Love

You know what I love? I love my iPhone. I can’t even put this under the What I Love category because it’s so much more than a great musician or floor cleaner.  This is the ultimate.  It’s an iPhone.

I knew I’d like an iPhone but I didn’t realize how much I’d LOVE it.  I was jealous from the beginning that AT&T and then Verizon had the iPhone and I was a loyal Sprint customer left to carry around both a phone and an iPod while pining over all the pretty iPhones everyone else had. Until this past October, that is! That’s when the the iPhone came to Sprint and I got up early and waited in line like all of the other fools to get my little mitts on a beautiful iPhone 4S.

I was worried, at first, and I’m still not entirely comfortable with paying extra for the data plan.  That’s something I never had with my old phone, but the longer I use my iPhone and the more handy-dandy it proves itself to be, the easier it is to pay that bill.

When the world ended for that brief while in October (the SNOWPOCALYPSE 2011 and ensuing statewide power outage) my iPhone proved itself to be worth every penny as I checked in hourly on the CL&P site for restoration updates. I streamed podcasts through one of my new apps so I could listen to something other than my own frustrated breathing while the power was out. It allowed me to vent on Twitter and Facebook and play Words With Friends to take my mind off the cold.  It was my connection to the outside world and I would have paid a million dollars for it. (I just about did when my screwed-up-six-ways-to-Sunday bill came in for October, but we won’t talk about that.)

Love, pure love. And I haven’t even gotten to Siri. She’s is my personal assistant who responds to voice commands to send texts and add items to my calendar.  She looks up things online and tells me how many centimeters in an inch, if I ask.  She also scolds me when someone new learns about her and inevitably wants to sexually harass her. (Just so you know, if you tell her that you’re horny, she gives you a list of adult stores and strip joints nearby, but if you ask her what she’s wearing, she says “LISA, I think you have the wrong assistant.”)

The GPS gave us instant directions on the go one day when we were in the woods of Coventry trying to find a place to launch the boat. The camera is amazing—better than my actual point-and-shoot camera from only a couple of years ago. The sound is so incredible that you don’t even need speakers. I can’t say enough about it.

There is a problem when you love a delicate piece of technology as much as I love my iPhone, though.  I have repeated nightmares about losing it and having it stolen. Last weekend my heart skipped several beats when I missed the pocket of my purse and dropped it right onto the concrete floor (phone was fine, case broke, THANK GOODNESS). So a little iPhone anxiety for a whole lot of convenience and awesomeness. I’d say it’s totally worth it.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

May you have a perfect day, and a million more after that!  Love, Lisa

Source: Uploaded by user via Nikki on Pinterest

An Update!

Get ready to celebrate. I may have found the solution to Alice Cooper Eyes. After months of whining and complaining and wringing my hands, I finally did what I should have done in the first place.  I asked someone at Sephora.  Some very cute boy with very long eyelashes told me to stop blaming my mascara and start looking at the remover I was using.  I told him it was Sephora brand and he shuddered. He pointed me directly toward the Makeup Forever display and handed me a bottle of Sens’Eyes.

Cute Boy told me to massage it into my eyelashes, then wipe it off with a cotton pad and all of my worries would be washed away.  He was right.  Despite the random apostrophe and strange name that hurts my Sens’Eyes, this stuff is amazing. It’s a bit pricey, but it only takes a small dab to get rid of all the black gunk so it seems like this bottle of miracle cream will last me for quite a while. It’s a Christmas miracle!

Please Help Me

I have a problem that might be a mascara issue, or maybe an eye makeup remover problem. Either way, it drives me crazy on a daily basis and I am in serious need of some advice. The problem?  I call it Alice Cooper Eyes.

I don’t wear a lot of mascara—maybe a quick brush or two just to separate my lashes. I even buy the good stuff. Right now I’m using a Smashbox mascara, for Pete’s sake. But each night I use eye makeup remover, then an all-over makeup remover, then I take a shower, step out, look in the steamy mirror, and I have Alice Cooper Eyes.  Big, black streaks of leftover mascara running down under my eyes. I use more eye makeup remover to get rid of it, head to bed, and wake up with… you guessed it: Alice Cooper Eyes. The mascara, where is it coming from???

All that I wear on my eyes is a light tan shadow and a few strokes of black mascara, so it has to be the mascara that’s the problem.  I only buy non-waterproof mascaras. I’ve used Benefit (the WORST for Alice Cooper Eyes), Too Faced, and now Smashbox, but they all left me streaky.  I even switched to Sephora’s waterproof eye makeup remover, thinking that it might remove more mascara than the non-waterproof remover.  But, no. I still end up looking terrifying. What am I doing wrong?  Please tell me. What mascara do you use? Do you suffer from chronic Alice Cooper Eyes, too? HELP!

Goodbye November

I’ve never much cared for November. Just like its early-spring counterpart, March, November is generally gray, and ugly, and muddy, and really I’d prefer that it didn’t exist. Except for that one day the other weekend when we spent an afternoon playing in the leaves with our neighbors and their granddaughter. I haven’t done that in so long, I really don’t remember ever doing it before. Molly was skeptical that this was “fun” and not “flailing around to signal danger”, but we managed to convince her that we were fine and that she should sit still for a picture or two.

Leaf-jumping fun aside, I’m so ready for December. My Christmas shopping is almost done and we’re going to cut down our tree this weekend…goodbye November, let the December celebrations begin!

What’s Cooking?

We are only a few days post-Thanksgiving and the last thing you probably want to think about is cooking, but I want to share with you these three recipes I’ve made recently that are so easy, you could make them in your sleep.

No. 1: Roasted Brussels Sprouts

This recipe from the November 2011 Cooks Illustrated looked too simple to call it a recipe, but it was requested for Thanksgiving, so I gave it a try. It did not disappoint. Basically three ingredients, 20 minutes, Brussels sprout perfection.

1 stalk fresh Brussels Sprouts
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cut your sprouts off the stalk, wash them, and cut them in half. Toss them with the oil, water, salt, and pepper, then spread on a baking sheet and cover tightly with foil. Bake at 500 degrees for 10 minutes, remove foil, toss sprouts around on the pan, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. They will be perfect, I promise.

No. 2 Pancake Mix

Now, we’re generally a Jiffy Mix/Bisquick family when it comes to making pancakes and waffles, but this weekend, when we wanted pancakes and had no lazy mix on hand, I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com for Fluffy Pancakes. The name is not a lie.  The recipe uses basic ingredients that should be in your kitchen, it comes together in minutes, and it truly made the most fluffy, delicious pancakes I’ve ever had at home.  I will be making this recipe again and again.

No. 3 The Easiest, Most Delicious Soup Ever

This soup needs new name but I never know what to call it. Cheap, easy, no measuring, guaranteed deliciousness, anyone can make it… it’s the Easiest, Most Delicious Soup Ever. Sometimes I add frozen tortellini, sometimes I switch up the meat and use tiny meatballs or crumbled sausage, this weekend I dumped in a couple of big spoonfuls of cottage cheese at the end – you can’t screw it up.

1 package frozen spinach
1 large can chopped tomatoes
1 pint chicken broth
1/2 package Polish kielbasa, diced
1 cup small pasta, uncooked
Parmesan cheese for serving

In a large pot, add spinach, tomatoes, broth, and kielbasa. Heat over medium-high until the liquid boils and the spinach block defrosts. While water is still boiling, add pasta and cook until tender. Lower the hear to a simmer and add more broth if the soup is too thick for your taste. Serve in steaming bowls topped with Parmesan cheese.

There, now you have no excuse for ordering takeout tonight. Bon appetit!

Where Am I?

I had a comment come through this morning on a post I wrote so long ago that I barely even remembered writing it.  I look back at some of the old posts I wrote and I feel like that was a lifetime ago.  I feel like it was a different person writing.  I felt so free, I shared everything and I wrote, and wrote, and wrote.

Now, I don’t know. I feel different.  I feel more closed in, less like sharing. Maybe it’s the repetition. If you know me, you probably follow me on Twitter or are friends on Facebook. Maybe I actually see you face-to-face once in a while. So why would I want to bore you with the same stories here?  But I kind of miss those boring stories.

I know I’ve said this before, but I’m going to try to bring some of those boring stories back. Stretch those stiff writing muscles and try to check in a little more often. You’ll come back, won’t you?

I’m On a Boat!

This weekend? It was pretty awesome. I hope yours was just as fantastic.

Summer Wrap-Up

It’s officially fall now. The calendar tells me so, and the frost warning issued for tonight nails it home. Fine. Whatever. I’m still holding onto my awesome summer, and since I was too busy having fun to stop and tell you about it then, why don’t we all relive those warm-weather days and have a late summer wrap-up?

Look! I’m wearing shorts! Remember those days? Long-time family friends of ours bought a house on a private lake in Hubbardston. MA and we go up each summer for a day of barbecue, catching up, and hanging out by the water.

It’s lovely there. Sigh… I discovered, though, that I am not cut out for fishing anymore. I used to love to fish with my dad and have so many great memories of our time in the canoe, but this time fishing was frustrating beyond all measure and something I’ll leave to Luke. He swears that fishing is the most relaxing activity. NONSENSE!

According to my photo record, nothing at all happened in August. Until that, you know, hurricane. But we’ve already beaten that one to death here.

We celebrated our anniversary this year by doing something I wanted to do all summer: get together with friends and go to a Friday night concert at Cassidy Hill Vineyard in Coventry. This picture is actually from the following week when Luke and I went back, just the two of us, to enjoy the evening all over again.

What a gorgeous place.  Everyone brings picnics and camps in the grass by the grape vines. Live music plays from the deck of the tasting room/store while the sun sets over the hill.  Just perfect. I can’t wait for next summer so we can go again.

The next weekend we went to an epic birthday party at our neighbor’s house. This is me and Tiffiny at the party. Miss Tiffiny is approximately 100 months pregnant and hopefully she’s currently in labor as I type this.

Now how many birthday parties have you been to that featured a hot air balloon AND a bouncy house?  I told you it was epic. Unfortunately the balloon ran out of fuel before Luke and I had our chance to take a ride, but I managed to laugh myself into a set of sore abs jumping around in the bounce house instead.

Up next on another sunny, gorgeous summer weekend was the Crusin’ on Main Street car show in Manchester. They close down a section of Main Street for this car show every summer and holy cats, I have never seen this many people in Manchester at one time before.

Perfect weather, beautiful old cars, and we even managed to run into my dad who was there showing off his very own hot rod.

This is my dad’s car here. Funny story: Although Dad finished restoring his Model-A around the time I graduated high school (and let me tell you, that was not a short time ago) I have still never ridden in this car.  My mom, my sister, my sister’s boys, my parent’s dog… everyone has ridden in Dad’s hot rod but me.  I guess I’m just never in the right place at the right time.

And that pretty much catches you up to speed. After the car show, Autumn swooped in and I’ve been inappropriately dressed ever since. Other than taking away summer, that’s the real reason I don’t like fall.  I never know how to dress. The mornings are in the 40s, by lunchtime it’s in the 70s, and by the time I get home from work it’s back down to the 50s.  Add to that the fact that my office leaves the air conditioning on until it’s cold enough outside to turn on the heat, and I’m either sweating or layering on multiple scarves and cardigans over my lightweight dresses.  Sigh… I’m sorry, I promise that this is the last time I’ll complain about fall. This year.

So what have you all been up to? Do you miss summer, too?

Scenes From a Power Outage

I forgot that I took these pictures. Looking at them now makes me sad. I was so bored.

I wasn’t the only one. Five days without power is a long time when you’re not used to it.

I realized that I actually hate puzzles. I thought I was a patient person. I was wrong.

I hula hooped so much, I actually started to miss the treadmill. Blackout insanity, I’m sure.

I kept thinking of incredibly clever things that I would have posted to Twitter if I could have.

Now that I have Twitter back, I can’t think of anything to say. Funny how that works.