9 posts tagged “holiday”

First Fourth

Jul 4, 2009
10 comments

Today was a very relaxing day at The Aerie, and I realized that since Penny came to be part of our pack on the day after Memorial Day, that today was her first holiday at home.

There was plenty of resting…

So sleepy, I can't pull my legs up

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And a little curiosity about the gardening we did

Helping with the gardening

And a little curiosity about the camera

Close-up

And finally, a nice Happy Hour hanging out with a good drink and a good book.

Happy hour

Happy Independence Day to all!

Special Holiday Happy Hour -- The English Afterthought

Jul 3, 2009
4 comments

It’s a nice calm easy Independence Day weekend at The Aerie this year. In addition to our national holiday, the weekend is always one of the biggest for tennis fans – this is the weekend of the Wimbledon finals.

So, to honor, I’m sorry, honour our nation's forefathers and tennis heroes alike, we made a very good cocktail from the latest issue of Imbibe Magazine.

The English Afterthought

3 oz gin
¾ oz St Germain liquor*
1-tablespoon fresh blueberries
1-tablespoon finely chopped ginger
Ginger beer**

In a Collins glass or large tumbler, muddle the blueberries and ginger. Fill the glass with ice and add gin and St. Germain. Stir and top with ginger beer. Garnish with a skewer of blueberries.

d36 --- English Afterthought

This drink is very tasty and effervescent – perfect for a relaxing summer afternoon. The mix of the tart blueberries, sharp ginger, sweet liquor and aromatic gin make for a great drink.

Cheers!

* St Germain is an elderflower liquor that has a very light, sweet honey-ish-but-not-quite taste. It rocks. In a pinch, you could probably substitute Drambuie, but I’d use less, I think.

** Ginger beer is a carbonated ginger soda that has a more intense ginger flavor than ginger ale.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Dec 23, 2008
32 comments

So, for the second year in a row, we’re doing what had previously thought to be unthinkable – we’re staying put for Christmas and New Years. And we’re pretty darn happy about it.

Last year was the first time in many many moons that I hadn’t gone back to the East Coast at Christmastime – it was magical to celebrate the Holidays for the first year in our new house. We were ecstatic. We threw a NYE party that took a lot of prep. The time went by really quickly.

Joyful Days

This year, we’re looking for a very quiet Christmas at home. The combination of fortuitous placement of Christmas and New Years Day on the calendar and generous holiday vacation policies mean that we’re both off from tomorrow (Christmas Eve) until the 5th of January. Yep, 12 days for Christmas. Pretty sweet.

There are no big plans (other than to figure out what Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners will be…) and we agreed to rein in our gift-giving to one another. We trundled off to the library and each got a big stack of books, so there will be reading and card-playing, and piano, and some movies to watch. Maybe go for a hike or two. Sounds perfect to me – though as with all vacations I’m sure the time will pass all-too-quickly.

Peaceful Nights

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Here’s hoping everyone has a very Merry Christmas and Holiday Season!

In Lieu of a Holiday Party

Dec 8, 2008
13 comments

Ahh, the company Holiday Party. A chance to dress up and have a free shindig on the brass. Usually a pretty good time with prime activities being: eating, drinking, watching to see who drinks too much and embarrasses themselves, and watching to see who dresses like a skank and embarrasses themselves. Good times.

Well, for several reasons, the company that I work for decided to forego its Holiday Party this year, and so the Beloved and I were a little bummed that we didn’t have a “dress up” affair to go to this year, so we decided to kick off our Christmastime and create one for ourselves that included art, food and music – with an excursion to the best place to see and be seen – L.A.

Art: Since we were too early to check into our hotel, for our first stop, we went to the LACMA (LA County Museum of Art). They have a brand new contemporary art wing, which in the words of a cantankerous old man that was nearby “broke the record for fewest pieces per acre”. Yeah, it was a little sparse, though some of the stuff was good. They also had an exhibit on the portraiture photography from Vanity Fair (dating back to 1913) -- that was cool.

Famous cover

Food: After getting spiffed up, we went out to a great dinner at a restaurant called "Grace" -- where we had the chef's "game tasting" dinner (don’t read: Mrs. Soytastic). 4 courses (venison tartare, roasted squab, duck breast, antelope loin) that were all really good (and appropriately sized so that you didn't feel like SO MUCH of a pig) -- there was also a dessert in there (that was not game) -- freshly made butterscotch donuts. Holy crap, those were good.

Over The Rhine

Music: After dinner, we made our way over to the Troubadour to see Over The Rhine. They were incredibly fun to see in a small venue. We were maybe 20 feet away. Awesome. Karen’s voice was spectacular -- they were really great. Though I have to say, it’s been a while since I’ve stood for three hours straight for a concert – my lower back could tell. Hey, get off my grass while you’re at it.

All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue

Over The Rhine

Sunday we slept in had breakfast and drove back – breaking out our Christmas Music playlist on the way back down to San Diego.

Thanksgiving Blessings

Nov 27, 2008
10 comments

To say that I am thankful for all the wonderful things in my life is the biggest understatement that I can think of – other than perhaps that I have been more blessed than I could possibly have hoped for.

I love and am loved everyday -- which has been the most wonderfully unexpected joy for someone to find at this time in life. I am healthy and happy (if still working on the wise-thing…), have a wonderful family and great friends and am still curious about life and honestly do look forward to every day. Did I mention that I was blessed?

I am also thankful for all of you that stop by here. What a great "experiment" this blog has turned out to be. I enjoy sharing things with you and am grateful and honored that you share yourselves with me.

The Beloved and I hope that everyone has a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Data Analysis

Nov 26, 2008
23 comments

Now, I might not have John King’s (from CNN) fancy interactive electoral map, but I thought it might be fun here on Thanksgiving Eve to look at the polls focused on the holiday’s feast and activities that I put up last week.

First-off – turnout was great! A 50% increase (or more) over any previous poll here. Clearly, people have strong opinions about Thanksgiving.

Feast Data

For the question about what part of the meal is their favorite, stuffing eked out a narrow victory over sweet potatoes and the bird itself. Also, demographically, stuffing RULES the Northeast, with sweet potatoes and turkey better represented once you get out of that region.

Taken together, there was a huge majority for side dishes (68.8%) over the turkey or desserts (which together came in at <10% -- maybe folks are too full by the time they get to dessert).

Coming up short on the table was long-time staple mashed potatoes, with one lone vote (from SLO-town – cough cough).

Holiday Data

Looking at the broader holiday, getting together with friends and family was the easy winner, getting 40% of the vote (which is interesting because we're doing neither, opting for a 2-person feast The Aerie...). Having a 4day weekend was next and the feast itself pulled up 3rd.

Interestingly, there were no votes for commonly-associated-Thanksgiving activities of watching football and Christmas shopping. And apparently, the Bluegrass State of Kentucky is where folks love that post-feast-coma. Also curious -- two more people voted in the feast question than the holiday question.

Thanks for your participation -- that was fun!

Thanksgiving Data Collection

Nov 21, 2008
15 comments

Patty recently had a post on what we thought was the best part of the Thanksgiving meal. She was collecting responses, but of course being a scientist, I want numerical data.

If you choose an “other”, please indicate it in the comments.

Data For The Meal:

Data For The Holiday:

For me, it's cranberry sauce (because I get it so rarely) and the Feast. Thanks for contributing!

Special Thursday Happy Hour – Hot, Dirty and Bleu

May 22, 2008
10 comments

It’s a holiday weekend, so why not start a little early, right? A couple of weeks ago, while we were at Lola in Cleveland, we tried one of their signature martinis -- Hot, Dirty & Bleu -- and really enjoyed it.

So, continuing the apparently recurring themes of reconstituting other restaurants drinks and a new affinity for spicy drinks, here it is:

3 oz    Vodka (and use the good-stuff)
¼ oz   Olive-brine (from the jar of olives you’re going to use as a garnish)
¼ oz   Dry vermouth
~5 drops Tabasco (or other hot sauce)

Hot Dirty Bleu

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled martini glass and serve with a skewer of bleu-cheese stuffed olives. The cold, cold martini, the salty-bleu cheese-olive taste and the spicy hot sauce are a really great mixed sensation. I recommend using a vinegar based hot-sauce (if you have one) and nothing that’s been thickened – I think it will disperse better in your drink. Also, while I'm a fan of the traditional gin-martini as well, I think hot sauce and gin sounds really terrible.

(Of course, you can make it as “hot”, as “dirty”, or as “dry” (varying the vermouth) as you like – that’s sort of the joy of martini-making…)

Bottoms-up!

QotD: Día de los Muertos

Nov 1, 2007
12 comments

Wow - either the QotD has gotten better, or my ideas for posts have gotten worse… but my idea this morning was to write about Dia de los Muertos.

Jen had a good post yesterday about Halloween and how we should let people have fun with it, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve grown more fond of Dia de los Muertos. Last year, I wrote about it some – and won’t repeat myself too much – but I’ve really grown to appreciate the way in which both life and death are commemorated in this observance.

For these days (All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day) the dead are remembered and join with the living in their favorite activities – eating, drinking, dancing, and generally having fun. It is a great way to contribute to the oral history of the family by telling some of the favorite stories of those that had passed on.

Last year, I thought about my mom a lot as she had just died the year before. This year, I’ve been thinking about my dad and what I would place at his commemorative place – I think it would be bowling paraphernalia, a radio to listen to Phillies games on, a roast turkey dinner, a couple of cans of Miller Lite, and probably a roll of duct-tape.

For me, I would want to have some tennis gear, my Eagles hat, maybe some of my scientific papers, and a bottle from the family vineyard (we're not related, but I like to pretend that we are). And of course we’d need a little music (these guys hang out on our side table this month).