Category: Food

The Solstice Viewing That Wasn’t

Posted on by Markman

Started the day by making lemon orzo soup again! Great day for it as it’s been snowing all day. The star of tonight’s show though was attending the SOLSTICE EVENT this evening down at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. Unfortunely when it was time to go it really started snowing pretty heavy here. We gave it the old college try but took forever just to get to the highway and then that was backed up like crazy. So we decided then and there to abort the mission. It was becoming too stressful and might even be dangerous. Kind of sucks because it’s hard to get tickets but there’s always next year. We were supposed to meet up with some friends there who actually did brave the snow and got there but they were in the car for like 3 hours. So below would have been some cool pics from the event but since we couldn’t make it, there aren’t any.

Make Believe these were some cool Solstice Pictures from last night’s event

Currently Reading: Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us about Breasts by Sarah Thornton and Oh, the Pics That You’ll Post! by Maiana Rose. That ought to finish out my year of books read. I’ll do a post of my favorites I read this year along with my usual top ten or so moments from the year. I already starting looking a little bit about what I’m going to post but that probably won’t see the light until after the new year so stay tuned for that.

Goats in My Pockets

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Spent some time yesterday afternoon visiting the sanctuary. We have to get to know these new goats better sooner or later! Plus we had some food we needed to drop off for the animals. For whatever reason, this one goat named Dansa really thought I had something in my pockets. We didn’t stay too long though, we needed to get back because we were having some guests over in the late afternoon, and that went really nice as well. We were going to do a fire pit but by the time they arrived it started to get a wee bit chilly so we hung indoors and ate pizza and calzones and chatted. I’ll try to get to the firepit this afternoon perhaps. But first we have a reflexology appointment in the late morning to luxuriate in! Oh, one other thing. While I was at the sanctuary I was pleased to learn they still had Stardust the Donkey’s 50th birthday party shirts for sale, so I got one. I wanted to attend his birthday this summer but the schedule just didn’t align. I am glad I was able to get one. In fact, I think I’ll wear it out today.

Currently Watching (or soon will be actually): The Stanford Prison Experiment: Unlocking the Truth . I have it all scheduled to record on the DVR on Wednesday night.

Currently Reading: The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi (review)

Little Home Remedies

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The other day I saw something on a home improvement show that I thought would be good to have so I bought it. Simply put, it’s a GCFI Outlet tester. These things are great because they tell you if your outlet was wired correctly, for example, everything is connected the right way, no reverse polarity, grounded properly, things like that. Plus it was only ten bucks. We’ve had things reversed in this house before so it’s good to check to see that it’s correct. Things will still work if it’s reversed but the problem is you’ll think appliances and such are off when they really aren’t because the current wouldn’t be off at the outlet so there’s a possibility of electrocution which would not be good.

Yesterday we made some of the famous Lemon Orzo chicken soup, mostly for LD’s old landlady who Unfortunely had to go the the hospital over the last week. She’s now in a rehab facility so we visited her yesterday evening and seemed very pleased with the soup. For some reason or another, she really likes the way we make this soup.

As for me, well, I’m hanging in there. Both my knees have been hurting, who knows why, just old age I guess. Plus there’s a lot going on here right now but trying to stay strong and to stay on the path!

Visiting Mt. Auburn in Fall Part One

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My mom invited me to brunch over at a place called the S&S in Cambridge this morning so I took her up on her offer. I hadn’t been to that place since probably before the pandemic with LD. I ended up getting a turkey club with I must say was delicious. That place has been there forever and it’s always pretty good.

After dropping her off I decided that Mt. Auburn might be a good p[lace to get some autumn shots so I drove on over there with no set goal in mind and to just see what I see. However after today I feel I’m going to need to go again because there is just so much and I only had limited time today. There’s a few more sites there I want to check out and pay my respects to. As LD always says, “Mr. History!”

I did find a couple of noteworthy people in my walking today however. Stopped by Edwin Booth‘s grave, considered by many to be the greatest actor of the 18th century but unfortunately overshadowed by his younger brother killing Abraham Lincoln and Dorothea Dix, an advocate on behalf of mental health. Her grave is very non ostentatious considering all the achievements she accomplished in life.

Hawk Visitors and Rabbit Holes

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Hawk decided to have a seat and hang out on the patio with me. These guy better leave our bunnies alone! 🐰 🐰 🐰 Got through a bunch more tasks today before the weekend. I woke up early again and got through some billing tasks, then I went to Target to pick up some things for LD. Got back and went out again to get gas, drop some food off at the food pantry, and then took another trip out to Lexington to get some more stuff for LD, including some more pumpkins. Unfortunely they no longer had this bumpy warty one that I should have got the last time I was there, but instead picked up a popcorn pumpkin and another one that was multicolored. Perhaps I’ll come across some more unique pumpkins elsewhere. Toward the end of the afternoon we roasted a 7-lb chicken in the oven.

In the early evening we just happened to be flipping around the dial and landed on the Chronicle show which was doing a piece on Devens, which brought back to my mind the time that I worked on projects related to the army base that was there. I did a bunch of the mapping for the gov’t reports that we’d do. Here was one such report, and if you scroll around to the figures you’ll see my initials “MSB” in the title blocks. God, that was so long ago. These graphics were all done by me in AutoCAD back in the day. It was probably version 12 or 13 at the time. I also think they were all originally in color. The basic idea was the army had to know where any contamination was and to remediate it before the land could be used for anything else. In watching the Chronicle episode last night you could see what became of some of it. Pretty amazing that I had a part in that, all those years ago. What’s also weird was just the other day I came across some old awards and such back at Earth-1 recalling myself back to that time as well. Nostalgia city!

Life’s Pretty Gourd Right Now!

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Three highlights from Saturday. We finally got out to Lexington to check out the annual pumpkin wall over at Wilson Farms (something that I had been wanting to check out for a while) and while there we even purchased some goods, like pumpkins and mums and various treats. Then if was off to Revere Beach where we hung out for a few hours. The beach was warm but there was a constant sea breeze which felt cool. I also had a Kelly’s lunch there. One interesting thing was watching the seagulls get these mollusks and fly up into the air with them to then drop them to let the fall help crack them open. Every now and then a different gull would grab one’s hard work. Finally came home on grilled in the early evening. Burgers and some corn that we got at the farm. Today we’re going to get some friend pool time in before checking out some kitty and goat experience. We’ll see how that all goes!

Hanging It Up

Posted on by Markman

Currently Reading: The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI Ray Kurzweil

I went into the gym this morning that has an outside pool and large hot tub so I could use the hot tub. Ahh, that felt pretty good. It was a beautiful morning too so that adds a lot to it. Then it was off to Staples to return some Amazon things. They make the returns so easy now, just pop in and they scan a QR code and it’s done. Afterwards we headed to the office to hang up one of my photographic landscapes. This particular shot is a little old before I really knew how to shoot scenes better so there’s a newer shot that I want to do and hang, at least for myself. When I get around to having that done I’ll post that here as well. Finished off the afternoon with a short nap in my gravity chair on the deck (maybe that hot tub took more out of me than I thought!) and then some light grilling of burgers and salmon. A pretty standard Labor Day weekend thing to do.

Pool Time to Enjoy the Tail End of Summer

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Drove up to Beverly in the morning to pick up some more unique and somewhat large Dedham Pottery for display. It just so happened to be on the way to our planned destination of hanging out in our friends pool up that way, that is just about complete. All the hardscape is in, new deck, incorporated grill, firepit, etc. Just need to seed the grass areas so by next season it will really shine. Actually it’s a quite beautiful setup. I was in the pool for quite some time and had a blast just floating on the “Chill Chair” as can be seen in the photos. We were afraid at one point that it might rain, but thankfully it never did and ended up being a spectacular afternoon! Lucked out again!

Later in the afternoon we grilled. We brought up some shrimp and we had prepared some veggies and local sweet corn and brought up some of our tools like these grill cages to make kabobs. Mollie, their super cute dog, is getting bigger but she is still a handful. Of course she is still just a puppy but training her has been a bit of a challenge. She’s quite sassy, but I like that about her. She also needs to be a little more chill, which for her is kind of impossible, because her leg has a joint that can get out of place and then it needs to be massaged basically to slide back into place. Poor thing! She just doesn’t seem to know her own body yet, or maybe she gets so excited that she doesn’t even think of any consequences of her actions. We ended up staying so much longer than anticipated. Time just went by so fast! We got home just as the sun went down, all in all, another perfect day.

Visiting an Old Friend in a New Place

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Finally got around to visiting LNU’s new location in Providence, RI this afternoon. It’s a more direct shot now to get to, but in a somewhat busier part of town and not as quaint, but the new digs are more spacious and the food is all still great! Also nearby was a mural with a message that said, “Most of Us Live Off Hope” which we thought was great.

Beach, Dog Snuggles, Art, Family, Nothing Better

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Family came to visit this weekend. Sort of an impromptu visit but it was a good one. Friday night I grilled and we did a firepit as everyone got settled. Saturday we went to the DeCordova Museum in the afternoon to check out some sights, get some photo ops, etc. The hearts are the best thing there in my opinion but that slanted house which is a newer installation was also pretty cool. Naturally we had to pose with it, along with some other installations. Had pizza in the afternoon at the hotel, and then headed to the beach in the late afternoon for some swim time. I think the dog had the best time of all!

Sunday was another low key day, breakfasts and then I watched the dog while everyone went to the pool to cool off and/or exercise. I will say the dog was extremely well behaved and such a pleasure to be around. Such a sweet dog. Not sure how Carson felt about everything but he got through it. Late afternoon was another grilling session, LD and one guest helped with some amazing sides, and even had the landlady down the street over to join.

All in all it was a pretty amazing time! Go figure!

.I will admit, I am a little fried at the moment. Geez, it’s tough to get older!

Surfing Ahead Into the Week

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A surfer heads out with the Narraganset Towers in the background.
Don’t Worry, Be Capy!

Fri: I really enjoyed my first time trying out Reflexology (I would definitely do it again and at the place where we got it done) and then after we had a terrific lunch at a great little Turkish place called Cafe Mangal. Maybe a little pricey but the food is truly excellent. Sat: I got around to installing the new firefly in the back and they work and compliment the other ones flawlessly. We took advantage of some down time and finished up the night with my barbequing some salmon which we made into salmon burgers and then we did a little firepit and had some s’mores. Sunday: Took a ride to pick up something LD saw on the marketplace that will come in quite useful and happily we’ve tried it out and it works wonderfully! I’d mention what it is tomorrow sometime but I’ll leave it a surprise for right now. Also picked up a pasta dish of eggplant parm from Comella’s (a place we’ve been wanting to try) to prepare at home tonight.

Trolls and Elephants and Fun, Oh My!

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For my Birthday yesterday I got to check out some amazing sights in the beautiful coastal areas of Rhode Island. First up, was a drive down to the charming community of Charleston, RI, a place we had never been. We were there to see the trolls Greta and Erik. There’s a bunch of these trolls up in Maine at the Botanical gardens, which I may get to check out and some point, but these two are newer and closer. I had a little bit of a hard time finding Greta, but LD, with her mazing tracking skills, was able to locate her pretty quickly. A nice woman who works at the senior center there nearby gave us some great tips on where to go and find them! (Each picture below is clickable to see a larger version).

Greta!
Erik
If you’re a troll park here

We were going to eat at a local place in Charleston but after a while that didn’t seem like the greatest idea so we headed over to Narraganset and ate at a place called The Coast Guard House, which amazing is literally right next to the Towers in a building that used to be a Coast Guard Life Saving Station back in the 1880s until the 1940s. The views there are amazing and the food was excellent, also the prices weren’t that bad! (I did get a little tipsy again on some drinks).

tipsy!

Then it was off the beautiful town of Newport to check out the installation of the elephant migration. We ended up going to the ones at Salve Regina University, although there’s some at the Breakers and a couple of other locations. The amount of detail on the elephants is truly amazing! We spent quite a bit of time there, plus it’s right along the cliff walk which is beautiful.

We finished off the day with a giant pizza! What a great day! Today I’m off to my very first ever reflexology appointment – we’ll see how that goes!

Oh, I almost forgot! I got some great gifts too! A Dunkins gift card from our friend Em, a foot massager, some capybara socks and a capybara shirt (I love capys!) , and some more fireflies to help light up the night in the back patio!

Happy National Lighthouse Day and Pizza Cupcakes to Boot!

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Pemaquid Point

I’ve always loved lighthouses, just everything about them, their location, their various looks, their history, the people who lived in the them and tended the light, their bravery. I just think it’s pretty cool. I’m sure many people feel the same way. I’m very lucky to live in new England where there are so many. Boston was home to the very first lighthouse in America after all (and it’s still there!)

I really lucked out with this shot – just as a storm was getting ready to roll in. That’s exactly what a lighthouse was built for! (also mad props have to go to LD for taking the shot and getting me there! I love you so much!)

Got to try something of a novelty today! Finally went down to try this place called Boston Pizza Cupcakes.

I ended up trying the ones with Buffalo Chicken topping and double pepperoni! We also considered getting as s’mores topped one but maybe for another day. Definitely a novelty item but fun, in a way.

I Like Big Flips and I Cannot Lie!

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Took a quick jaunt today over to Bow Market in Somerville this afternoon. Luckily I was able to get on street parking right across from the place because parking down there is brutal, assuming you can even find a spot. There was a roast beef place I wanted to try called The Hotbox, which I had read about in a magazine that I was perusing whilst waiting for LD at a doctor’s appointment a few weeks ago. It was pretty good – I ended up getting a junior three way. The sauce is a little spicy but not bad at all, perhaps that’s why they chose that name? anyway, the whole area has a bunch of little local shops and a very cute outside seating area, which I partook of. Also while there I saw they what appeared to be a small pinball parlor, so I went and played some of those classics, the machines range from from the 70s through the 90s, and I guess they swap them out with other ones every so often. Pretty cool little place.

Finally, toward the end of the afternoon I had to hit a grocery store and they had these cute little roses on sale. I couldn’t resist and picked up one that had light purple flowers.

And finally, to close out the afternoon I went to see this band play over at the local gazebo playing some pop hits from the 70s and 80s. They sounded really good!

Hanging Out at the Lobster Pot

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Lobster Pot in P-Town, we ate here once actually!

Lately I’ve kind of loved just going down rabbit holes and learning some things. Did you know Anthony Bourdain worked here at the Lobster Pot? He got his start there as a dishwasher and fell in love with cooking and so went along that path. Amazing to think that all started right here!

I’ve had a bit of a busy day flitting about town doing my rounds, so that might just be the update for today.

Creating a Vibe Though Unintentional at the Time

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Yesterday was such a good day to take it easy. I hung my gravity chair on the back deck and relaxed, maybe even dozed off for a bit. Then I hit the local market and bought fresh zucchini, chicken, and salmon to grill. I was able to finish it all just as it started to rain lightly. Otherwise, I would have had a fire pit outing, which would have been nice. It was a pretty chill Sunday.

Here’s another shot I took from my outing to Grey’s beach in Yarmouth down on the Cape. I love this span, it’s so long and the names and sayings on the boards are really nice. Anyone can have their own for a price. This shot is sort of giving me vibes of The Scream, the painting by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch!

I have a bunch of things that I’ve been wanting to check out coming up soon. Some of it historic as I’m always trying to learn new things about the places that we live at – a little bit of hidden history you might say, along with some what may be interesting food choices and the usual fun stuff.

So Lucky to Experience the Best Sunsets!

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Really enjoyed our time down here. Some of today’s highlights .. getting massages early in the morning to start off the day and they were good. Then off to Capt. Baker’s Donuts – amazing unique concoctions! Went to Nauset Beach and did some shopping too for a few, and then jumped in the pool for a bit before they told us to get out because it was going to rain. It rained but only for like 10 minutes after which time we grilled some burgers on the charcoal. Then we noticed the skies actually clearing up as sunset approached (!) so I suggested we hit Skaket and it was a good call as it was a spectacular sunset tonight – we didn’t want to leave! Even after it went down you could still see so much cotton candy colors in the sky and clouds. Finished it up with a trip to the Sparrow again! I’ll have to flesh this entry out better later but you get the gist!

Bass River
Bass River
Bass River
Bass River
Best Donuts
Check out the descriptions!
I got the PB&J Doughnut!
Yums!
Hanging out at Nauset Beach
Found time to grill!
Spectacular sunset tonight
Such a large vista of beauty

The Best of Times and Tides

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It turned out to be a pretty good sunset over at the Creek after the day being mostly cloudy and overcast. We had dinner just before at a place called the Blue Island Crab and it was delicious! I think it may now be my favorite place to eat down here, the food was extraordinary! Great drinks too, one which actually got me pretty buzzed, which is not something I usually do.

Anyways, in the photo above you can see people way out in the distance. During low tide, you can walk out there for about two miles, which is crazy. When the tide does come in it can rise to a height between 9 and 11 feet in certain areas!

So, this has been a great time over at Earth-3 so far. Let’s see if I can quickly recap some things so I can remember all these times later on. So far, there’s been Rock Harbor sunset, two trips to the Chocolate Sparrow (as of yet), had a quick dinner over in Sandwich harbor, Checked out the General Store, checked out a famous crafter in Dennis, Eat Cake 4 Breakfast for some great pastries, swimming in the pool, some clams over at Mac’s in Chatham, Hole in One doughnuts a couple of times as of yet, Snowy Owl for coffee, Joe Mama’s for the best breakfast sandwich that I love, The Knack for burgers, Chatham beach a couple of times, went down to the dock to see seals, traipsed around Chatham’s downtown for the shops and the whale art, did the Eddy Trail, stopped over in Wellfleet for a bit, checked out Ptown’s Commercial Street and the library. Whew! What else? I know I’m missing stuff!

Entrance to the creek
Rocks, marsh and sun
The sun peeps out
This cocktail got me buzzed!
The sun sinks below the horizon

A Bench Press Kind Of Day

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Yesterday ended up being a very busy day after all, even though it didn’t seem kike much was planned. I was pretty busy helping out LD since her car ended up being in the shop for much of the day for some needed TLC. First there was the drive to the gym to get some reps in. Looks like they instituted some system to make sure randos don’t come in and use the pool or hot tub without authorization (who would do such a thing? * me looking around innocently*). I’m sure it’ll pass after a few. Then it was back home for a little bit before heading back out to drive LD to a Dr’s appointment over at Newtown-Wellesley. We got a parking spot in the garage literally right at the very front, which never happens, so that was pretty amazing. While I was in the waiting room actually is where I learned about some of the places that I want to check out that I mentioned in the last post, by me going through some of the old magazines lying around in the waiting room to pass my time. After that it was off to Braintree for LD’s Pedi appointment. While she was in there getting worked on I took a stroll over to Sunset Lake. It was a hot and humid day but by the lake was nice and cool. In fact, that’s where I snapped the picture up above. I’ve taken some autumn shots from this location in the past. It was pretty quiet on this day though. I stayed sitting on a bench for about an hour until I saw the skies getting ominously dark above. I didn’t want to get soaked so I trudged back to my parked car by the spa but by then the sun came out full force and it got hot and humid again. Not the greatest time to discover that my car A/C system must need a recharge since cold air doesn’t seem to emanate from the vents anymore, which was weird since it was the day before. Just bad timing I guess. When LD got down we learned her car was ready so from the spa we drove to go pick it up. When we got home we made some pizzas., A couple of flatbread ones that came with the week’s meal kit, and then rolled some dough on our own and made another one, mostly because we had to use all the ingredients before they went bad.

We’re finally getting back to working on the basement! The redone stairs are almost done and the new doorway to bypass going all around the basement to get to the other side will be getting installed this week, it looks like.

We Can Always See Ourselves to the Beach

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Today I went to the beach for a few hours in the afternoon, but I didn’t go into the water. LD, on the other hand, went swimming. We didn’t feel like cooking last night, so we ordered this giant pizza from a local place we love. We only discovered this jumbo-sized pizza last month when LD’s friend from the south was here. It’s so big and impressive, I had to take a picture of it, but it really doesn’t do it justice; you have to see it in person to get the full effect.

Yesterday we also finally got around to looking at those Hoka sneakers at Dick’s. I liked how they felt, but they didn’t have my size in the color I wanted. So, we took a picture of the tag and ordered them online. They should arrive by Tuesday. LD didn’t like the feel of them, but I do. You’ll probably be seeing me in those later in the week.

Later on tonight, we’re going to see Inside Out 2 at Chestnut Hill. It’s a movie LD has been wanting to see for a while now, and today’s as good a day as any. When we get back, I’m going to grill some salmon and cod and maybe some zucchini with sliced cucumbers on the side.