Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

My 5 nieces in nephews, Thanksgiving 2013 with my Mom and A1. Yes, I'm the cool Aunt who buys mustaches for the kids. Then nephew Alex joined us in February. This weekend was not only about his Baptism, it was also about half our family meeting him for the first time--including all of this cousins. Who LOVE babies. Which meant lots of cute photos: Alex with cousin Gala Alex with cousin Noah I think the boys love having another boy in the family--Aidan pointed out that now the boys are tied with the girls (I am 1 of 4 kids: 2 boys, 2 girls; each of my siblings has 2 kids: 1 girl, 1 boy) Savannah was so excited to have some big kids to play with--her baby brother does laugh at her now, and roll over, but he isn't as fun as these monkeys: Syd and Aidan Gala, Syd, Noah, Savannah The girls: Gala, Syd, and Savannah with her Dad--my brother is such a good Dad. It's been interesting to watch my sibs become parents.  The time with my family was ...

People always ask how much food/what kind of food we make, so here are the Farm's Thanksgiving stats: 12 turkeys, which equaled roughly 108 pounds of meat 176 dinner rolls (made by our baking/pastry program) 50 lbs mashed potatoes 40 lbs Farm Brussels sprouts 40 lbs Farm squash (butternut) 224 cups (I estimate this wound up being about 40/50 lbs) of stuffing **this is what I made for the meal** 2 gravies: 1 turkey, one vegetarian (mushroom) 12+ lbs of white bean stew Quinoa with walnuts and raisins Cranberry sauce 6 + lbs of Farm applesauce Gallons and gallons of Farm apple cider Water, coffee and tea 40 pies/tarts: 9 Blueberry Pies, 9 Pumpkin Pies, 9 Chocolate Pies, 9 Lemon Curd Tarts and 4 Cranberry Tarts (made by our baking/pastry program) About 2 dozen pairs of hands went into making the meal; 6 people carved turkeys Thanksgiving morning; 134 people enjoyed the Thanksgiving meal. It was a busy day which began at 6:30 for me, opening the Kitchen, and which di...

Holy cats! 2009 is the year for anniversaries and 40 is the number : Sesame Street Monty Python the Internet Abbey Road, The Beatles Woodstock Walking on the Moon -Apollo 11 on the Moon This year is also the 40th Anniversary of when the Norman Rockwell Museum opened, and that is a good segue into where I found myself yesterday; hanging out with TSO's family. TSO's Mom, Dad and two sisters A & A were here for the weekend, staying with us at the Farm. Thanks to the Museum pass program-- library shout out !--TSO's family of 5 and I were able to get into the Norman Rockwell Museum for free. I was ambiguous as to whether or not I wanted to go the museum, as I have been many times, but wound up going because TSO forgot the free tickets on the coffee table. As always, I was pleased with the quiet solitude I can find for myself in a museum, and also found the new exhibit to be of some interest ("Behind the Camera," an exhibit documenting Rockwell's use of pho...

This morning, spilling into the afternoon, was like a Simon and Garfunkel song; I sat on a train, on this rainy day, and watched as New York City slid away from me. I reentered the outlying cities, looking out over sleepy little cities and towns, traveling over waterways on little bridges made to rock our train back and forth, lulling me to sleep. Everything about leaving the City was unlike how I’d entered it. This morning we woke up early so we could go have a breakfast in the West Village (Manhattan) where my cousin works. It was one of those wonderful successes; trying out a restaurant that my cousin passes every day en route to work, one which she had often wondered about. The restaurant is Grey Dog and a better breakfast place in town I can’t imagine I’d find. Everything about the restaurant was great, from the décor (random pictures and signs, snowboards—many things featuring dogs); to the tables themselves, which had hand painted maps of various areas around the U.S. on them...