Hello Everyone!
I would kind of be amazed if people are still checking in to this little journal. As you can see posts started slowing down, and then kind of died out...
I am fine with that. This blog has served it's purpose. It was a great way to stay in touch with family when I was far away from home. And while I am still far away from home, having Gwyn around makes it seem much closer.
I think that trend of the past few months will continue, there will be a large lack of updates. Everything will stay here as long as Google will let me keep it up. I may post a recipe or two as they come up. But things are dying down on the Bard of Lincoln/Stained Tartan. In the future, things may start up again. We shall see.
Thanks to everyone for the support!
Monday, June 17, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Best Part of Wedding Planning!
Today Gwyn and I are doing it. We are going to go out and start the awesome process of planning the Gift Registry. I am stoked. You all should be excited too!
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Nemo Can't Keep Me Down
So some of you may know that the North East part of the US got some snow. Interestingly, here in New England, whenever 'they' worry about something they name it. So they called this one Nemo.
Starting about last Wednesday, people started freaking out. The weather forecasters were upping the accumulation rate about 4 inches every 6 hours. First it was: "There will be snow on Friday" then that moved to "There will be accumulated snow on Friday" progressing to "There will be 6 - 18 inches of snow on Friday" to "There will be 1 foot to 2 feet of snow accumulation on Friday" all the way up to "GO RANSACK YOUR GROCERY STORE! THERE IS GOING TO BE A STORM!"
In all seriousness, the last estimate on Thursday evening was 2 to 3 feet. This caused the mayor to yet again tell everyone to stay home. That was announced on Thursday. A whole 24 hours before it was even forecast-ed to start snowing. There was also a driving ban that was to start 4PM on Friday.
This meant that Gwyn and I got a great extended weekend of relaxing, eating, playing board games and watching movies! To be exact: Breakfast in local Diner, FryDay Friday, Pancakes and Eggs, Home Made Chicken/Pepperoni/Pepper/Onion/Buffalo Pizza x 2; The New Science, Twilight Struggle, Fluxx, Carcassonne, Cosmopolis (horrible movie), ThunderBall (007), Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb (as a result of playing Twilight Struggle)
On Saturday (after it dumped all night Friday to Saturday) we decided to venture out and check out what Woburn looked like in the snow.
So presented with few comments, the images from Saturday:
So this does require a little description. We got all bundled up, we got the garbage, we locked up our apartment, and we walked down our stairs to leave, to find that the snow had drifted up against our door. This meant that we could not open our outward opening door. For our apartment, this is our only way out. In an emergency, we could climb on to the building next to us, but that is not really optimal. So I asked our downstairs neighbors if they would not mind me walking through their apartment and using their back door (that exits on to ground level). They said sure, but they had not shoveled out the back yet. I did not let this hinder me. So after getting through a snow bank up to my chin, I was able to come around to the front door and dig out our door.
So all in all, I would estimate that Woburn got 8-14 inches. Now, growing up in Spokane where 6-12 inches is a heavy, but normal dumping, this may seem like very little to get excited about. But, what Nemo brought with it was wind. And a lot of wind. There was hurricane force winds the entire storm. This meant that snow did not 'dump' it drifted. That up-to-my-chin snow bank up there, was right next to a bare spot. This combination makes for interesting problems, effects. Our cars, that were in a line of other cars, parallel with the wind, had almost no snow on them. But as you saw, door were drifted shut, there was snow in our mail box, Snow between the screen and the glass of our windows, and worst of all was that as soon as you moved any snow, it would blow back to where it started.
The city of Boston also has the added struggle of dealing with parking and cars. There are too many cars, and not enough space... and that is before any storm affects things. Then add snow to that, and it could have been chaos. The officials were most worried about the Friday evening commute getting snowed in and having a city's worth of cars snowed in on the highways.
So all in all, it we were fine. At the moment, it is sunny and warm, I would guess 60%-75% of the snow has melted (it rained the last few days).
Not quite as pristine as a fresh snowy morning in Colbert, but still a fun weekend.
Starting about last Wednesday, people started freaking out. The weather forecasters were upping the accumulation rate about 4 inches every 6 hours. First it was: "There will be snow on Friday" then that moved to "There will be accumulated snow on Friday" progressing to "There will be 6 - 18 inches of snow on Friday" to "There will be 1 foot to 2 feet of snow accumulation on Friday" all the way up to "GO RANSACK YOUR GROCERY STORE! THERE IS GOING TO BE A STORM!"
In all seriousness, the last estimate on Thursday evening was 2 to 3 feet. This caused the mayor to yet again tell everyone to stay home. That was announced on Thursday. A whole 24 hours before it was even forecast-ed to start snowing. There was also a driving ban that was to start 4PM on Friday.
This meant that Gwyn and I got a great extended weekend of relaxing, eating, playing board games and watching movies! To be exact: Breakfast in local Diner, FryDay Friday, Pancakes and Eggs, Home Made Chicken/Pepperoni/Pepper/Onion/Buffalo Pizza x 2; The New Science, Twilight Struggle, Fluxx, Carcassonne, Cosmopolis (horrible movie), ThunderBall (007), Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb (as a result of playing Twilight Struggle)
On Saturday (after it dumped all night Friday to Saturday) we decided to venture out and check out what Woburn looked like in the snow.
So presented with few comments, the images from Saturday:
 |
| Powder Snow + Wind = Snow Gets Everywhere. |
 |
| A view from our Kitchen |
 |
| The back deck |
 |
| Surviving Nemo |
 |
| There is a car in that |
 |
| Only a few business were open, the convenience shop next to us was... this meant all of the now removal people would stop and get some coffee or cigarettes. |
 |
| No coffee today... |
So all in all, I would estimate that Woburn got 8-14 inches. Now, growing up in Spokane where 6-12 inches is a heavy, but normal dumping, this may seem like very little to get excited about. But, what Nemo brought with it was wind. And a lot of wind. There was hurricane force winds the entire storm. This meant that snow did not 'dump' it drifted. That up-to-my-chin snow bank up there, was right next to a bare spot. This combination makes for interesting problems, effects. Our cars, that were in a line of other cars, parallel with the wind, had almost no snow on them. But as you saw, door were drifted shut, there was snow in our mail box, Snow between the screen and the glass of our windows, and worst of all was that as soon as you moved any snow, it would blow back to where it started.
The city of Boston also has the added struggle of dealing with parking and cars. There are too many cars, and not enough space... and that is before any storm affects things. Then add snow to that, and it could have been chaos. The officials were most worried about the Friday evening commute getting snowed in and having a city's worth of cars snowed in on the highways.
So all in all, it we were fine. At the moment, it is sunny and warm, I would guess 60%-75% of the snow has melted (it rained the last few days).
Not quite as pristine as a fresh snowy morning in Colbert, but still a fun weekend.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Happy New Year!!!
This post is specifically in honor of Stan and Laura. They called me out for not posting for the entirety of December.
It is true, life tried to get in the way of logging life here in Boston. Some of the major things that were going on:
1) Christmas! Planning/traveling/gift buying/decorating/and honest to goodness vacation took up a piece of the pie
2) Thanksgiving! I know this is more of a hold over from November, but there was a lot to do for that too.
3) Engagement Stuffs. I don't like planning things. More on this later...
4) Work. Work for me is still going really well, it just got really busy as we prepared for a presentation. I was working right up to my flight to California. Now, things have gotten back to normal pace.
5) FTC. I am, apparently, in charge of putting on a qualifier for the FTC program I am helping mentor. Turns out this is much more than I could handle, and I am struggling though it. I know event planning is not one of my gifts. I don't know how I ever said yes to this... oh wait... yes I do... I didn't know I was saying yes to!
and the lamest excuse ever: I cannot put pictures up! I have had a few recipes come up, but when I go to post pictures, Google dies and Picasa throws up. So my blog writing time is eaten by picture management time.
Christmas was great! I love being home, and I love spending time with family. Awesomely for me, Gwyn got to join me! She got the grand tour of Santa Rosa and Spokane, seeing wineries, Boo Radley's, Roccy's, A Zag's basketball game, Downtown Spokane with the falls... it was great! All of the time in between was spent eating, playing games (Yeah Twilight Struggle and Ticket to Ride!) and spending time with family. Oh, and moving TVs.
Gwyn and I are in the thick of wedding planning. We are trying to get our act together to see if a 2013 wedding date is possible. Ill let you know when we know more... I have read a number of things saying that I am not supposed to say too much about the first stages for fear of hurt feelings and missed expectations... maybe I will just let Gwyn inform you all on wedding stuff. Regardless we had a wonderful party hosted by my mother in honor of our engagement when we were in Spokane. Thanks to everyone who was able to be there. And we are having a great time planning and dreaming.
It is true, life tried to get in the way of logging life here in Boston. Some of the major things that were going on:
1) Christmas! Planning/traveling/gift buying/decorating/and honest to goodness vacation took up a piece of the pie
2) Thanksgiving! I know this is more of a hold over from November, but there was a lot to do for that too.
3) Engagement Stuffs. I don't like planning things. More on this later...
4) Work. Work for me is still going really well, it just got really busy as we prepared for a presentation. I was working right up to my flight to California. Now, things have gotten back to normal pace.
5) FTC. I am, apparently, in charge of putting on a qualifier for the FTC program I am helping mentor. Turns out this is much more than I could handle, and I am struggling though it. I know event planning is not one of my gifts. I don't know how I ever said yes to this... oh wait... yes I do... I didn't know I was saying yes to!
and the lamest excuse ever: I cannot put pictures up! I have had a few recipes come up, but when I go to post pictures, Google dies and Picasa throws up. So my blog writing time is eaten by picture management time.
Christmas was great! I love being home, and I love spending time with family. Awesomely for me, Gwyn got to join me! She got the grand tour of Santa Rosa and Spokane, seeing wineries, Boo Radley's, Roccy's, A Zag's basketball game, Downtown Spokane with the falls... it was great! All of the time in between was spent eating, playing games (Yeah Twilight Struggle and Ticket to Ride!) and spending time with family. Oh, and moving TVs.
Gwyn and I are in the thick of wedding planning. We are trying to get our act together to see if a 2013 wedding date is possible. Ill let you know when we know more... I have read a number of things saying that I am not supposed to say too much about the first stages for fear of hurt feelings and missed expectations... maybe I will just let Gwyn inform you all on wedding stuff. Regardless we had a wonderful party hosted by my mother in honor of our engagement when we were in Spokane. Thanks to everyone who was able to be there. And we are having a great time planning and dreaming.
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