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Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween to everyone ! :)
I know it's been a little while since my last update. Haven't been keeping up with my blog lately. Not all that much exciting has happened I suppose. Went into work for 1/2 a day on Saturday to take care of a few things. Then took Mike's niece to get a Halloween costume.
In the evening we went to the Hopkins Inn which is one of my favorite places to eat. It's owned by an Austrian couple so they serve a variety of Austrian dishes. I had Chicken Cordon Bleu and Eispalatschinken (Austrian crepes filled with vanilla ice cream). Sooo yummy. :) Sunday was rather uneventful. Watched a bunch of Rachael Ray and managed to write two letters.
Short mail update:Wrote letters to: Nadine/Tenerife, Kirsty/UK and Lene/UK. Received letters from/still owe replies to: Jetta/Finland, Michelle/Winnipeg, Syvil, PA, Hayley/UK, Lexi/DC, Nova/UT and Deanna/PA. I might be missing someone there. Sorry in advance. :(
Posted by Hanna at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Birthday Update
Here's a short birthday update. :) Had a really nice day on Tuesday and a really fabulous birthday. Thanks for all your lovely emails/comments/cards/gifts.
Decided to spend the day in NYC so I took the train down to the city in the morning. It's about a one-hour train ride so not all that bad really. Walked from Grand Central Station to Columbus Circle where they have the new Time Warner Center. It's a neat complex that has a Whole Foods Market, Williams Sonoma, Borders and some other stores. I love Whole Foods so spent some time in there looking at all the cool food products. Ended up getting some tea and tomato paste in a jar (call me weird - but I hate the stuff that comes in a can). Also spent some time in Borders and then walked into Williams Sonoma where they were taping a segment for the CBS Early Show. Got to see the TV anchor Hannah Storm which was kind of cool I guess. :)
Had lunch at Whole Foods. Yummy Hawaiian pizza. Then took the subway over to Herold Square. Walked around the Manhattan Mall for a bit and then explored all the floors (10 !) at Macy's. It's such a huge building. Found some bargains as well so that was good.
Took the train back to Danbury later in the afternoon and went to TK's (our favorite bar) for dinner. Had a little get together for my birthday. TK's always gives you free wings on your birthday so it pays to get older. This year I had 27 wings. :)
All my gifts were really nice too. Yay. :) Mike got me some cool Rachael Ray stuff (one of her newer cookbooks, a knife and olive oil - yes the last might seem a bit strange but I am very excited) and the new Ipod Shuffle. So awesome ! My aunt sent me two nice cook books and some money (which I already spent some of it at Macy's :) ). Two of the girls in my department got me really nice gift boxes from Yankee Candle as well. How cool ! :) My parents are spending a lot of money on me this year by covering our hotel costs when we will be in Vienna in December. So no complaints there.
Short mail update: Wrote letters to: Becki/MI, Pamela/FL, Kimber/Canada, Rachel/RI and Charmaine/Malta.
Received letters from/still owe replies to: Jetta/Finland, Lene/UK, Michelle/Winnipeg, Nadine/Tenerife and Syvil, PA. I might be missing someone there. Sorry in advance. :(
Posted by Hanna at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Autumn Hike
Another beautiful autumn day. Started the day off by getting up early (well earlier than we usually do - LOL) and heading out to Tarrywile Park. We decided to go on a nice autumn hike. And believe me we were rewarded for getting up early. :) It was so pretty out there in the woods with all the colors. There were tons of leaves on the ground which always crunch so nicely when you step on them. :) It was really a great walk. If you are interested check out the trail map - we did the Parks and Back Pond trail which is approx. 2.3 miles long.
Here's the link to the rest of the pictures. Go take a peak. :)
Spent the rest of the afternoon watching Rachael Ray on TV and writing letters. My cat Ollie was curled up on my lap, a nice mug of tea next to me, Yankee Candle "Banana Nut Bread" burning - a very cozy afternoon. :)
Gonna head out to Red Lobster in a little bit. Yum-O. :)
I would be inspired to cook after watching so much Rachael Ray but we don't have any fun ingredients at home to make a nice dinner so I'll have to wait till we go grocery shopping again. Rachael Ray made a really yummy chicken marsala on one of the shows I watched - definitely want to try that. :)
Short mail update: Wrote letters today to: Jessica/DE and Angela/VA.
Received letters from/still owe replies to: Jetta/Finland, Lene/UK, Kimber/Canada, Michelle/Winnipeg, Becki/MI, Nadine/Tenerife, Pamela/FL, intro-letters from Syvil, PA and Rachel/RI. Some day I will catch up with everyone - I promise. :)
Posted by Hanna at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Autumn Day (Yankee Candle, Cracker Barrel, .. etc.)
And a whole week has already gone by again ? How does time fly so much ?
This past week was mostly spent with watching baseball as the NY Mets were battling the St, Louis Cardinals in the NCLS to reach the entry into the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. It was a best out of 7 series and unfortunately the Mets blew it in game 7. I'm usually not that much into baseball but couldn't help but get caught up in this whole post-season frenzy glued to the TV hoping and praying they would make it. Well, there's always next year. :)
Today the birthday bash celebrations began (that's what I call all the activities I choose to do around my birthday). We went up to South Deerfield, Massachusetts to go to the Yankee Candle flagship store. I LOVE going up there. It truly is an amazing store with so much fun/cool stuff in it. I love all the things they have including the candles of course. :) It would be hard for me to decide what I love best about the store. They have an amazing home/bath/kitchen section and a really cool Christmas village with Christmas ornaments and decorations and loads more. I ended up buying a garlic infused oil, a candle (Cinnamon Appleberry), some Halloween cards and a Christmas tree ornament (a squirrel sitting on a tea cup -- so cute).
On the way back we stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch, another tradition whenever we go to Yankee Candle. :) I love going there as they have super yummy food along with a neat country store. And their chocolate cobbler is to die for ! =)
All in all it was a really nice autumn-y day, brisk blue skies, breezy, leaves blowing all around. Just so pretty. I love fall. I wish you could capture the smells and the way the air feels and have it last forever !
Short mail update: Wrote letters today to: Kirsty/UK, Nina/WA and Celia/MA.
Received letters from/owe replies to: Jetta/Finland, Lene/UK, Kimber/Canada, Michelle/Winnipeg, Becki/MI, Nadine/Tenerife, Pamela/FL, Jessica/DE, Angela/VA, intro-letters from Syvil, PA and Rachel/RI. Hope I am not forgetting anyone.
PS: We booked our flights to Vienna for December. Yay. So we will be in Austria Dec. 7th through Dec. 14th.
Posted by Hanna at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Brisk blue skies, leaves blowing around, ...
Here's a quick hello from me to update you all on my weekend. :) It has pretty much been a nice relaxed weekend. The weather has been cool but very pretty. Very fall-like. Brisk blue skies, leaves turning colors and blowing around, crunching when you step on them. :)
Yesterday, Saturday, we went to Stamford, CT to eat at Cosi. I have been wanting to eat there forever since seeing them all over NYC and Washington DC. So finally I got to eat at Cosi - yay. :) I had a super delicious grilled chicken tomato basil mozzarella melt - yummy. :) Stopped at the mall in Stamford and then on our way back at Starbucks where I had a mega yummy pumpkin spice latte. Can life get any better ?
Today has been pretty relaxing too. Watched a few of my recorded Rachael Ray shows, wrote some letters. As always watching Rachael Ray inspired me to cook so I now have some chicken marinating in the fridge for dinner later. So we will have chicken in a wine sauce (I added thyme, red crushed pepper, garlic salt, some italian seasoning and lots of crushed garlic) with some rice pilaf later.
Short mail update: So far this weekend wrote letters to: Kirsty/UK, Lexi/DC, Hayley/UK, Charles/TN, Carmen/Malta and Natalia/Poland.
Received letters from/owe replies to: Jetta/Finland, Lene/UK, Nina/WA, Melanie/Ohio, Kimber/Canada, Rebecca/FL and Michelle/Winnipeg.
Posted by Hanna at 04:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Mid-week update
Short mail update: Sent out letters to: Jessica/DE, Steff/Maine, Becki/MI, Lotte/Denmark and Celia/MA.
Received letters from/owe replies to: Charles/TN, Jetta/Finland, Lene/UK, Carmen/Malta, Kirsty/UK, Lexi/DC, Nina/WA, Melanie/Ohio, Kimber/Canada and Rebecca/FL. Hope I am not forgetting anyone.
Thought I'd do a quick update while I am waiting for Mike to finish up. Not that much new has happened since the weekend. Monday and Tuesday were a little hectic at work but not too bad. Today was really dead but knock-on-wood you never know if that's just the calm before the storm. :)
Almost finished with "Anne of Avonlea", only a few more chapters left - will probably read those tonight. I have been in a reading mood lately. Probably going to read the rest of the Anne series after I finish this one. It's nice to read about PEI. L.M. Montgomery's books have such nice descriptions of the landscape there.
Going to make tilapia for dinner tonight. Oven-baked with a crunchy basil-italian breadcrumb coating, along with some tater tots. Nothing too fancy but I'm sure it will still be yummy.
Posted by Hanna at 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Rachael Ray and PEI Pics
I am feeling so Rachael Ray at the moment. :) What does that even mean and why you may ask ? Well, let me explain. :)
Rachael Ray is my personal heroine at the moment. She's a TV personality from the Food Network famous for her 30-minute meals. She now also has a day-time talk show on ABC in addition to her shows on the Food Network. I pretty much like her cause she seems like a really friendly person and I love her easy-going approach with cooking. She doesn't really measure anything and has a very relaxed attitude when it comes to cooking. Just from watching her on TV I have learned quite a few tricks and things I would have never known or things I would have never tried otherwise.
Now back to the part of why I am feeling Rachael-esque at the moment. :) I have potatoes (flavored with rosemary, salt, pepper and olive oil) roasting in the oven along with some chicken (simmering in a wine/chicken broth/olive oil/garlic/rosemary sauce wrapped with some ham and cheese). While the dinner has been in the oven I made my lunch for tomorrow. A wrap with lemon pepper-tuna, basil and arugala along with a small tomato-mozzarella-basil salad. Yum-O !
PS: Here's the link to our pictures from Prince Edward Island. Go take a look ! :)
Posted by Hanna at 06:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
I'm sooo hungry :)
It's been a few crazy days since we got back from vacation. But I guess that's nothing too new, it always seems to be fairly crazy after we get back from a trip. Oh well I suppose.
We left P.E.I. on Sunday and headed back down to Connecticut. As we were getting closer it really started raining though and was pouring like crazy, plus it was getting dark. So we decided to stay in Kennebunkport, Maine overnight instead - yay. :) We went out for a lovely dinner at a brewpub/restaurant we know there. Monday morning we headed to work which was less fun I guess (3 1/2 hour commute - lol).
Right now I am really hungry. Didn't have breakfast and only a fairly light lunch. Silly me, I decided to make a grocery shopping list which of course is not the smartest idea when you are starving. I do have to say that I have come up with some yummy ideas for my lunches and dinners though so maybe it wasn't a bad idea after all. My shopping list includes such items as rosemary ham, fontina cheese, mozzarella cheese, spinach flavored tortillas, plum tomatoes, arugula, tazo tea and rye bread. Yum. :)
Mail Update: Sent letters out to Alex/Germany, Dee/PA and Nadine/Tenerife. Received letters from Jessica/DE, Charles/TN, Jetta/Finland, Steff/Maine, Becki/MI, Celia/MA, Lene/UK and a new intro letter. Hope I am not forgetting anyone.
Posted by Hanna at 05:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack