Boston Bound

Playing Tourist

Having visitors from other countries is always a good excuse to play tourist.

G's sister, her husband and kids, visited with us for the past couple of weeks. It's why I've been so scarce. They traveled all the way from Cyprus and when you live that far away from each other and seen each other (except via skype) in 12 years, there is a lot of catching up to do.

We hit the weather window right last week and headed into Boston on a beautiful summer day.

Then we ventured back out into the heat, past the custom house clock tower, and headed back to the market for some lunch.

Said goodbye to the market and hightailed it back to the train.

We got home and had one thing on our mind. Pooltime. We had the funniest round of marco polo ever and I almost peed in the pool I laughed so hard. Almost.

So, what have you guys been up to?

Ciao for now,

At The Fair

Stratham Fair 2013

Our visitors, G's sister and her family, got back from NY on Friday. By Sunday they'd gone from the big city to the country fair.

Our town fair was on this weekend, and we took a break from pooltime on Sunday to head on over.

It's agriculturally based so there were lots of animals.

"Hey, who is that behind you gals?"

Never could decide.......llama or alpaca. There were also donkeys, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks all co-mingling at the petting zoo. 

Then onto the barns to visit the more farmyard animals.

The cows were all pretty friendly and one was even big on giving lots of kisses, as our niece sofia can attest. And the one cow in particular absolutely loved it when I scratched behind its ear. Just like a dog with the head tilt and would follow up with a thank you kiss. Classic.

There was a bevy of farmyard animals including piggies. Who knew they loved each other so much that had to snuggle when sleeping.

Of course, there were rides.

Gar's getting strapped in for a go on the freak out with Issy and Sofia.

Oh sure, it's looks harmless enough.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

I opted for picture taking on this one, but we did a couple of rounds on the good old Tilt A Whirl and laughed through the entire thing both times. We also took a ride on Pharoah's Fury, which basically is a giant boat like ride that swings back and forth like a pendulum until it's at a 90 degree angle. Oh yeah.

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Not sure this video gives the true effect, but you get the idea. I'll have to see if Gar got any shots of us on it. This is at some other fair.




Our nephew Niketas went on with me and Sophia, but he much prefered the shooting gallery.

A good time had by one and all.

Happy Monday.

Ciao for now,

 

 

PS- we also enjoyed the obligatory Fried Dough. It's been a long time but it was as good as ever.

One Bright Smoothie

Energy In a Glass

My friend Kath, who is one of my bookclub/champagne ladies, owns a Blue Moon Evolution....cafe by day, restaurant by night. She's had the most wonderful Green Bliss Smoothie on the cafe menu for years. Yes, you saw and read right. GREEN Bliss Smoothie.

I made my own little take on it this morning.

First thing I did was go out to the garden and pick fresh kale. Yup. You read that right too. Kale. Just trust me on this, ok.  Here's a little bit about kale from WebMD.

"One cup of kale contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.  Kale’s health benefits are primarily linked to the high concentration and excellent source of antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K -- and sulphur-containing phytonutrients. Carotenoids and flavonoids are the specific types of antioxidants associated with many of the anti-cancer health benefits. Kale is also rich in the eye-health promoting lutein and zeaxanthin compounds." (Did you catch that part Dad?)


Suffice it to say, Kale is a powerhouse. It also makes a wicked good green bliss smoothie.

I used 4 Kale leaves (rip the leaf from the stem, as the stem can be a bit tough), 1 small (3.5 oz) vanilla and honey yogurt, 1 large banana, 1 cup orange juice and ice.

Blend and viola.

This is good stuff. It tastes fresh and clean. You can always add some honey if you need it sweeter, but I find between the yogurt, the fruit and the OJ it's sweet enough for me.  It made a good batch. Gar, bil Niall and I all had glasses.

Oh, did I tell you I had a helper?  I did.  The next wave of Dubliners arrived yesterday afternoon-- The Bates of Lucan (yup, the hound is named after the town that they live in, just outside the city).  My niece Leah helped rip the leaves of the stems for me.

I finally met my godson Harry face to face. Live. In person. Not via Skype!!! He would have helped too but he was too busy chillin' with Lucan and eating watermelon.

Get a load of the shirt we gave him - 'I get all the chicks'.  I just love peanuts. 

Gorgeous day here. Perfect for pooltime with the kiddos later.  First, some work on my desk though. What about you?

This post makes me think that I really, really need to make a 'recipe' page on the Muse. Put that one on the too do list.

Loved all your comments about Neil Armstrong yesterday. Off to reply now.

Have a fantastic day,

Traditions & Rituals

A SkeeBall Throw Down...Almost

One thing about growing up at Hampton Beach is that I certainly know my way around an arcade. Well, old school arcades I guess. There's a honky tonk vibe to our beach, not the sand part of the beach, but the strip. It brings back many good memories.  When our family comes to visit from Dublin we have a tradition of going to the arcade (Funarama to be exact and make it no other), to have a little friendly skeeball competition, earn as many tickets as we can and come away with a new stuffed lobster for Lucan.

I usually beat the Gar man, simply because I've had more experience working on my skeeball off-the-side-bumper-delivery which gains me more tickets. Winning at skeeball is one more reason to practice my snoopy dance. So Saturday, our nieces Caroline (who I call Carolina because that's the way I am) and Ali were hankering for our arcade tradition.

Of course, in order to be ready for a competition like this, you must fuel up first so we were off to the 401 Tavern to see the our friend Desi, The Mad Cuban. If there are any Cubans reading this, this is not a dis to your nationality, it's simply an extremely appropriate name we gave to our friend Desi. He's Cuban and he's mad. It's that simple. He's also the host with the most.

Of course he had to let the people at the next booth know that these girls had been visiting him since they were yay-high. 

Then we had to get down to business. Gar was on a mission. He knew he had to fuel up to have enough stamina to win at skeeball.  Of course, after several days spent in the well, he deserved a king cut.

Everything was fabulous. Gar nearly finished that baby.

When we were good and full, we were off to the beach.

Oh yeah, we filled our pockets with quarters and headed for skeeball. I passed this guy along the way and had to get a picture. Number one, he's carrying tequila on his rump and you know how I love margaritas, and number two, my other brother in law and I have an ongoing donkey joke.

I'm sorry to report, I negelected to get any pictures of skeeball. I'll have to wait for Ali to download them from her camera. I was busy trying to whoop some butt. Then we forgot to keep track. Honestly, what kind of competition is it if you forget to keep track? Then this little boy stood next to me with big sad eyes. I said, don't you have any money? He hung his head low and shook his head no. I gave him a quarter....this was classic....he started to walk away. I said, 'hey hey hey, you gotta play that quarter in the skeeball'....'but I don't know how to play'. I coached him through it. The kid nailed a 50 on the first roll. Then another 50, then a 100. By this time, his family had gathered around him to cheer him on. Oh yeah, another skeeball maniac in the making. He did so good I gave him all my tickets too. He deserved them. He was so pleased with himself, you should have seen his face. His Mom was so thankful, it was too cute.

Then we changed modes. I couldn't walk by the pacman game. I had to see if I still had it. I can honestly say....I've still got it. Oh yeah. Don't mess with me Mr. Pacman.  Then onto air hockey. I was beating Gar good and then swooped the puck into my own goal three times in a row. So Gman was winner winner chicken dinner and had to next play his niece. He was taking care of business.

Until he got to his older brother. The girls looked on while...........

they're Dad won. Poor Gar just couldn't keep his winning streak up.

All in all we scored a good bunch of tickets to cash in.

Then the girls had to decide.....a lobster or something else. Then we spied a honey badger. We thought Lucan needed the honey badger for sure.

Alas, the counter girl couldn't find the honey badger out back so Lucan now has a new friend. Leo the leopard.

Our mission was complete. If only Lucan wasn't scared of his new friend. He's a little on the big side and he thinks it's alive. I am not kidding. It's freaking him out.

Of course, before we left we had to do the photo booth thing too.  I think maybe bil John and Gar got an eyeball in each shot, or part of a forehead but that was about it. Those booths are smaller than I remember.

Do ever get to do the old school arcade thing? What's your favorite game? Skeeball? Air hockey?? Pacman?  Or something completely different? 

We spent the rest of the weekend in the pool for obvious reasons. It was hot and it was there. Oh, and enjoying sunsets.

That's the way we roll at Sunset Meadows. 

If you're participating in the Photo Challenge (open to everyone!), tomorrow is the last one. Get me your submissions by end of the day today so I can included them in the final post!

Hope you're having a great Tuesday.

Ciao for now,