We've got Flair

I know, I know…it’s been forever since I have updated. Life has just been busy. Anyways, a lot of stuff has happened since I last wrote so let’s get too it.

Jeremy and I competed in our first bonspiel at curling. A bonspiel is basically a tournament and the group we play with were stoked to play the girls against boys. Unfortunately the curling club put us all into teams, so we couldn't have our duel. The good news was, Jeremy’s team and my team both won our games and therefore won our first curling pin. We now pin our flair onto our shirts when we play and practice. It’s pretty awesome! The curling club had a Christmas party as well. There was curling, food, and fun. We did the Yankee gift exchange and I came home with a fabulous pair of Lamb Chop slippers, although Gideon and scary Judy kept trying to steal them from me. Not to worry, I prevailed!! The curling season has come to an end for me, but Jeremy has decided to continue on with the sport. I will now plan on being the team’s cheerleader along with another wife/friend. I just decided I do not like being cold, although I am SO glad I tried such a random sport. Here are some pictures from when our guys vs. girls grudge match actually happened. The boys handed us our asses on a platter...it wasn't fun.

preparing to throw

the release

the winners

the losers...they made us smile

We had our first big snow storm a couple weeks ago. In Fairfield we got about 6-8 inches. It was really pretty, but very scary to drive home in. I left work early to avoid the major snow, but Jeremy got stranded in New Haven because the trains stopped running. Here are pictures from when it started from our back porch.

Since it has been the holiday season, we went to our fair share of holiday parties. The best party by far was the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Jeremy and I could not for the life of us fine ugly sweaters to buy. I looked everywhere—department stores, thrift shops, colleagues…so my bright idea was to make our own. I went to Michael’s and got the corniest Christmas décor I could find and the results were pretty amazing. What can’t hot glue do? We really thought our sweaters were the best. I also had a pair of antlers (pays to work for event companies) and a work pal lent me her light up Christmas light earrings. The earrings really completed my look. During dinner I decided that what my outfit really needed was a wind blowing machine to follow me around so it could blow my hair back and show off these fabulous earrings. Michael and Gideon decided to take on that job. I think their hard work really paid off and made me the belle of the ball. My sweater got more than one use out of it…I wore it Christmas morning. It was so festive I just had to show it off one more time.

Our lovely sweaters

Wind Machine in action

Christmas was really great, my mom came out to visit and I did what any good daughter would do…put her to work! I have been super busy at work preparing for our conference happening in Prague, so on Christmas Eve my mom got to come to work and help me out. Slave labor! Not really, she helped me check some lists and we went to lunch and then the day was pretty much done. After we got home from work I started preparing to make dinner. This was my first Christmas cooking a meal. This is a big deal considering I never use to cook and told my mom I was going to marry a chef and therefore I would never have to cook for her. Well, my mom finally got her wish…Christmas Eve dinner a la Angela. I decided to make a mushroom risotto and let me tell you…it was AMAZING! I’m not just tooting my own horn; this meal could have been sold in a restaurant…seriously! It did take forever to make so I was really happy it came out so good. Jeremy cooked for her on Christmas day…He made a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and Brussels. It was really good too, but not as good as the risotto!

New Year’s Eve is tomorrow and we plan on going to a party in New Haven. It should be fun and then I leave for Prague on New Year’s Day. I will be gone until January 12th, so once I get back I will be sure to post some pictures.

I have also deleted my vegan blog, not because I'm not eating vegan anymore...I just don't have time to keep up the two blogs. Sorry to anyone who was riveted.

Pie Palooza

Last weekend was the 1st annual Pie Palooza at the Schacalieu house. Pie Night is a tradition of Jeremy's family. They all get together the night before Thanksgiving and everyone brings a pie. We thought it would be fun to get our friends together and have our own pie night early since we will be in Sacramento for Thanksgiving.

Everyone was really pumped to make pies. I had also planned to give out prizes for the best sweet, best savory, and most creative pies. There was some intense competition in the air. We had cards for everyone to write what kind of pie they brought and I made ballots and a voting box so that after everyone was done pie tasting they could vote.

I belive there was about 15 pies on our kitchen table. It was pretty impressive. We had everything from sushi pie to apple pie. All of the pies were very tasty too. Jeremy made an apple pie and I made an avocado enchilada pie. After the votes we tallied we gave out the awards....golden wooden spoons!

The winners were:
Best Sweet: Crapple Pie (cranberry-apple)
Best Savory: Sushi Pie (Eugenia was expecting to take this award & most creative)
Most Creative: Butt Pie (the pie was actually shaped like a butt and chocolate was coming out of the crack)

After the pie portion of the evening, the dance party started. At some point along the night, someone thought it would be fun to start some shenanigans. The next morning I realized that my Mr. Potato Head had been kidnapped!!! We sent out a missing flyer on Sunday. Yesterday, I received a ransom note in the mail, Mr. Potato Head's ear and pictures of him with a duct-taped mouth and his hands are missing.

From the pictures, some people are now more suspect than others. The ransom note said that instructions would follow. I will keep you all updated on the whereabouts of Mr. Potato Head. The people who have done this should be warned that they will have hell to pay. They have opened a bag of worms!!!

Officially a Nutmegger

So I took a day off on Friday so that Jeremy and I could finally make it to the DMV. This would be our 3rd DMV attempt. The first attempt ended in getting lost…damn google map! We were pretty peeved since we had to wake up early on a Saturday. Our second try was on another Saturday, but because of Presidents Day the coming Monday, the DMV was closed. Yes, DMV employees already have Monday off so when the holiday fell on a Monday they needed to take Saturday off. UGH!!! On this last attempt, we got to the DMV (first in line actually) and they opened on time. Things were starting off on the right foot this time! That is until we actually started the process. We told the man behind the counter that we were from out of state and needed a CT driver's license. He then asked for our ID and a bill or letter mailed to our address proving where we lived. SPEED BUMP. I said, "what?" He told us we had to have a piece of mail and I just about lost it. If I was a cartoon, steam would have been coming out of my ears. The very nice DMV man gave us the papers we needed to fill out and told us we would also need a passport or birth certificate as well. I was SO pissed! Of course, I had just cleaned the car out and got rid of any mail that may have been lying around. So, we drove home...me cursing, Jeremy not saying a word.



Alright, so I calmed down on the ride back to the DMV. Fourth time would be a charm, right?!? So we got there, got back in line...to our amazement there really was no line. Got all of our paperwork started and then we had to go and wait for our eye test. The only test we had to do was the eye test. Well, let me tell you....this is where all the waiting came. They only had one person doing the eye test and after he did one test, he went on a coffee break. We never saw him again and some other guy took over. After waiting a half hour, Jeremy got called up. I figured I would be next. Ten minutes later...I was still waiting, 20 minutes later...I was still waiting and Jeremy already had his new license. This sucked since we had to go wait in another line to register the car and since the car is in my name only Jeremy couldn't do it. 30 minutes later...still waiting. I actually met the girl next to me who was also from San Diego. 35 minutes later my name was finally called. Passed the eye test (guess that corrective surgery worked!) and went to sit and wait to get my picture taken. This took another 30 minutes. Just waiting while a whole line of people who were in a different line got their pictures taken. I met another girl from Hawaii. We joked about all the lines and how completely absurd this process was. She said in Hawaii they do it all in one line. So you wait and then after you get up to the counter you are done. Finally I got my ID. The girl I met from SD still wasn't done with her eye test.

Oh! I forgot the BEST part about the CT drivers license. So you pay a certain amount depending on your birthday. You either pay $66 and your license is good for 6 years or you pay $77 and the license is good for 7. Of course, Jeremy, the man who brought us here...away from everyone and everything...gets to pay the $66. I get screwed and have to pay $77. Add it to the list for ridiculous things in Connecticut. Damn nutmeggers!

When we originally came in with all of our forms we had everything for the car registration so they started processing that and we got a "jet pass". You would think having this "jet pass" would be like an express line. Maybe at Disneyland, but not at the Norwalk DMV. All this meant was that we waited in another line. It was a different line from everyone else, but as soon as we got in line, one of the 3 people working there went on break. We only had to wait about 15 minutes in this line, so I guess it wasn't that bad. walked out with our new license plates thanking the good lord that we would never need to go back there. Hopefully the Saturn makes it through this CT venture...otherwise we will have to go back.

Our new favorite sport

Recently, Jeremy and I were introduced to the amazing sport of curling. Eh? What's that you say? What the heck is curling?

Just in case you don't know, curling is an Olympic winter sport. You know...that funny looking game where they yell and are brooming while a circle thing goes down the ice? Yep, that is curling.

Now, I know you are wondering how in the hell we discovered curling. It all started when a new post-doc (Wendy) joined Jeremy's lab. Wendy is married to Michael and they use to live in Michigan where Michael was in a curling league. Upon moving to New Haven, Michael looked up the nearest curling league and lo and behold there was one in Bridgeport. Michael then convinced Jeremy and two other guys from Jeremy's lab to join his curling team. Quickly team names were discussed, among the favorites were...Sparkle Magic, My Little Ponies, and The Sweeping Beauties. Of course, they went with Sweeping Beauties. Face it...it's an awesome name!

So the boys were all geared up to join this curling league before ever stepping foot on the ice. Then one night, Wendy, Christen and myself decided that we wanted in on the action. The Nutmeg Curlers (the league in Bridgeport) was having a learning night. You could come, learn to curl, and then decide if you wanted to join the league. We didn't have a clever name yet, but were ready to try out this strange Canadian sport.

On a Thursday evening, not long ago...the group of us headed to Bridgeport. It didn't take long for all of us to realize that the sport of curling is awesome and we were ready to join the league!

On our first night we learned the basics of curling. The round thing that slides on the ice is called a "rock". When you are sweeping with a broom that is called "sweeping" (duh). The piece of plastic that you put your right foot in when preparing to slide the rock is called "the hack". The bulls eye design where you push the rock to is called the "house". The person standing down at the house yelling is called "the skip".

The basics of curling were pretty easy to pick up, but the finesse and strategy are truly complicated. The rock flies pretty fast down the ice, so finding the perfect balance of releasing it takes a lot of time to perfect.

Of course, after our trial of curling we all decided to join the league. We are now in the Greenhorn League of the Nutmeg Curlers. On Thursday nights and Saturday mornings you will find us on the ice. I (of course) am the only one freezing my ass off! I am hoping that once we start playing games I won't be as cold.

There have been a few tumbles on the ice so far. On your shoes you wear "grippers" that keep you from falling. When you are getting ready to throw the rock you put a piece of teflon shaped like the bottom of your shoe onto the ice and then you really slide fast. I was getting use to the teflon and decided to lift my gripper foot up...let me just tell you...I saw my feet go above my head before I crashed down onto the ice. My rear was quite a bit sore the next day!

Due to work I am forced to miss my first Thursday of league play, so I will have to let you know how that goes in a couple of weeks. It is great to be a part of a team and have some fun while meeting some new people and bonding more with the people we already know. It is also pretty cool to be doing a sport that not many people can say they have tried.

So there you have it, we have a new favorite sport. Maybe we will start training for the Olympics soon! ha ha!

Kickin it NE syle

A couple of weekends ago we invited our friends Phin & Carla to come down from New York so we could embrace the fall of New England and go apple picking.
There are a lot of u-pick farms here and this seemed like a lovely fall activity. Of course we added some healthy competition to the festivities by having an apple pie bake off after we picked about 20 pounds of apples.

The apple farm was really fun. We took a little tractor ride and the dropped us off in the apple orchard. There were a few different varieties of apples to choose from and everyone knows that an apple pie is only as good as the apples you put in it.

Jeremy ate about 3 apples while we were picking and they were all delicious! We had our game plan in place for picking the best apples, as did Phin & Carla. We went our separate ways in the orchard to find our prize apples.

Here are some pictures that re-cap the afternoon.

Once we got back to our house, the real competition began. Jeremy and I went with an old fashioned, no frills apple pie. Phin & Carla went with a fancier recipe that required a skillet, food processor, and all kinds of ingredients...apple cider, maple syrup.

While the pies were baking we played some horseshoes in the backyard. I have to say...I really suck at horseshoes. We would interrupt the game to check on the pies periodically. Phin was running up the stairs to check on his pie when the outside banister came crashing down. Phin put it back up and continued up the stairs (This piece of information isn't of much interest now, but it will be as you read on).

Here are the pictures of our pies. Our pie is the top one and Phin & Carla's is the bottom pie.


After dinner we had the official taste test. Although I we did not agree on a clear cut winner, my decision is that our filling was better, but their crust was better.

Sunday was a pretty typical day. We just relaxed and went to Best Buy to get a universal remote. We haven't been able to watch any of our VHS because the TV we got from Craigslist doesn't have a remote, so we can't get to channel 3. We had a gift certificate that we forgot, so I ran into the house to get it. As I was running up the stairs, the banister broke. I fell onto the stairs and slid down about 5 steps. It hurt pretty bad and it sounded even worse. I'm surprised my fall didn't break the rest of the stairs. Jeremy laughed when I told him I fell and called me Boomer, but this fall was not the result of my clumsiness (as most of my falls are). I blame Phin. He is a one man destroyer. I know Phin felt super bad when he found out and I'm sure I looked ridiculous. Jeremy and I were laughing about it.

So...that is the story of apple picking. Our day kickin' it New England style!

The Schacalieu Shack

Here are pictures (finally!) from our humble abode...

Here is the view of our street complete with fall colors.

Outside

The kitchen

Looking towards the kitchen from the living room

Where all the DVD watching takes place

The magic box

The office/Jeremy's sacred place

Side view of the hallway and entrance to bathroom

The glorious ikea dresser that Jeremy built

Where we lay our heads at night

Prize Idiot

If there were an Olympics for the stupidest things people can do...I would win the gold metal!!! Before I get to explaining how my actions would win me the gold metal at the Stupid Olympics, let me tell you about the weekend.

Like I said last week, we would be trying to get to the DMV this Saturday. Well, we set our alarm so we could wake up early and get there a bit before DMV opened. We got to the DMV about 15 minutes before it opened, which was 8 AM along with a few other people. The line kept growing and at about 2 minutes before 8AM, no lights had been turned on inside. The natives started getting restless and one man went up to the door (the other people at the front of the line could either not read or were blind) and saw a sign that the DMV would be closed this Saturday. Why, you ask...good question...two words...Columbus Day. But you say to yourself, "Wasn't Columbus Day on Monday?" To which I reply, "Yes, but apparently the DMV is closed every Monday, so to insure they got a day off, they closed on Saturday." So our rising out of bed early on Saturday morning was for nothing.

Saturday was a beautiful day, it was about 70 outside and just gorgeous. Jeremy and I walked into town and ate lunch outside. When we got back home Jeremy had to do some work, so I made some vegan pumpkin muffins and then decided to take a drive to explore Fairfield some more. This is where the Stupid Olympics come into play.

On my way home from my drive about town, we were low on gas and I decided to fill up our tank. We had a party to go to that evening and I just figured, might as well. This was my fatal mistake...or my road to gold...you be the judge.

So I stopped at the gas station, there was a pretty long line and I debated leaving and just getting gas when we went to leave. If you know me, you know I am persistent, so I decided to wait it out. Finally it was my turn at the pump, I grabbed the nozzle, it was a little tight, but it went in to my tank and hit the button. That Texas Tea began pouring into my tank as I dazed off. I got back into my car and drove home.

We got ready for our evening out and it was time to go. I had forgotten my phone in the house, so Jeremy said he would start the car. (Can you feel it, if I were running the marathon in the Olympics, I would just be about to start taking my lead at mile 20)

I come out of the house and there is a great cloud of smoke coming out of the car and it is making a weird noise. Oh shit!!! Now, we have been having a lot of problems with the car. The latest one being a weird noise, which turned out to be we needed oil. (Thanks Jeremy for not getting that oil change while I was gone) This was not good, the car was running perfectly all day...what happened.

Jeremy meanwhile is cursing up a storm about how he hates this car. We go back inside to figure out our plans. Jeremy had to leave from New Haven at 6 am the next morning and the trains don't run into New Haven from Fairfield that early on Sunday. What were we to do? We checked car rental places, but apparently they all close at 4 pm on Saturdays. Shit!!!

I just couldn't believe the car wasn't working. It had been working fine all day. It was filled with gas and should have been good to go. ( Now, it is mile 24 and I have a great lead in my Olympic marathon race) Jeremy asks me, "Did you fill the car up with diesel?"

I reply as if this was a ludicrous question. I have been filling up my car (by myself) for 11 years now, why the hell would I fill it up with diesel. Then my doubt sets in, the insecurity...I decide I must walk my butt back to the station where I filled up to solve this mystery. So at 7:30 PM Saturday, I walk 1.5 miles back to the gas station.

When I arrive, there is a man sweeping up around the pumps. Of course, I look totally out of place since I don't have a car. I let him know that I got gas here and he wonders if I want a receipt. I tell him no, but unfortunately I am checking to see if I filled my gas tank with diesel. (I am a mile away from the finish line with no one in sight) I tell him which pump I used (I never saw two) and ask if the regular unleaded gas will work with the pump, he tells me no only diesel. Well, shit, this means I filled my tank with diesel. (I am crossing the finish line with photographers cameras flashing to capture the moment) The sweeping attendant then says, "Oh no, that is not good." Yeah, I know. Pissed at myself and wondering how I am so stupid...I call Jeremy and tell him the news.

Jeremy takes the news like any supporting husband...no, I'm not that stupid...it could happen to anyone...he's almost done it before...He was actually happier that it was my stupidity than not knowing what is wrong and needing to buy a new car!

So after all this hoopla, we board the train for the party we are suppose to go to. I am on the verge of tears and my tummy hurt. Needless to say, when we got to the party we made a bee-line for a drink. Nothing like a couple glasses of wine to take the edge off.

Monday my car was towed (I had an advantage for winning my prize as an Idiot, since I let my AAA run out and now needed to pay for a tow). Hundreds of dollars later the Saturn is running like a dream. The automotive guys also gave me a pumpkin....guess they thought that would lessen the blow of how much my mistake was to fix.

Now you know the story of how I am Queen of the Idiots. Gold Champion! If I was in the Olympics for stupidity, I would compare myself to Michael Phelps....no one could beat me!!!