Hadley two days in a row! Just before this picture, she was grabbing and gumming her dad's head.

Bonus Picture!

Hadley knows that Ben's birthday is the BEST DAY EVER!

Yesterday was Ben's birthday and I had to work from 8:30-4:45 and 6:15-8:15, plus half an hour at each end for my commute. I thought I probably wouldn't get to see him much, which was sad (though considering the fact that he's on expedition for half of my birthdays, acceptable). But he ended up coming to visit my campus for the evening to have dinner with one of our favorite babies (and her parents) and watch a ski movie while I taught my career development program. At the end of the night, we decided to take one car home instead of two (since we'll go back to campus today to climb (even though I'm taking the day off from work)) and we had to drive Sarah and Indiedog home. With a person and two dogs (who were completely ignoring each other) in the back seat, I thought that it was the perfect opportunity to take a really cute picture. So, I tried a number of times, then took the head rest off my seat for some more success, and got some blurry dog pictures. But as I looked through the series, I realized that this creepy one of their glowing eyes was clearly the best.

Indie and Ollie say, "Hope you had a happy birthday, Ben!"

This is what I look like with a headache and exhaustion setting in. Last night, after dinner, I worked until 11:30 pm on stuff I just couldn't get done during the day. Today, I worked from 8:30 am - 8:30 pm. Tomorrow, same deal as today, but I also work a lunch program. Friday, I get to take the day off to celebrate Ben's birthday (a day late). Long short week.

So, we invited Abby over for dinner, and then I thought "Oh shit! What am I going to make?" So, as I was about to leave for work today, I opened the freezer, pulled out one of the chuck steaks from our farm share and poured basically everything I could find into a big bowl with it to leave it to marinate for the day. I came home and made a bunch of home made french fries, some horseradish mustard mayo and some chipotle mayo and eventually started thinking about the steak. I started cooking it about 15 minutes before Abby was to arrive. Seared it on each side for 2 minutes and then stuck it in the oven at 350. When Abby got here (with an amazing salad with lots of almonds and avocado), Ben and I realized it probably wouldn't be done for another 20 minutes or so. So we problem solved by taking it out of the oven, slicing it so that it was half the thickness and putting it on the electric grill for a couple minutes. After reading enough about chuck steaks that I was sure it was going to be inedibly chewy, I didn't expect much. But it turned out being one of the best steaks we've managed to make!

Yay to an amazing dinner with amazing people!

Snow fell outside my window at work all day and it was so pretty! But every time I looked at my car, it looked exactly how it had when I arrived. Hoping it starts accumulating soon so we can do some cross country skiing...

Ollie loves to jump up and catch snow balls! Yay for snow!!!!!

BEST MEAL EVER. 

Nick and Anna stopped in NH for a night after their trip to RI and brought us La Festa white buffalo chicken pizza. AMAZING!!!!

Also, we decided it was time to open our bottle of KATE THE GREAT. 

For those of you who don't know what Kate the Great is.... A few years ago, Portsmouth Brewery's Russian imperial stout Kate the Great got some crazy beer award, which brought a lot of attention to it. It gets released once a year in March and on our second year there, Ben and his friends went the day after release to get some and were told it had been long gone. So, the next year, they showed up before 6 am on release day and found out that bottles of beer had been sold out for hours based on the length of the line. People were in that line who had driven 12 or so hours to get there and wouldn't get bottles of beer. So, the next year, they had a new system - they sold lottery tickets way ahead of Kate the Great day and we bought 30 tickets at $2 each (the limit per person was 15) and we got one winning ticket that got us the ability to buy one bottle for $15. (Later that day, after 2/3 of a day of work, we went to the restaurant and waited on line for a while to sit and drink a couple glasses of it.) 

Anyway, tonight, we drank our $75 bottle of beer in celebration of Ben's upcoming birthday and Nick and Anna's visit. It was, in fact, great. 

Hi readers, I know it's been a few years, but I just decided I'm gonna try to restart my picture a day blog! Welcome to the day after Thanksgiving 2012. Today, I'm so thankful for the family and friends I have that make my life wonderful.

p.s. I think I'm gonna go back and add a pictures in for some of the days I've missed over the past couple years... We'll see how that goes...

We had an amazing friends Thanksgiving. I made mashed potatoes and roasted potatoes, winter squash with butter, brown sugar, and pecans, and gravy with lots of mushrooms. Ben and I collaborated to make a 10.5 pound turkey and Ben made an apple pie. Kate and Mike brought anadama bread, cranberry chutney, green bean casserole, stuffing, and an apple pie (a la Kate's mom). Sarah and Andrew brought wild rice with onions and cranberries, a pumpkin pie, and the cutest baby ever.

Ben and Andrew started off the day with a 50 mile bike ride (whoah!) while I started cooking a little earlier than I meant to because there just wasn't anything else to do. Mostly a calm day. One moment of panic when I tried to set the house on fire by turning the oven up to 500 without checking to see that there was the pan that the pie had dripped sugary goodness onto in there. The yummy burning smell told us and we got it all cooled down and heated up again in time for the turkey to go in.

Also, Ollie had his friend Sid over the whole time and a little craziness ensued (especially when Indie came over and was determined to teach them how to conduct themselves), but they had the best time ever.

This is how Ollie and I spent the day before Thanksgiving. Transcribing for six hours in pajamas.

One of my colleagues came to my office today and asked if I had seen all the sparkling lights. I didn't know what to expect, but she brought me to this door that neither of had ever seen before which seems to be where we keep THE INTERWEBS (it's a series of tubes). Best Day Ever.

Quick overnight visit from Nick, Anna, and Birch on their way from Canada to Rhode Island. What a cute little guy!

Hanging out with my favorite baby girl friend at the climbing wall

I got Ollie this cheap ($4?) flashy light from Steep and Cheap a couple years ago. Then we left it out the table and now it's all done. Whoops.

Ollie is sometimes innovative in his use of couches.

Headed back on an epic (19 hour?) trip from Madison, Wisconsin back home....

Debriefing the AEE International Conference in Madison.

Marion drives while Ben climbs at the Madison Children's Museum, where AEE had its 40th birthday party. We had SO MUCH FUN.

We had 20 people at Thursday Night Dinner in Madison!