I awoke last night at midnight to what sounded like someone riding a moped around outside my bedroom window. I sat up in bed to lookout my window to see what was going on and realized the noise was coming from my kitten, curled up in a ball next to me, purring up a storm.

Happy New Year

Well another year has gone. I have managed to keep my kids alive for another year. For New Year's Eve we went to a family style party where the kids played games in the basement and the adults played games and socialized upstairs. The great part was that Midnight was moved up to 9:30. All the kids go outside and band the pots and pans screaming and cheering.

New Year's Day the roads got icy and I got in a car wreck. I was alone at least. I hit a car then anther car hit me. After calling the police and waiting for 10 min. I got hit by another car that slid in the same place i had. So it was a fun ol' pile-up.

The good new is that i am not hurt and now we have a new car!! We got a mini cooper, and i love it. It is gong to be the new "studio" car.

Miss you girls a ton!!!

Air-Travel blunders

I consider myself a pretty well-travled individul. I accept the long security lines, delays, bad food and cramped spaces to get to fabulous destinations, to visit my family and friends. But sometimes things go wrong & I wonder, "is it worth it?"

This last trip was of that kind. My five day vacation was cut to four when I was stranded in St Louis after a series of airport delays and flight cancelations (how airlines get away with canceling whole flights full of people & leave them no other option to get to their destination!) It was especially frustrating because I missed two get togethers with friends who were leaving town the next day themselves - so I didn't get to see them at all!

Here are some of my other memorable travel blunders;

November 2002 - While on a lay-over in Columbus I meet Liz for lunch, we go to PF Changs and a young Parker throws everything on the table onto the floor. It's a great lunch. When I get back to the arport, I relaize that I had inverted my flight time, and it had left and hour ago! Embarassed and tearful a ticket agent granted me a new ticket on the next flight. (note - I have never left the airport during a layover since- I refused to go with roommate Wendy to lunch on a 6 hour layover in Minneapolis, and refused a short Amsterdam tour on a 10 hour layover there)

April 2004 - My connecting flight to SLC is canceled due to a late spring snow storm, leaving me stranded in Denver and no chance of making the wedding the next day I was traveling to. I end up staying in Denver for the weekend with Scotty.

July 1999 - On my flight to Paris, the plane is held on the tarmac for 6 hours, as it waits out a rainstorm. I have no way to contact my group, but luckily have the address of the hotel we are staying in. After almost 12 hours of air travel I wander the Paris streets for almost 3 hours searching for the hotel. It is so hot that the wheels on my suitcase melt off!

34th Street

34th Street05
Originally uploaded by kristenpj

One of my favorite Baltimore Christmas traditions are the Hamden 34th Street Lights. One of my friends and I went out at 11pm last night to try and get some shots without all the traffic.

That plan worked, but some of the houses turn the lights off for the night, some of my favorites were out, the blue crab house and the bicycle wheel snowman house. So I'm going back Sunday night & getting there earlier.

I also dropped my lens cap at one point and spent 15 minutes crawling around in the street, in the snow. Finally I found it on top of the tire of the truck I was next to. Crazy.

when we got to cold on 34th Street, we got back int he car and drove down to the Washington Monument in Mt. Vernon to get some more pictures. Unfortunately there was a crazy man at the monument who really wanted to talk to me, and not let me take pictures, so I have to go back there too!

it was a fun, cold night regardless and I was lucky to get some pictures of the lights with snow on the ground.

Fall Harvest

My favorite part of the holidays, and any change in the seasons is seasonal cooking. I love barbecuing in the summer, corn on the cob and berry cobblers, holiday baking, chili, and all the goodies that go along with Thanksgiving and Christmas. It seems like everyone gets some sort of holiday excitement right after Halloween, whether it's the decorations and seeing the lights on the houses, the Christmas carols, all the shopping and gifts, the smells of pine trees and mulled cider, or just seeing Eggnog in the grocery store. Well for me, all the holiday excitement is centered around the cooking and baking involved.

I am thrilled to see the pumpkins and squashes, the cranberries and pomegranates, the nuts and sweets lining the grocery isles. And most of all, the wondrous Holiday cooking magazines.... Now Ashley can attest to this, that I just can't seem to get enough cookbooks and cooking magazines. All the pies and beautifully decorated cookies, the gorgeous hams and prime rib. Int he last two years I have been trying to limit the number of cooking magazines I collect. Once I have them, I can't get rid of them. After moving for the third time with boxes of 5 year old Martha Stewart and Cooking Light issues, I started to see scenes from my mothers basement her digging though old piles of Good Housekeeping & Better Homes & Gardens (to her defense, she has created her own catalogued library and filing system and everything is quite organized - but still) So now I am not allowed to buy any more cooking magazines until I have tried all the recipes I want in the stacks already piled up in my kitchen.

I did break down last week and buy the November issue of Cooks Illustrated (my new favorite) So far I have made four recipes from it; roasted turkey, free form apple tartlets, butternut squash soup and the sweet potato casserole.

Yesterday I saw the new issue in the checkout stand.... I didn't buy it, but I don't think I'll be able to make it.

meet Daisy

new kitten02
Originally uploaded by kristenpj

I got new kitten this weekend! She looks strikingly similar to Devin's cat who ran away last year. I'm calling her Daisy and she is a purring machine. Right now she is spending most of her time under the bed, but hopefully she'll be venturing out soon and becomming best buds with Mona (which is why I got her Mona seems to need a companion)

Don't worry I'm not becomming a "crazy cat lady" no more for me, jsut these two. I'm actually hoping they can entertain each other more and less work for me!

Are you guys staying put for Thanksgiving, or visiting fmaily? I'll be at work this year & doing dinner the day before at my sisters. Miss you guys!

updates

got an email from Singapore yesterday, they feel that February/March would be a better time fos us to come, the ICU beds will be open and there will be more for us to do. Unfortunaltley, I'm hoping to be back in school this January and have already bought plane tickets to go to Costa Rica again (for a friend's wedding) So I'm passing on Singapore this time arround, I am hoping I will get another chance someday.... I'm also interested to see if the other girl is able to go....