Getting Our Maryland House Painted Inside

We hired a company to paint the entire interior of our house while we are still up in Maine, so we won't be around to see how they make the sausage. They were also repairing the many many many cracks in the walls and ceilings. They sent us a couple teasers to show their progress. They finished on Friday and we can't wait to return to see the final results. We are planning on driving back down again soon.

 

Thanksgiving Diary

 Shane and I spent Thanksgiving alone together in Maine with Dinah, our puppy. We had a nice dinner, which I find are a lot of work and then the meal is over before you know it. The weather today is horrible... cold and rainy all day. I did manage to do a 5K turkey trot on my treadmill this morning. 

We did watch some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but was reminded why we don't like it. It is just one ad after another promoting this show or product and then it goes to commercials. There were a few things we did enjoy... the Gay Pride Parade marching band, and a scene from the Broadway show, Jagged Little Pill, which we had tickets to before the Pandemic caused all of Broadway to close till who knows when...

I took Dinah for a walk in the rain midmorning. Shane was up bright and early making his apple pie.  We had turkey breast with a raspberry sauce, mashed potatoes, Mac and Cheese, glazed carrots and yeast rolls. Below are some pics of our day today.

A Thanksgiving Miracle!

 Today is Thanksgiving in the USA. Our family gathering today will consist of just Shane and myself. We are staying home and cooking a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving meal. We are having turkey, but we're not cooking a full turkey. I bought turkey breast slices, which I will basically fry, but will make a bit better by adding a raspberry sauce. We'll also have mashed potatoes (microwave), stuffing (Stovetop), glazed carrots, macaroni and cheese, and yeast rolls. It is a very starchy, unhealthy meal, but it's Thanksgiving, so it is fine. 

The best part of the meal is dessert. Shane will be making an apple pie from scratch this morning. Apple pie isn't my favorite, but his apple pies are usually very delicious. We have good vanilla ice cream and whipped cream also. 

My favorite item for Thanksgiving is pumpkin pie. Our local grocery store here in Maine offer very good "Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pies" for just $2.99! I know they are good because this isn't the first one I've purchased this season. I have never made a pumpkin pie myself, but know it wouldn't be much better than these $2.99 pies. And these $2.99 pies are a lot less trouble. Anyone who knows me knows I like a bargain, and in my book being able to get such a delicious dessert for under $3 qualifies as a Thanksgiving miracle. 

It's a rainy, dreary day here in Maine today. We'll be watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV and I will try to offset our meal with a run on the treadmill. 

We do have so much to be thankful for this year. We are alive and healthy (but somewhat less healthy after today's meal). It looks like our president's days in office are numbered, next year will be better with the hope of vaccines, and we will soon have a new president that isn't insane. 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating! 

Our Dog Dinah... The Early Months

 Wow! I was so surprised that I got three comments on yesterday's post after 7 months of not posting anything. Thanks to everyone who provided comments! To be fair, posting a pic of the new puppy is hard to resist. We love Dinah more than I thought possible. I thought I would post more pictures of her. First up are the early months. These are from Many and June of this year. We think she is beyond adorable. 

Some more info about Dinah: Her father was a Golden Doodle and her mother is our friend's Labradoodle, Elenor, who we have babysat in the past. The seven puppies were born on March 15, the Ides of March. We got Dinah about 8 weeks later in May. Because of the pandemic, we were not able to visit the pups until about a week before we took her home. Dinah was the smallest of the litter and looks the least like a doodle than any of her brothers and sisters. We were hoping she wasn't going to be a shedder, but it looks like she will be. At least we'll save money on grooming. She is the most Golden looking pup of the litter.  

Dinah and me the first day we met.

Dinah's first lobster.

Dinah on our stone bench in the front yard.

Dinah just being Dinah.

Her ET moment. Most of these toys are now destroyed.

Cuddling with Shane.

Overdue Update

It is apparent that I am fairly horrible at keeping a blog. The first clue is that I haven't posted since forever.

Since my last post, we got our puppy, Dinah, and she is awesome. We have continued doing our radio show... a three hour eclectic music show on Tuesdays. We bought a house in my hometown of Rising Sun, MD, which needed lots of work. So we have been busy. 

It would be impossible to do a complete update of everything that has happened in the last 7+ months, so I'll just leave you with those highlight right now. Above is Dinah at 8 months. She just had her operation to remove her lady parts on Tuesday, so she has been recovering from that. Luckily she has been doing extremely well. Yay!

Our Trip to NYC to See Betty Buckley at the Carlyle

Shane and I in New York's Central Park in front of Bethesda Fountain. 

For Christmas, I gave Shane tickets to see Betty Buckley perform at the Cafe Carlyle in New York City. Little did I know when booking the tickets that there would be a world pandemic going on at the time, but we went anyway hoping that it would still happen.

We had planned to drive down after our radio show at WERU on Tuesday, but because we had been out of state already on our cross-country trip, the radio station had asked that we not come in out of an abundance of caution. There are lots of older people that volunteer there, so they didn't want to take any risks. We get it.

Instead, we still left on Tuesday, but were able to get an earlier start. We stayed Tuesday night with Shane's step-sister Cherri, her son Austin and her daughter Meredyth in Connecticut. It was great to see them and they made us an amazing dinner! It was a turkey lasagna in a cream sauce. So good!

Wednesday morning we headed for the big city. We drove in and eventually found a place to park (York and 87th), which was no where near our hotel. Oh, did I not mention we stayed at the Carlyle Hotel? We did, and it was amazing. Luckily, I had booked it when I got the tickets in November, so it was a relatively good deal. We took a cab from our parking place to the Hotel and 76th and Madison.

The Carlyle Hotel

The Carlyle is really a wonderful hotel. They could not have been nicer. The only downsize of course is that you are constantly giving tips and everything there is crazy pricey. We were treating ourselves and splurged a bit. The Stockmarket was falling like a rock and the world seems to be ending, so what the hell.

Shane in the lobby of the Carlyle Hotel

The Carlyle had huge arrangements of Forsythias in the lobby too.

We were escorted to our room and what a room! It was beautiful. If you ever want to pretend you have lots of money, this is the place to go. Below are some pics of our room.

The bar in our room was beautiful, but we didn't dare use any of the items after we saw the pricelist.

The bathroom was spectacular and the shower was worth the price of the room. 

Shane admires the view of the park from our room. 

Even our room had some of the Bemelman artwork. 

Before dinner, we first had a drink at the Carlyle piano bar, Bemelman's. It was very swanky. We first sat at the bar, but then moved to a table to get a better view of the pianist. It was very old New York with the piano man playing Sinatra standards and art by Ludwig Bemelman, who did the classic Madeline books. His art was everywhere in the bar.

I had an Old Fashioned. 

With Nicole at Flex Mussels.

We made plans to meet my niece, Nicole for dinner at a restaurant on the Upper East Side. She lives in NYC and it was a perfect chance to get to see her. We had planned to go downtown, but decided avoiding the subway might be a good idea, so we went to Flex Mussels, a seafood restaurant on the Upper East Side, near where Nicole lives. We had been to the Flex Mussels downtown previously, so we knew it was good. We had the Mussels with Thai sauce, which was so good. After dinner we decided to see if Brandy's was open. It is a piano bar just a few blocks away. It was open, but nearly deserted. We had to wait for a bit before the pianist arrived, but had a great night of drinking and live music. More people eventually arrived after the piano player got there. Brandy's is a super fun place and if you are ever on the UES, I highly recommend.

As you can see, we were feeling no pain at Brandy's Piano Bar. You may also notice someone suffered a wine spill. 

We slept in a bit the next morning (Thursday), but eventually got up and went out to a diner for a big breakfast. It was more like lunchtime, but we had breakfast. We then walked over to Central Park and then back to the Carlyle.

Flowers blooming in Central Park

Visiting with Hans-Christian Andersen in Central Park

We were nervous our show at the Carlyle Cafe with Betty Buckley would be canceled, as that was also the day they cancelled all Broadway shows for a month. Luckily, the show went on and it was so much fun. We had amazing seats. The Cafe Carlyle is a very small venue and it was only about half filled. If you aren't familiar with Betty Buckley, she is a Tony-winning Broadway star who was in the original version of Cats, starred on Eight Is Enough ad Dick Van  Patton's wife, and has been in numerous musicals and movies. Staying at the Carlyle and getting to see a living legend in the Carlyle Cafe was a bucket list item for both Shane and I, so we are so glad we did it.

Inside the Cafe Carlyle. This was taken from our seat and Betty stood at the podium to sing. Amazing seats!

Friday, we got up and had breakfast in the breakfast room of the Carlyle. We were told it was a continental breakfast, so we thought we would just grab a muffin or something. That's not how it works at the Carlyle. We were seated and waited on. We ordered eggs and bacon and it was all beautiful and very posh. There are fresh flowers everywhere and multiple waiters giving amazing service. It was like living in a dream.

Unfortunately, the dream had to end. We checked out Friday morning and went from living in a dream to a dreary and rainy day. We took a cab back to our car and drove back to Maine. The rain only stopped as we arrived at our home in Stonington Friday evening. We made a couple of stops to get some groceries. Now we are back home and plan to hunker down for a couple weeks.

Stay safe everyone!

Hiking Down to Ames Pond

The other day I posted about stealing forsythia branches from a neighbor's home, the late artist Stephen Pace. I posted several of his paintings, including a couple that depicted Ames Pond, also called the Lily Pond on my road in Stonington, Maine. Today, I took a walk down to the pond and took some pictures. Of course, during this time of the year there are no lilies. There are sometimes deer and beavers to be seen and plenty of evidence that there is wildlife there. It has been a relatively mild winter and the ice is already melting on the pond. It was a beautiful warm and peaceful evening. I barely needed a jacket. It was nice to get away from the bad news of the day.

The ice is melting in the distance.

Our beavers are safe from trapping.

The piles of sticks are the beavers' dams.

Guess Who's A Maine State Delegate for Biden?

Shane at the Deer Isle/Stonington Caucus today. 

Today, Shane and I attended the Caucus in Deer Isle/Stonington, which took place at the Deer Isle Town Hall. On Tuesday, we voted as part of Super Tuesday, and the caucus today chose the delegates that will be going to the Maine State Democratic Convention. Only six people participated in the caucus from Stonington and two of them were Shane and I.

The vote in Stonington was split evenly between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Since Stonington gets four delegates to the state convention, Shane and I volunteered (and elected by default) to be the Biden delegates for Stonington. The convention is in Bangor over Memorial Day Weekend. Go Joe!!

Voting and Stealing Forsythia Branches

We are settling back in on the coast of Maine. I'm still fighting this damn cold, so I'm mostly resting and taking it easy. We did get out briefly yesterday and vote in Maine's Super Tuesday Primary. Then we spent most of the evening watching the results of the voting. We both voted for Joe Biden, as we think he has the best chance of beating Trump. It seems to me good news that most of the candidates are rallying around and supporting Joe. It isn't that I have anything against Bernie, but I just don't think he can do anything he promises. Joe is a decent man and it would be nice to have a president who is a decent man again. With that said, if Bernie does win the nomination, I will vote for him. I hope the BernieBots feel the same way.

Today, I had to get out of the house, so I decided to walk up the street and steal some cuttings from a neighbor's forsythia bush. I would ask the neighbor if the minded if I took some of their branches, but nobody is currently living there.

It is the Stephen Pace House. He was a pretty famous American painter whose summer home is a few doors up from where I currently live. Pace bequeathed his summer home to the Maine College of Art as a gallery and artist residency. Artists live there from June-September and you can go inside and see some of Pace's art on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the summer. Shane and I did go once and talked to one of the artist living there. Below are the bare branches I stole this morning. I hope in a few days they will be beautiful blooming sticks.

The Stephen Pace House in Stonington, Maine.

The scene of the crime. You can see the large Forsythia bush behind the house in this shot.There are plenty of branches to spare.

Anyway, nobody is living at the Pace House at the moment and there is a large, Forsythia bush is the backyard. I'm certain Mr. Pace wouldn't mind, though I never had the pleasure of meeting him. He died years before we moved here. We purchased our house from the family of Perry Hunter, who used to live here before he died. Apparently Pace and Hunter were friends, as Pace gave Hunter one of his paintings and also a signed coffee table book of his art. Both items came with our house when we purchased it.

This painting by Stephen Pace came with the contents of the house we bought in Stonington.

Below are more examples of Pace's art. He had a pretty interesting life. He served in World War II where he designed posters for the Army and was later injured. After the war, he went to Paris to paint and met Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso. He has had his painting exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York among others. The lily pond paintings below is of the lily pond down our road. 

Days 26 & 27 - More Mom & then Heading Home

We spent Saturday with my mom. It was really a rest day to prepare for our last leg of our trip. My niece Megan came over in the evening, and my sister Kathleen (her mom) visited and we made pork chops for dinner. Megan is getting married in the spring and it was great to catch up with her. Earlier in the day, my older brother, Gary, stopped by also.

Today, we left a little after 6 am from Rising Sun, MD, and we are heading north. I'm writng this on my phone in the car on the NJ Turnpike. We are hoping to get back to Stonington before sunset. it will be good to get home. I've had enough of riding in the car. The last few days with this cold has not been fun either.

Right now as I publish this it is 7:50 am and we are at mile 87.4 of the NJ Turnpike. We are streaming Sunday Morning Coffeehouse on WERU. Will update with news later.

Update: 8:10 am: passing NYC.

Update 8:45 am: As we enter Connecticut, we have returned to New England! Only about 7 or 8 more hours to go...

Update: 10:39 am

Update: 12:14 pm

Today's Final Update: WE MADE IT HOME!!! We left Rising Sun, MD, about 6;05 a.m. this morning and arrived home in Stonington, Maine at 3:45 p.m. That was record time for us... 9 hours and 40 minutes. We have never made it back from my mom's in under 10 hours before. It has taken more than 13 hours before when traffic was bad. It was a Sunday and there was no traffic, so we flew. Shane drove the whole way Thank God, cause I have this F'ing cold that makes me feel like crap. Below is us in our driveway with the Atlantic Ocean behind us. The journey is complete. 

Now we get to do the fun part of unpacking and we have loads of laundry to do, although we did do some laundry during our travels. We are so happy to finally be back home. Dorothy was right. There is no place like home. Below is the map of our travels today.