Ladies and Gentlemen and Friends of the Winter Sports! The New Hampshire Iditarod took place this morning in Franconia Woods, on Glide Path, Skid Row and Ham Branch Trail of the Franconia Cross Country Ski Center (http://www.franconiainn.com/). In genuine sled dog fashion I pulled my friend Denise up the hill by her ski poles while she yelled "mush, mush". We did pretty well, Denise's X-Country skis were slick and fast, and after a couple of nice downhill she definitely started to appreciate the "hunker-down-and-yell-woohooo" approach that I love so much. Poor Rick on the other hand had some very sticky skis who were getting him nowhere, and he might has well not had any skis at all. I slugged along on my snow shoes for about three miles careful not to aggravate that sore heel of mine.
It is phenomenal up here at present, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful - tons and tons of snow to begin with and since early this morning it has kept on snowing. Cannon Mountain and the Lincoln, Lafayette and Little Haystack range cannot be seen at all from the house, all there is, is tons of the white stuff coming down. Winter Wonderland at its best! Rick and Denise at present are out and snow shoeing and taking Phoebe for some well-deserved snow experience, while I rest my slightly weary feet. I did get some exercise earlier when I was trying to free up a path to the front stairs, but underneath all the snow was a solid block of ice which took some serious bicep-y action on my part. I actually do love shoveling snow if you can believe it (please - no offers to come to your homes and get your lazy selves out of it... I meant I love shoveling my own snow...) .
We drove up to New Hampshire last night before the weather kicked in, and again, the minute I leave Boston, my brain and my ability to remember basic vocabulary and utter complete sentences seems to be going down the tubes quickly. Wild Oats, the health food store, was labeled "live oats" and the Atlanta suburb of Buckhead quickly changed to Buckwheat. Petraisms were just flying out of my mouth at record speed sand are continuing to do so. Today I actually mixed up McDonalds and Whole Foods - oy vey! I am going to be so much fun when I am old!
So, let's recap the week, shall we? Last Sunday I hosted my dinner group (actually make that one of them, because I just started a second one) for brunch. The spread was phenomenal - white wine risotto (a bottle and a half of wine for two cups of Arborio Rice - niiiiiiice), a spinach-mushroom-kale medley with garlic, scrambled eggs, buckwheat waffles with hot raspberry sauce and whipped cream (the canned kind, of course), bagels, home-made raspberry butter, cheeses, roasted potatoes with herbs, two kinds of coffee cake - we ate and ate and ate. It was a lovely affair with some very spirited conversation that included several stories centering around Keith Richards - falling off a coconut tree, snorting his father's ashes, that sort of thing..... Life was good.
Once the guests and the dishes were taken care of, and I had rested for a wee bit on the couch, it was time to zip up north to the town of Peabody to visit my friend Jen Searl and to waste five hours of our life watching the Oscars. I have to say that Jen's two yorkies Bella and Rocco provided much more entertainment than the awards show, which consisted mostly of recaps of the past 80 years (how exciting is that?). We had a fabulous time though, and credits to Jen for hanging in there to the bitter end.
Wednesday night, as you may recall was the opening for Illuminations, the MGH Cancer Center's art exhibit, which featured five of my photographs (one of them was the cover photo for the invitation and the program - so proud I am....). A pile of my friends and colleagues came to visit and celebrate with me - Susan, Brian, Georgiana, Darrell, Sara, Christine, Norma, Pauline, Ulandt, Glenn and Hannah - thanks so much for being there. Hannah, Glenn went out for a little celebratin' and topped off the evening with a nice glass of wine at the Alibi Lounge at the Liberty Hotel (http://www.alibiboston.com/) and life was good, again.
In other exciting news, I did receive my first appointment in the citizenship application process - next Friday I am required to show up at the USCIS for fingerprinting. This is so exciting!! Stay tuned for more news on that. Also, I am starting a book group also this coming week (my third attempt to get one going here in Boston, but I am getting a good vibe about this one). Again, stay tuned.
So, time to go and prepare dinner. I am making my first ever "Shake N' Bake" Chicken (can't be an American if you have never done that, right?) and there are also tons of potatoes to be peeled.
Enjoy the weekend wherever you are. I hope it is just as beautiful as it is here (come to think of it, I may never want to leave and just hang out here for a while. That may lead to some discussions with Rick's parents, who actually do live here, and may just have something to say about that).
Talk to you soon.
Petra:)
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