Yes, I'm still alive

Don't think I've been taking to blogging as much lately - I guess my mindset changes on it all the time (never been a good decision-maker; a flip-flopper in political terms).

Anyway, wanted to mention that I'm currently reading/knitting/working/not doing much else.... Very boring life, but such is the way it is sometimes!! ;-)

I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project by Paul Auster


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Borrowing this from the Enoch Pratt Library, and loving it - haven't managed to read it all within the 3 weeks, so will be renewing it on Friday (due date).

View all my reviews >>

Back to Reality...

It's been almost 2 weeks since our return to Baltimore from our week-and-a-half long trip to Ireland, and am still feeling somewhat unsettled since our return....urgings to move back, and seriously starting to want to put a timeframe on it, so medium-to-long term plans would have to be made... We both had a great time, and it was great to meet up with family and some friends..... Stayed with my sister and family in Cork (my hometown), and met all the family, so C now has finally met them all.... Visited West Cork and Kerry, and drove so much to see what seemed like only one small part of the country. But it was worth it all....

So saddened at a life cut short

I'm still with a heavy heart at the death of Natasha Richardson - not that I had seen too many of her movies nor seen any of her plays, but she's the wife of Liam Neeson, whom I'm a bigger fan of him than I realize (maybe it's the affinity of being Irish).... But I truly feel so saddened for him, and their children; he & Natasha seemed to have been so madly in love, even from looking at so many photos of them together, they're always looking so adoringly at each other; a rarity for an acting couple. Then again, they were never a Hollywood couple which probably explains a whole lot there too...

May she rest in peace, and sympathy, strength and love to her whole family.

Continued Hibernation.....

...Just wishing the winter would be over, but at least it's only another month before we roll into April!! Never been much of a cold-weather fan, even though I was born in December!!

Just booked flights for a trip home to Ireland during the week, and the boy is coming with me...finally!! We've been together 6.5 years, and now that he's been divorced and the finances are looking so much better, it's time. And my nephew will be making his 1st Holy Communion this Spring, so we've managed to work our trip around that too. Will be there for a week-and-a-half, so should be a nice length of time... Must start discussing our plans for that time as to where we'd like to go/what we'd like to do/see, etc. Have to make the most of the trip! ;-)

Coffee Cake...Fresh-baked at Home!

Much belated Happy New Year, and Happy Valentine's Day.......

OK, haven't been blogging as much, as I think I'm spending waaaaay too much time on Facebook - can't help it, as it's too much fun to catch up with family and friends I wouldn't normally catch up with on a regular/semi-regular basis, and basically just fool around on the website....

Anyway, an extremely belated Happy New Year, and as it's 2 days before Valentine's Day, Happy Love/Heart Day too....am lucky to have someone to share it with, though we don't normally make a huge deal out of it. I did get a little spoiled last year, as I got some lovely gifts, but we had come out of a couple of weeks of a rough patch, so he was being ultra-good to me, which I loved!! We've gotten absolutely nothing planned, and I've decided to get in early, and spent tonight baking a coffee cake, and so far it's coming along fine. It's a new recipe I'm trying from Delia Smith's "How to Cook" book, and am hoping it'll be a keeper - coffee cake is a big comfort food for me (my mother bakes a really good one, and she also has a great chocolate cake too, both with butter icing). I did check with the boy recently to ask if he liked coffee cake, and the answer was very much in the positive!!!

I've been doing a bit more cooking in the New Year, and that was somewhat intentional - not so much as a New Year's Resolution (of which I don't have any), but just a new intention; we both want to spend less money on buying breakfasts/lunches/dinners, etc., so I'm trying to do what I can. Of course, I'm spending a lot more money on groceries that I normally would, but it would still work out cheaper on the long run. I still need to improve a lot though, as I'm not as far as planning a whole week's menu yet, so I have a ways to go. Soup seems to be my big thing (it's a perfect winter dish), and we've found a couple of good mushroom soup recipe, along with potato and leek, and carrot and parsnip soups, all from Darina Allen (an Irish chef).

Anyway, here are a few shots of the cake so far (it's cooling), and also a photo of the cake from the book - will add a shot later of when my version is finished, and hopefully, it'll looked good, and taste even better!! It doesn't look the most appetizing yet, but the cake should look better as a finished product.





















I've not been doing as much knitting yet in 2009 - just some small projects over the holidays, and I knit a baby hat for a co-worker who had her first grandchild right before Christmas....... Hopefully that'll change soon, once some knitting motivation comes back; I'm such a hibernator during winter - sure wish I could be living in Florida, California or somewhere sunny from January - March every year ;-)

Anyway, 'til next time....

Continuing to enjoy the Christmas Hols!

This year, with having been employed by my company for 5 years, I've now gotten a 3rd week of added vacation a year, so I've managed to set aside 2 weeks of it for Christmas/New Year's. Originally, I thought and hoped to have gotten back home to visit my family and friends in Ireland. Unfortunately, flight prices were just too expensive, and also, it worked out that my boyfriend didn't have quite the same amount of vacation time left to take off for 2 weeks, so hence our reason for staying put in Baltimore. We cooked dinner up at his Mother's place in York, PA (his hometown), so that worked out fine, though I have to admit, that I probably spent more time in the kitchen than I probably should have - I was a little too ambitious with the amount of side dishes planned, I guess, and couldn't organize myself properly to have himself come help me - my bad!! Anyway, it was still a lovely time....

Here's our Christmas tree, which I was very pleased with how it turned out. We moved into a new place together in October, and it's a very small Baltimore rowhome, and with space being so tight, we weren't sure about being able to accommodate a tree. But luckily, we found a 6-7ft tree, that was quite narrow, and it's worked perfectly for us!

Season's Greetings!

I'm briefly coming out of Blog Hibernation - seem to have not been as involved in recent months, I'm guessing largely due to my fairly recent move-in with my boyfriend. We're renting in the south end of Baltimore City, and have been pretty involved in the move-in process with trying to sort through "stuff" (largely mine!), and where to accommodate it all in our small, cozy place.... It's been a more expensive move than anticipated between trying to purchase furniture for the place, as well as "fixing" the place up...yes, it is a rental property, and we're probably doing more than would be/is expected of tenants, but we're hoping/figuring it'd be worth it. And it works out we've had circuit breaker/washing machine/hot water heater issues, and luckily, our landlord husband-and-wife team have stepped in to fix the circuit breaker, replace the washer/dryer and installed a new hot water heater... All within less than a 2-month timeframe of moving in....more hassles than we expected, but we're working through them...

And then I celebrated a "big" birthday back in early December, and my mother and one of my sisters came to visit from Ireland for a brief stay. Worked out to be a wonderdul long weekend, and wish they could have stayed for longer, but so be it. I get to stay State-side for Christmas this year, though I had originally hoped to go back home..... Flight costs were just too prohibitive, and the boy doesn't have as much time off as me either, so works out that we stay here in Baltimore. We'll visit his mother in York, PA on Christmas Eve, and stay for about 24 hours, so that we can cook Christmas dinner there...... Should be nice, I hope - got the bulk of my grocery shopping done today, and must check on what else I may need....can't afford to spend too much more, but at least I have the main stuff covered (I hope!!).

Anyway, here's a few Baltimore Christmas photos from Hampden's 34th Street lightshow that's had every year here!