air air port port

Kept the road hot today hither and yon. Neil is off to Washington, Dahn, hours later ( my phone died ) is off to INDIA! Crazy driving this morning with some just about hurricane winds whipping the Finger Lakes!

A tale of two Kyles

65º on Tuesday / 25º on Thursday

Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball? (1949 Version)

Fashion , eh ?

Hudson's Bay Company Collection

Strathcona Classic Duffle Coat

Hudson's Bay Company Collection

Originals Watch Collaboration

Hudson's Bay Company Collection

Ceramic Travel Mug

warming

 Yeah - like 65 degrees today. I know the South had massive nasty weather , but walking Koda today in hatless SNOWLESS shirtsleeves was just weird

The Andrews Sisters' - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company B

RIP 

PATTY ANDREWS 

and 

THANK YOU!

( story from CBS )

I've been on this major WWII kick as of late... I think it started with Neil's major flirtation with Gettysburg. Not so much the actual war but the build up.. a pretty major obsession. JFK and " Why England Slept " and Neville Chamberland's " Peace in our time ". The United States going to baseball games and having cookouts as bombs fell on LONDON... just boggles the mind.

Little Johnny has three bottles of poppers, if he uses one bottle per hour how many hours can he stay at the bath house ?

Old Age is NOT for Sissies...

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Don't know why....

Mid Sixties tonight and tomorrow, 20º twenty four hours later.

Penny, eh ?

MODERN ROYALS

HRH Harry gets his war on, with a doll.

What did kill Lady Sybil ?

I mean, sure post Edwardian Kyle would have died at the mere mention of albumin spilling into ones urine - but turns out Sybil had a real thing .

Wapo spills the tea.

By the way, THIS is what the OH so cute Mr. Branson looks like when he is in the role of Allan Leech at last nights SAG awards :

seen here with Mrs. Huges.
( MORE  )

dinner

Big Salad

Roasted Chicken

Peas and Carrots

Squash

Grumble, grumble grumble - I'm still not totally back on the health train. Head is just not there. Have not been super bad, just not the laser focused weight loss machine that I was pre Christmas. Sure we hit home to three hundred feet of snow , giant mutant wolves roaming the street of Mendon and absolute zero stopping all molecular motion and all, but MOST days Koda and I have been out there. I mean, not today it was icky weather.

We are working on it.. clear the head, focus.... " Luke, I am your father...."

crack in the ice

 Out and about in Rochester today with for the first time in over a week we topped 32º. " GOOD! " you non Canadians are thinking - wrong you would be.

Frozen : Good

Thaw : Mud and Slush

A whole lot of Winter to go, this is just a blip.

 Ye Olde Erie Canal , still frozen.

 The new East Ave Wegmans is coming online soon!

Big pretty house, still decorated for Christmas.

equality, eh?

Ontario elects first openly gay Premier

( it's bigger news there that she is a woman )

heat wave

 In a conversation with a fellow Southern ex pat this weekend we caught ourselves thinking that it was warming up a bit - and  happy about it . It was 14º - Michael thinks we may have been here too long.....

It was wonderful out today, still below freezing, but 25 really is better than 2.

I'm not sure if you can tell from these photos, but the creek is frozen solid, deer have been walking on it. Tracks in the snow. I'm not sure how much a deer weighs, but it's all pretty frozen

Today

 The floor guys are done!
Now it just has to sit and dry till Sunday and our house can ,
at LONG LAST get back to , what we at least, call normal!

 Still cold and snowy, Koda still happy

 Walking past a long line of snow blowers

 to get us a new coffee maker

 More photos of a white dog in snow...

Ended up the day snuggled up in bed with last nights soup and net flicks.

 I totally win.

everything is food food food

Chicken Curry
Made this in the slow cooker with bone in chicken thighs... will always do it this way from now on. 

 SAUSAGE and KALE SOUP

I sort of followed the recipe:

Serves 6

Olive Oil

4 large links of sweet Italian sausage, casings removed 

1 medium onion, diced

2 celery stalks, sliced or diced

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into half-moons or diced

4 cloves garlic, sliced 

Kosher salt

A pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1 cup brown lentils, sorted and rinsed

2 bay leaves

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

6 cups water

Freshly ground black pepper

3 to 4 cups shredded or thinly ribboned Swiss chard leaves or kale

Grated Pecorino Romano cheese to finish

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil (enough to coat bottom of pot) in a large pot on medium heat. When hot, add the sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until it starts to brown, about five minutes. Add the onion, celery, carrots, first two garlic cloves, a pinch fo salt, and if you like your soup spicy, a pinch of red pepper flakes. Cook with the sausage until the vegetables soften a bit, another 5 minutes. Add the lentils, bay leaves, tomatoes, water, more salt and black pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and allow to cook until the lentils are tender, about 40 minutes. (It might be necessary to add more water if the soup gets too thick, though we preferred ours on the thick side.)

When the lentils are cooked, add the chard and cook until the leaves are tender, just a few minutes more. Discard the bay leaves.

To finish, divide soup among bowls, then add the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil and 2 garlic cloves to a small skillet and heat over medium until the garlic softens and hisses. Drizzle this over soup bowls, and top with fresh Romano, passing more at the table. Leftovers will keep for several days in the fridge.

I used the kitchen cut tomatoes , used Kale and did not bother with the cheese and oil, it was a very good soup and EASY. 

Two days worth of cooking , set for a few days:

 Big Salad

Ham

Butternut Squash

Brussels Sprouts

DEPTHS OF WINTER

 I love Winter

 Seems like its been years since we have had this deep of a Winter. The days and days of hard cold that makes things, everything feel, look and even sound different. Strange to have as little snow as we do / do not have. The magic little spot that is Mendon. Ten miles away they like three feet. The floor guys that were here today were late due to being lost in some wild white out up on the lake early this morning.

Koda loves it more than I do...

Every time we say good bye.... I wonder why, A little

Major Scaled #2 : REM - "Recovering My Religion" from major scaled on Vimeo.

From A. Sullivan : [Boing Boing reader] Michael sez, "Someone has gone to the trouble (I don't know how but would suspect using Melodyne DNA or somesuch) of processing REM's minor-scale downer hit 'Losing My Religion' so that all the minor notes are now major. When I followed the link I thought it'd be a cover, but no, it's the original, processed. It's uncanny - the song is just as familiar as always but the impact is utterly different. Kind of like finding a colour print of a film you'd only known in black and white, or seeing Garfield minus Garfield for the first time. I like it."

dinner (s)

Pork Chop

Red Cabbage 

w/Apple

Green Beans

Slow Roasted Spiced Beef Shank

w/ onions and carrots

Beet and Kale Greens

Candied Beets

The floor guys are here! The floor guys are here !!!

But , we have three more days of them being here.... Don't think we will be back to normal till Monday.

Art Isn't Easy

A very interesting article on yesterdays Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco

From Huffpo

Making a man out of me

by 

Richard Blanco

WINTER

 Cold Cold Cold!

It's been a long time since we have been this low.

I don't think I've ever seen it this cold with zero snow.... there are big old whopping lake effect bands all around tonight, but we live in the magic ( knock wood ) magic spot of too far South and too far East ... I hope.

 Koda loves it.

The swimming hole is frozen over.

THE DRESS

It's Jason Wu for TWO !!

Michelle Obama wears a custom ruby chiffon gown with a plunging back and velvet details by Jason Wu accessorized with a handmade diamond embellished ring by Kimberly McDonald and shoes by Jimmy Choo.

I love it.

I was a little bit taken aback at first - it was not what I was expecting. It is NOT your typical " First Lady"  dress ,but neither is Michelle your typical First Lady. It is youthful with out being twee, perfect color and just a tad bit daring very much like Michelle herself! I loved the movement of it, with out being in any way cumbersome. Silk chiffon with velvet details... I would love to see it in person

Very different than the first round Wu, which is beautiful in photos, but STUNNING in person - the knots/dots what ever are little tiny silver " fireworks "

They were beautiful. 

take me OUT

From JMG : " In yet another moment in our movement's history, tonight openly gay members of the military attended the Commander In Chief Inaugural Ball with their partners. In the center of the above photo is Army Gen. Tammy Smith, who last summer became the first out soldier to achieve that rank. To the general's right is her wife, Tracey Hepner "