Life Changing...

Could it be true? This shirt seems to have magical powers!

http://www.amazon.com/Three-T-Shirt-Available-Various-Sizes/product-reviews/B000NZW3IY/ref=cm_cr_pr_link_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0

Sooo hilarious!!!

My dad

My dad is always finding funny objects around the house and making things out of them. One recent example: modifying a Jack Ball. Little background: every time I go to California I make a stop to Jack in the Box to stock up on Jack Balls, antenna toppers with Jack from Jack in the Box on them. My brothers and I love to have the Jack Ball antenna toppers. The reason I am constantly needing more is either they get old and lose eyes, mouths, etc or people steal them! Thats right people are constantly stealing the things even though there are no Jack in the Box restaurants around here and I doubt if anyone even knows what that is. Sigh. So anyway, the last time I got Jack balls they were selling beanie jack-with jack wearing a beanie-or a hat with a propellar on it. So, my dad decided to fix it so that the beanie actually spins on its own. Here's a video I took of it.

hehe...hopefully you can see the spinning propellar well enough. Just a funny thing I thought I'd share :)

New Beginnings

With the trees finally starting to bud it makes it even easier to tell which ones died in the ice storm. We have a bunch that are goners-which is going to be a huge job getting them cleared away. nice

And I decided to start playing guitar. Its been pretty fun so far. My brothers have been pretty helpful (two of them play). And Matt has allowed me full use of his acoustics ( below) :)

One of the things I'll (hopefully) be doing this summer

Im signed up to instruct a class this summer as part of a kids camp type program on campus called Kids on Campus. Its basically an enrichment program that gives students exposure to the campus as well as allows them to enroll in a wide variety of classes. The class Im teaching is geared towards 7th to 9th graders. I figured I would include a link to the programs website-the following link will take you to the page that displays the description of the course Im teaching. :)

http://keeneweb.org/ksckids/2009/02/17/classes-suggested-for-seventh-through-ninth-grades/

And this is the link for my bio :)

http://keeneweb.org/ksckids/category/faculty-biographies/

Im really excited but of course all of this is dependent on enrollment so hopefully I will get lots of kids to sign up for my class! :)

Cathedral of the Pines

One of the things that is becoming apparent with the melting of all the snow is just how many trees split/died/cracked/fell down during the ice storm. Its really staggering. Lining all the streets are the limbs that people have cleared from their land.

One place that was particularly hard hit is the Cathedral of the Pines. And its a shame because it was such a beautiful place before. It still is, but what with all the trees theyve had to clear out, it really has lost something.This is what the Cathedral looked like three years ago. If you look close you can see all the trees surrounding the monument. Those were trees in the clearing/sanctuary part.

This is the sanctuary now. You can see where theyve had to dig up the trees.And a bulldozer that was working on clearing.

It really is a shame. Makes me sad.

Still the most amazing view. And still my favorite place in Rindge.That is Mt. Monadnock in the background.

New cam!

So-with the money the government so graciously returned to me this year I was able to pay off my credit card, put some toward savings and....buy a new camera! I just received it in the mail today. I really wanted a camera with a good zoom on it that I could use to take good outdoor pics. Im going to be going to Yosemite this summer-and just really wanted a good camera for that-as well as any other outdoor activities. I went with the Kodak easyshare-my old camera is a kodak and I really like the company-their software is so easy to use. Plus its American. Gotta help domestic sales!

So today it was such a beautiful day I went out and experimented with taking some pics down our street. Here are a few I took.

down our street

these names mean something...

A creek down the street from us

barn-down our street

and this is my fave! tulips!

Easter: or Authentic Italian in Dublin, NH!

DelRossi's Trattoria, Dublin

For a while now, my brothers and I have been trying to make it to DelRossi's Trattoria in Dublin, NH. We all have such different schedules, and its been hard trying to coordinate the trip. Easter Sunday gave us a good excuse to go-since most of us were off for the day.

I had heard about DelRossi's, and it seemed to have a good reputation-and then one day my brother Matt told me he knew the chef-since he is a regular customer at the Dunkin' Donuts where my brother works.

Even though the idea was partly Matt's I have to admit I was a little afraid about going with my little brothers. Especially since for one of them (not naming names ;) ) a good meal consists of easy fries and stoufers microwaveable mac n cheese. And the other-doesnt even like spaghetti. Knowing that there certainly would not be any hamburgers, fries, or mac n cheese on the menu-I was a little nervous that there would be complaints, especially since we were all paying for ourselves.

However, I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone found something on the menu. There were no complaints, and we had a great dinner with good conversation. Case in point: When my mom ordered lamb chops she mentioned that she had never eaten that particular meat before. Matt responded by asking what she was talking about-he always remembered her making it? None of us know how he got this idea, and we tried to convince him otherwise. I told him that he used to WATCH lamb chop on TV, but we never ate it. haha...I dont know where he gets these things.

At any rate, I was pleased by the food as well. There was an ad in the paper displaying what the selection for Easter dinner would be. I was excited to see Saltimbocca alla Romana on the list. I love Saltimbocca. When I got to the restaurant however and saw how they prepared it I was a little worried. They put peas in it-for some reason. And they cook it along with pecorino romano cheese and pour it over fettucine. Now, I dont want to sound like a food snob-but Ive had Saltimbocca alla Romana-in Rome-multiple times- and Ive never had it like that. I know there are variations on how to cook it-but I was still iffy.

my saltimbocca

I ended up ordering the Saltimbocca-without peas-and it was good! I was happy about it. And my brothers all liked their meals as well. And my mom also liked her lamb chops. I must say I tried a bite and it was indeed good. We joked that my brother Frankie had veal and my mom had lamb chops. All the baby animals. dying for us. We are so mean. :(

moms lamb chops

At any rate, we all agreed that it was a good restaurant and a great experience. And we all agreed we would definitely like to go back. Except Frankie who said it was too pricey: we went to a restaurant in the North End once that was really good, and about half the price. I will agree that there are a lot of great restaurants in the North End that are cheaper-(depending on when you go)-and just as good-but still. I think it was worth it.


So that was Easter. Afterwards, we just went home and just hung out. Matt went into work for a couple hours where-funnily enough-the chef he knows came in. They talked, and the chef said we shouldve told him we were there. hehe...

matts food