on our front porch. With an average of 4.5 stars from 966 reviewers on Amazon.com, and a "why didn't I think of that?" design, I was really hopeful that this product would deliver on the hype.

Long story, short, it does. No scooping, no dust, no leaning over an open cesspool of cat droppings. All you have to do is roll it on its side and back one time for it to sift the litter and deposit any clumps into the easy pullout tray for disposal. So simple, it's brilliant.

Am I excited about a litter box? Yes. (Sad but true) It's made our most hated chore a breeze, so it gets 5 stars in my book.

The Circle of Life :(

The darling baby squirrels only made it through 1 more day. On Monday, when I came home from work, they were still bumbling all over the place, oblivious to pedestrians, cars, cats, the works. While that was cute during the day, it unfortunately did not fly at night.

After hearing some alarming squeaking around 10pm, I grabbed my flashlight and went outside to see if I could figure out what was up. Both had been nabbed--one by a big nasty looking possum & the other by a skunk. (Jerks.)

Okay, I know that possums and skunks need to eat, too. And there is certainly no shortage of squirrels. But it still sucks.

Be Still My Heart

I'm in love. The object(s) of my affection? Two adorable, thoroughly confused, baby squirrels. I happened upon one of them on Friday evening, and again this morning, but this time with a sibling. Let me just say, that at first, the word RABIES was definitely flashing in my mind. Most startling was that they don't take off running when we're near them--in fact, these little guys have actually approached me & Steven several times. Additionally, they're clumsy. God, they're clumsy. But after watching them out the window for a few hours now, I've decided that they're basically the squirrel equivalent of kittens, when they just get old enough to start playing & tumbling & falling all over the place. They even pile up on eachother when sleeping, which happens every half hour or so. In other words, these guys are young, inexperienced, and extremely vulnerable. So far they've managed to fly under the radar of both the neighborhood cats & the neighborhood children. But considering the way they just chill in low branches (we're talking about 5 feet off the ground), don't run away when startled, and lie around in a pile of mulch next to our side fence, I have to say I'm concerned that survival of the fittest is not going to work out favorably for these two.

And to combat that, Steven and I are giving them a little help. First, I put out water for them. And we gave them some peanuts (not interested). I offered them some banana, but that also failed to excite them. Then Steven noticed them picking up some old dried up cherries from the cherry trees they're cavorting in, and he came up with THE prize: Craisins. He tossed them a few, and they immediately went nuts, frantically foraging for them, wrestling eachother for them, and downright pigging out.

Noshing on some Craisins:
Wrestling over Craisins:
Washing it down with some water:
Relaxing by the fence:
Aren't they adorable? Hopefully they'll be okay these next few days/weeks, while they grow and perfect their tree climbing skills. We'll be keeping an eye on them, for sure.