I am incredibly excited for the new Coen brothers movie coming out this winter – True Grit. The book by Charles Portis is probably one of my favorites. The 1969 John Wayne movie is great. (As is its 1975 sequel based on the main character, Rooster Cogburn.) I’m a big fan of the Coen brothers […]
I put a fire pit in my yard this weekend. Why it never occurred to me before now, I have no idea. There was a ring of bricks in the ground out there before I moved in (3 years ago now, jeez) but it was way too close to the shed, and had a very […]
I recently bought the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The premise is that you mix a big batch of dough and then store it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you want a loaf of bread, all you do is pop a hunk out and bake it. Now the […]
Day 1: Our overnight flight was delayed in departing by about two hours but we managed to only arrive one hour late. I got maybe three hours of horrible sleep; those chairs are so uncomfortable. Getting someone at the car rental counter took forever, and then he told me that they don’t work with Mastercard […]
I made this very simple but cute baby dress and a friend convinced me I could be selling more just like it on Etsy. Then we went fabric shopping and I bought too much fabric so I’m in. Right now I only have a few 4th of July prints up (had to rush to get […]
My grandfather has an old 1966 Honda Dream (CA77) that my uncle and I are going to start restoring. My uncle had started restoring it in the 80s I think but it got pushed aside when he became sick and I don’t think it’s been touched much since then. The bike and my uncle are […]
My parents skipped having their annual party this year so I had to make my own Irish food. I had just read an article about a new Irish cookbook which included a few recipes and decided to make a mix of those and my mother’s recipes. I thought it was all delicious and so did […]
Ken Burns’ National Parks documentary is reairing on PBS this month, and you can watch it online as well here. Each episode is only available online for a short amount of time and episode 1 ends tomorrow. Did you know that you can get an annual pass to the National Parks and Federal Recreation Lands […]
I started hiking the Batona Trail today with my dad and some friends. Batona stands for Back To Nature. It’s the longest blazed trail in South Jersey, 50 miles through the Pinelands, and was created by a hiking club out of Philadelphia in 1961. We’re planning on doing it in 8-10 mile increments over the […]
I kept track of all the books I read this year and here are some stats: Total books read – 105 Average per month – 8.75 Most in one month – 15 Least in one month – 4 Fiction – 80 Nonfiction – 25 Bought new – 31 Bought used – 20 Received as gift […]