The holiday rush into the Maine chill

Sorry for the huge delay in updating. I, like my friend The Sailing Foodie, have been very busy with work the last couple of weeks. It has been an interesting/aggravating/rewarding couple of weeks, but lets talk about something more interesting....Christmas.

This is the unique time of year where the last two or three weeks of December are spent rushing around the world trying to finish Christmas shopping, hit up holiday/birthday parties, and planning all the parties that will happen in the whirl that is Christmas eve and Christmas day. Although Christmas is a time which I love it certainly is hectic. Because of that I wanted to focus this blog on two separate parts of the holiday season: Buying/decorating a Christmas tree and MW and my annual trip to Maine

First off is the tree. There is nothing better to me about the Christmas season than the day we get our tree and decorate it. Decorating was never a huge thing in my house and, since MW has 5 siblings, it has always been huge in hers. In the last couple of holidays we have spent one entire day getting all the decorations and hanging around enjoying each others company. This year was the perfect example of that. After buying our tree on Saturday we hit up the Flynn household for my little sister-in-laws birthday on Sunday (that's the first time I have gotten to say sister in law!) It was a very fun time with laughter as well as some excellent Disney karaoke on the WII. This was actually kind of a momentous birthday because it is the first one since MW and I got married. It wasn't to awkward and the day was ended with a great big hug by my other sister-in-law LF, which made my day.

After the party we returned home to decorate our tree, drink hot cider/cocktails, and watch the Grinch. It was low key and just plain fun to spend an evening watching the Grinch with my lovely wife.

The second part of the holidays I love is our annual new years eve trip to Maine. Unfortunately this didn't happen last year due to remodeling of our Cabin, but this year we are even more excited to go up. The cabin is new and improved and after dinner with my aunt MW and I will be experts in all our new gadgets (including a sweet new wood stove) To me there is nothing better than sitting at the cabin with some friends, having drinks, listening to music and just hanging. Sure we miss the ball drop and all that (no tv), but we can have a kick ass party and really enjoy each others company. Plus it is one of my favorite things to be able to go outside whenever and just sit and look at the stars, you don't see the stars like that down here.

So this wasn't the greatest of posts, but I wanted to get somethigng out to hopefully jump start the creative juices. Once I have time I have a couple of insightful/rageful/fun things to post so you will back to your regularly schedeuled "Damn your impudence sir!" glory. I leave you with an excellent picture of the Cabin in Maine a la new years 2008/2009

Fall equinox/eating healthy

This year I am going to try something a little bit different than I have done before. I think I have gotten to the point where, although I still love partying and all that college stuff, I really want to make some changes. Usually I would wait for something like New Years and make a resolution that I probably wont keep. Instead I am going to try a new method for a year and see how it goes. I figure that around the time the seasons change I am always very motivated to make good life choices and changes, so from now on I am going to pick a couple of things for each equinox or solstice and try and keep those through the year.

The Autumnal equinox is on Wednesday, 22 September this year, so what better time to decide to try and be healthier than the fall harvest type time. Not only am I motivated by the seasonal changes, but there is so much good food in the fall.
MF and I went to Cannan Farm yesterday to pick up some fall type decorations and I was so excited to see all the pumpkins, squash etc. Such great food.

All of that was nothing compared to what happened today. Usually I am indifferent about apples, they are fine but I am not going to write home about them. I had an apple today and it was the most delicious thing! So it pops into my head, why am I eating sugary, greasy crap when this is way more satisfying. So this is where I need everyones help. I am going to try and eat more healthy and I need as many recipes as you all have. That seems to be the best way to find healthy food because you know the person you are getting it from likes it. So anyone who has websites with tasty food, cook books, secret family recipes, anything let me know ( BQ from The Sailing Foodie I am looking at you)

The second thing I am going to try and do for this Autumn season is to have less to drink. I dont think that I am over indulgent horribly or anything like that, but I think I would rather just do healthy stuff instead. It's so nice to wake up in the morning and be 100% clear headed, I find I sleep badly after drinking anything.

So those are my two "resolutions" for the season. After linking to BQ's blog my topic is somewhat similar, but that's ok. Now bring on the pumpkin pie!

technology is overrated

So it's been a while, but lets get back into things.

The rain has stopped in MA so that's a huge plus and the current temperature in Beverly is 83 degress. Glorious.

Now onto technology. As some know MF and I have gotten rid of cable all together, a monumental step many have said. I say nay. I think its a great step. I was worried that I would miss it and that I would be bored and have nothing to do, while that isn't the case at all. One we still have netflix and the ability to watch movies, but also I think that your mind is forced to move onto something else when TV isn't there to occupy it. I have plans for this lack of TV (including an hour of guitar playing a day, more reading and more character development.)

This leads me to a thought I have probably 10 times a day. Why can't I just move into the woods and live. Well obviously there is the lack of knowledge enough to live in the woods. That could be learned though. The other thing is the idea that life would be worse. We wouldn't be able to enjoy any of the modern amenities such as lots of TV and things like that. We would have to get some sort of small job to support electricity as I am pretty sure MF would leave me if I said I wanted to live in a hovel in the woods with out electricity. But you could find a perfectly good house in Maine and live there and have minimal contact with all these fancy technologies. Cutting out technology all together would be bad, but keeping very to nature and only enjoying those technologies every once and a while would make me sooo happy.

I wanna go to the woods!!!

Outdoors

So I have finally hit the part of every winter that I start getting a little moody wishing for spring. Some would call that SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder, I call it tired of being stuck inside when the outside is cold and dark. I don't think it needs a name it just stinks.

That being said I have decided to write a post about the thing that makes me most happy (except of course for MF who kicks natures ass) Nature. The outdoors has always been a big part of my life. I did boy scouts and cub scouts and all that fun stuff, but I also have my place in Maine. My place in Maine is my refuge, probably my most favorite place in the world. I love it when we have massive amounts of people up there for a real party and all that, but I love it most when its a couple people and I can just get outside.



This is a picture from the winter. I have to find a good summer picture and put it up.

Fishing is the time when I feel the most relaxed. I can get away from everything and just sit on a brook and fish. Although of course I would like to catch something, I don't really care if I do or not. This time also gives me the ability to reflect back on the great things about my life. Its easy to focus on the crappy parts, but sometimes its tough to really get a grasp on all the great things in life. My favorite spot is a nice little log bridge over a small brook in backwoods Maine...glorious.


My favorite fishing spot (left)

It makes me excited when it gets to this time of year and I know that sometime in the next 2-3 months the snow will be gone and I will be able to once more sally forth into the great unknown of Andover Maine with my two favorite girls (MF and Maddie) and just relax :)

Disjointed thoughts of the seasons

So this is the first time this year that I have been hit with a little bit of the winter blues. Usually I have a miserable tie in the winter, all the dark and all that, but this year I only just had my first thought of "Gosh I wish it was summer". I am very excited about that.

That being said I am looking forward to the warmer weather. I really want to get up to Maine (they are doing work on it now, so as soon as I can I will be up there) I love being able to walk around not in a bulky jacket and I love having it be sunny all the time! I also always think of summer as a time to really hang out with people. Yes you can def hang out with people during the winter (I do almost every weekend), but I feel like activities are severely limited in the winter. A good summer BBQ is just what we need.

That being said I always find that the winter is a very interesting time to reflect on what is going on inside of my brain. During the summer things are always moving and I feel like I can always run around outside or do whatever, during the winter there is a lot more sitting inside and turning inwards.

That being said this is my winter thoughts on myself and life.

1. I really miss school, but not as much as I used to
This one needs some major clarification. Yes I miss the people of course, but I also miss the availability. It was very easy to just run up to the 03 deck and get some 4/C together to play some frisbee or something like that. There was so much talking at things like lunch or study hours that I miss the massive amount of people and the huge difference in how they think. I think that this has been less so this year because of the great group of friends that I have now. Of course I have two of my longest and best friends (Greg and Ash) but this year has brought a plethora of others, all from different back grounds and with different ways of thinking (I am not going to name you all, but you know who you are.) It has also helped that some of these great people are at work so I get to see them during the day and have a little break from my data manipulation

2. I have turned into a lazy slob
Ok so not exactly a slob, but I have gotten very lazy. I used to be active all the time, but now I haven't played frisbee or gone for a run in a don't know how long. That is ending this week, today is the first day of running and working out again. Anyone who wants to play frisbee, run, or do anything at all physical or outside please let me know, its always fun with a buddy.

3. I need to continue things
I have always been one of those people who start things and then stop. Writing, camping, guitar have all been things that I absolutely love to do, but for some reason don't do them. I think this links back to the above and I just need to get off my ass and do them. Anyone have a guitar tuner?

4. I need a hobby
So I think this also links to numbers 2 and 3, but I want to get into something and do it as a hobby. I have guitar (which I really want to get into again), but I feel like having something to occupy my mind(instead of TV) would be really good. I know that a few people have done genealogy, maybe thats something I could try. Or I could continue my shot glass collection and actually hang them up and display them, instead of just leaving them in my closet. Thoughts?

So this isn't all that goes on in my head, but a short glimpse of the major things that have been in my head lately. If anyone has any comments/hobbies or anything else def let me know! Comments are encouraged!