Food is Beautiful: Flexibility - a necessary tool

Food is Beautiful: Flexibility - a necessary tool: When it comes to families and dinner planning, one must always be prepared for change. I suppose that goes for all food planning really - in...

So the walk was great. We went to Moose Hill, in preparation for Sedona - have to get in shape! We went up to the fire tower and around a really nice path through the woods, then back up to the fire tower, from around the back, then down to the main building. We went over rocks and even went off the path for a bit. Shara does a wonderful job in the woods and is learning how to move her body and adjust her weight to give her the most balance going down hills and such.

Oh my, didn't realize it's been so long!

Well I guess not that much has been happening that's out of the ordinary. Martin Luther King Day was fun. Shara and I spent the morning basically relaxing and taking our time getting ready to go to my dentist's appointment. She liked seeing the big needle for the Novocaine and even watched them put it in me. She didn't think she'll want to be a dentist because it's gross, but it certainly interests her. We're making plans to go to Sedona at the end of next month and she's been having fun playing on the National Parks website to become a web ranger. It will do until she can become a real Jr. Ranger at the Grand Canyon or other park we're planning on going to. She's really fascinated with volcanoes and was very excited to share a video with me of one in Hawaii erupting, which showed the lava flowing down into the ocean.

Today we had a great time sledding at Borderland. It was a bit crowded when we first got there but we found a quieter spot off to the side. After I plowed backward into the Frisbee golf "hole" we realized why it was a quiet spot. We must have made over 20 trips down the hill though. She liked going with daddy the best because he went faster.

Shara's now watching the football game - NY vs. San Francisco. She can't remember the name of the game but is willing to forego reading tonight to watch more of it. We missed the Patriots. It was set up to record but something must have bumped it out and we have to settle for catching some of the NY/SF game. She's got the binoculars so she can see the score and is laughing saying, "there's a guy's butt in my face!". Pretty funny.

Friday night we went to Liz's art show at the Mariposa Cafe in Cambridge. After family, art and coveting several of the paintings, we went to dinner at Veggie Galaxy. I had the vegan mac & cheese w/ eggplant & leeks. Shara had the kid's pasta w/ red sauce and asiago cheese. It was pretty cold, but she wasn't very hungry anyway. Alan had the black bean burger w/ seitan bacon and cheddar. The mac & cheese was made with homemade vegan cheese and the waiter said if I didn't like it he'd bring me the regular kind. That was service we see too little of these days. We all had room for dessert though and had to try the chocolate layer cake but asked for it with ice cream & hot fudge. We were torn between getting both a sundae and the cake but really I thought this would work out quite well. It did, but the hot fudge had a very tangy flavor. The ice cream was coconut based and the flavor was very pronounced. Shara liked it so much she said we could take coconut and mix it into vanilla. I thought that was a great idea. The cake was good, but a little too cold and dry-ish. The desserts are all made in-house and are vegan. Regardless of how "healthy" these were supposed to be, something was way too rich and I ended up with a stomach ache. But I'd still go back!

mac & cheese

dessert case

New Year's Eve

 So yesterday we had a very relaxing morning and actually had brunch rather than breakfast. We enjoyed Beth Howell's pancakes and added chocolate chips, berries, apples, and nothing! By the time we got showered and dressed and the bag packed for our trip into Boston for First Night, it was already almost 12:30! That was ok though. We had to meet a friend who was going to buy Alan's pin from us because he was stuck home with a migraine - boo!

So Shara and I had quite an adventure in Boston. We got there about 1:20 and I wanted to get moving because a magic show started at 1:45. I didn't realize how crazy I was thinking that we could just stroll in and get a seat, etc. I didn't realize we wouldn't be able to park right away. I didn't realize how bad my directions are when I'm walking and not driving (with help from the nav system, of course!) So by the time we got parked, since we went to the Prudential tower parking first and went around, backed out, around again, no spaces, left, finally found the original garage I had wanted to go to, went in and up and up and up and found spots on the 4th level already! Left the garage and went right instead of left and oops, now we're at the chiming concert on Christian Science Plaza, which was great, but we needed to get to the Hynes Convention Center! So we meandered our way and it turned out to be just around the corner, and about 1/4 block from the parking garage. We headed to the next magician show - 3 PM now, and got in line and were told don't hold our breath getting in. We waited a bit, seeing if anyone else was going to leave and took the opportunity to have a bar so we could keep our energy up. Being the troopers we are, we ended up going to the Gerwick Puppets "Midwinter Magic" show. It's based on Debussey's Snowflakes Are Dancing. It was very lovely but knowing we needed to get in line for the next magic show, we left a little before the end and got back up to the third floor. We were in line about the same place as we were the first time, so we then decided to not wait so long and just leave for the ImprovBoston's family show. We found the auditorium and got a little confused because the band was still playing. We did enjoy listening to the music and were able to snag a couple of seats as people left. Shara was quick and popped herself down, right before another person managed to get in. Go Shara! That was a fun show and I think we would enjoy seeing them again.


After that, we heard that they were going to have fireworks after the parade in Boston Common, and decided to go closer to the Common to view the parade. Along the way we planned on getting some dinner. That turned into a hot dog at Copley and we stayed there to watch. Good thing too, because afterward we made a side-trip to Panera to use their facilities. 

Waiting for the parade to start

Here it is!

So we continued on to the Common but ended up watching from the garden. They were the absolute best fireworks I've ever seen. The only ones that come close were the ones Alan and I saw at my first and only other First Night, 11 years ago. The other activity we didn't want to miss were seeing the ice sculptures. They were much harder to find than I remembered. We made our way over to the Common and tried not to get crushed between the two little gates they had open and the tons of people trying to get through. We survived but were cold and tired (sorry, I was tired, not Shara) and finally found a sculpture and it was cool, no pun intended, but not as amazing as it should have been for the hunt involved. But, it was right near the T stop, which is where we were headed because Shara was done with walking around in the cold. We did get on the wrong T and got off at the Prudential, which was no big deal because we were able to walk right inside to get to the Convention center. We actually ran into Hannah, of all people, the person who bought our pin! We went on through to the Hynes, and back out and to the car and high-fived each other when the car was actually where I thought it should be. The garage looked a little different than it did when we left it so many hours ago!

On the way home we called daddy and put in a dinner order, since Shara's hot dog and my apple just weren't enough. We ate dinner at about 9 PM, and as promised, Shara was allowed to get in her jammies, brush her teeth, get her blanket and pillow pet and come downstairs to wait up for the ball to drop. I was amazed that she found it so exciting and she got me excited about it too. It was a great way to bring in the New Year and if daddy is sick again next year, we're giving up on him! Two years in a row is a coincidence. Three is a trend.