This was a "Milestone" week

Fidelity Investments is closing the office building I work from in Marlborough sometime in the first quarter of 2010. They are moving half of the workers to Boston and the other half (my group) to Smithfield, RI where they own a big, shiny, new office building. They told us about the move over the summer. We had to sign a statement by the end of September indicating our intent ("Statement of Intent") to either travel to Smithfield, RI  with our job or leave. So, at the end of last week, I told my boss that I will not be going to Smithfield. Right now my commute is about 90 - 100 miles per day depending on which route I take. The drive to Smithfield is a minimum of 150 miles per day. And it's not an easy drive; they're very hard miles between Lynnfield and Smithfield. So, it wasn't too much of a decision for us. And, since you know Neal and me, you know the timing could not have been better. Even so, it was a milestone decision for us and will represent a major change in our lives.

I have been working from home on Friday's for the past couple of years. Unless I have to be in the office for some reason, you'll usually find me working from my kitchen counter which converts nicely into 'command central' for about 8 hours every Friday (okay - maybe 7 hours). It took me a few times to get disciplined and be productive from home but since I got used to it and got into a routine, it's been great. A couple of years ago, the Friday afternoon commute from Marlborough to Lynnfield got really heavy and now they are routinely 2 - 2 1/2 hours long. So this informal work-from-home arrangement was just fine with me.

While I might have been able to work a deal to officially work from home a couple of days a week and go to Smithfield on the other days, there were not guarantees that my department or Fidelity would support that as a long term or a permanent arrangement. So, I'm taking the severance package and leaving. Key West here we come!!!

Enough about that for now. I'm sure they'll be more to come between now and when the fat lady sings early next year. So, for now we'll return to our regular scheduled programming.....

....which starts with Friday night dinner. Because of our 'milestone' decision this week, we had a little bit of a celebration on French Night. Although the move is still several months off, we did want to recognize the 'decision' event. So, Neal stopped at the market on his way home from the office to get some fresh ingredients to make dinner.

He got several really nice cheeses, fresh breads and my favorite crackers. It was Friday so I was working from the kitchen counter and had no commute!

For dinner, he got chicken at the market. Now chicken may not sound like a just-quit-your-job-milestone-dinner. But here's the twist.....we prepared it following a 100% French recipe. It was so much fun! We were able to read and understand pretty much everything in the recipe.

But just to be sure, we decided it would probably be a good idea to validate.....

Dinner was Poulet Chasseure (chicken hunter), French style green beans served almandine, risotto (which we shaped through a short round mold before we plated it), salad with fresh raspberries, pecans and baby arugula greens in a raspberry vinaigrette, fresh French bread and bottle of really nice wine.

For dessert we had a layered chocolate mousse with coffee in front of the fireplace. It was a really nice celebration!

Saturday was such a beautiful day. We worked outside for most of the day. Neal took down the awnings which is nice because now the Fall sun will warm up the house without fading the curtains. But with the bushes down and the awnings off, the house looks really, really bare now! Even the Mum's we planted last weekend  seem to get lost.

On Saturday afternoon, Matt and Amy stopped by to visit. It was great to see them!  They had just come from Peabody BMW where they turned in the black BMW for a brand new BMW 325i series!!! Unfortunately, we didn't get to see it because they can't pick it up until Thursday so it will be a long week for them! But, it will be well worth the wait, I'm sure. If you want to see what it looks like and have yesterday's Boston Sunday Globe their new car is the feature car on the front page of the Automotive section. The car in the picture is red and I believe they got a silver colored one but you can see what it looks like. It's certainly a beautiful car. And I'm sure it will great fun to drive. Congrats to Matt and Amy - can't wait to see it!!

On Sunday we didn't do too much because it was rainy and cool. So, we slept in and then Neal made some homemade pancakes w/syrup and lattes for breakfast. Mm-mm good!

Then we watched the Patriot's game and the Red Sox (swept by the Yankees - can  you believe that!) and I did some regular housework and inside the house stuff, went grocery shopping, did the laundry, etc.

For supper, we made homemade pizzas. They were delicious! This one had pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, basil, shredded cheeses and fresh ground pepper.

Here it goes into the oven...

I think it looks done...

Mmmm, that was delicious!

So, after being my office all day Friday, a wine and cheese bar Friday night, breakfast counter in the morning, snack bar on Saturday afternoon, and a pizza parlor on Sunday night, it was time to clean up the kitchen, turn off the lights and give it a rest - it earned it this weekend! Hope you all had a great weekend whatever you did. See you all soon!

Foodie Friday's

We noticed that all of our posts start out with food in them. We never really noticed it. But I guess that makes us 'Foodies'. Of course that's not such a bad thing but it does mean we have to go the club every day to work it all off. Otherwise we'll blow up like a couple of helium balloons though we wouldn't float peacefully up into the sky. I can assure you of that!

I'm happy to report that this weekend did start like many of our weekends  - thank goodness and lucky me! But, we did not have French Night. That's because last weekend when we were at the fish market, the lobsters looked really good and they were relatively inexpensive. So, we decided to have a good ol' fashioned New England clambake on Friday night. We were really excited about our clambake - but I'm not sure those little lobsters were too excited ....

Nope, they weren't......

For sure.....

We had steamed clams, boiled lobster with warm butter, corn-on-the-cob from a local farm, homemade cole slaw with raisins, and fresh bread. And, we added some wonderful, homemade, hand-cut pomme frits and served them in our cone baskets. Neal hand-cut the potatoes, double-fried them in canola oil and then salted them. Sometimes it's hard not to eat them from the draining tray while they are piping hot!

Debbie came by to visit on her way home from the shop and stopped in for a little while, too. It was really great to see her!

On Saturday, we worked a lot outside. Neal finished pulling out the bushes in front of the house that he'd started last weekend. It looks pretty bare. Then he took all the brush to the town recycling center. It took him 4 trips.

Out With The Old And In With The New....I pulled out most of the summer flowers in the beds around the yard. I racked out all the gardens and then planted some Mums out front.

 I've never been much for fall plants. I'm not sure why but I just never got into planting them - though I enjoy the summer flowers a lot. I think it's probably because fall flowers don't really grow. They just hold out for as long as they can until Old Man Winter gets the best of them. But, this year I decided to try some because it looked bare out front. I'll have to wait and see if the bud's on them actually flower! Keep your fingers crossed.

On Saturday night (date night) we went to Home Depot to get some new shutters for the back of the house. Neal finished painting the back last weekend (primer and 2 coats of finish paint - he did a nice job and it shines in the sun) but some of the windows needed new shutters because they were cracked or chipped. So he bought 3 sets of shutters. By then it was about 9:00 pm so we went to the "99" to get something for supper and watch the Red Sox game for a while. It was a really good series against the Orioles. Too bad we can't say the same about Tom Terrific and those Patriots. But, there's always next Sunday for them.

On Sunday, we went to 9:00 am Mass then had our lattes at the counter. After that, Neal headed out to paint the new shutters and get a few of them hung.

I headed to No. Reading for a pedicure. Sorry, no pictures. We went to a wedding on Sunday night and I wanted to wear open toe shoes. Of course I couldn't go with unpolished toe nails!

And just so you don't think it's a labor camp around here, there was time for a little car ride on Sunday, too, thought it was only to the hardware store to get some screws for the new shutters.

The wedding on Sunday was at 4:30 pm on the coast up along Rt. 127 in Beverly. It was at a location called Mistlewood at Endicott College (next to my brother Jay's infamous wall fall). The ceremony was outside and it was just beautiful. The weather was warm, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, blue, blue. The location was just up the harbor from Jubilee Yacht Club where we used to keep our sail boat. Even though it was 4:30 in the afternoon there were still lots of sailboats out trying to get every last bit of breeze and puff of wind from an absolutely perfect Sunday for an afternoon sail. We never missed the boat a real lot but I have to tell you that sitting there watching the boats sailing on the water with a late afternoon breeze pushing them peacefully along - we both got that longing to be back out there.

The wedding was really nice. It was Neal's cousin, Richard, who got married. His new wife, Erica, is from Brazil so a lot of her family wasn't able to be there. She was a beautiful bride. The ceremony was outside on the lawn - gutsy for anytime in New England but probably a bit more so for mid-September. But, it was just perfect. Frank and Bernice looked wonderful and it was so nice to all be together with Dot and Stephen, too. Neal's Uncle Richard and Aunt Rose hosted a wonderful reception afterward and we all had  a lot of fun dancing and singing. Everything was fantastic and we had a wonderful evening.

You can see Baker's Island in the distance.

 Rose looked beautiful as she waited patiently for Ritchie to seat the bride's mother.

Then he came back to walk Rose down the aisle.

And finally, he walked Erica down the aisle.

Then the ceremony got underway.

The reception was right along the water.

Everyone was all dressed up and looked wonderful.

Ernie, Theresa and Neal had a few laughs

We got back home around 10:30 p.m. or so which was good because it wasn't too late. We both had to go to work the next morning.

It was another really fun weekend - lobsters, yard work, date night and the wedding. All under a perfect sunny sky. We hope you all had a great weekend and enjoyed the sunny weather! Fall officially arrives on
Tuesday of this week.

September Weekends!

Even though it's mid-September, Fridays still hold hope for stringing together a few warm, sunny days. And while it did pour buckets all day Saturday (we were considering getting an ark), Sunday was really nice.

We've started our weekend on Friday with  "French Night". We had stopped doing them over the summer since we (Neal...) cooks outside a lot when the weather is nice and the evenings are warm. Also, we are usually pretty casual in the summer and French Night is almost always served on china in the dining room. So I was very happy on Friday when he pulled out his apron, tied it around his waist, and headed for the Wolf!

For our inaugural dinner, he served fresh haddock dipped in an egg-wash, a wonderful risotto (Italian, we know, so he added a few Herbs of Provence!), steamed snow peas, salad, and a fresh french baguette. We played Edith Piaf from the iPod and had a wonderful evening!

On Saturday, we got up and had our lattes at the kitchen counter. Later in the morning, the Warren's arrived and we headed to the Cape to visit for the day. It was raining pretty hard so there wasn't too much traffic going down. Andrea and Liv came with us but Drew had to go back home to work. Gramma and Grampa were so glad to see little Liv!! She charmed them all day long - she was the hit of the visit.

Because it was raining so hard, we couldn't take Liv outside though she really wanted to go.

 But her mother had packed well for the trip and so she played in the house really nicely all day. Andrea even found some Elmo-stuff on tv, which she really liked.

 But most of all, Liv loved, loved, loved all of Gramma's shoes and tried on many different pairs. What was interesting is that whenever she went into her closet to get a different shoe, she always came out with a matching pair - never just 1 shoe and never 2 different shoes, always a matching pair. What a smart kid. And she had a great time!

It was great day and I think everyone had a good time!

On Sunday, Matt and Amy had invited us to their house for breakfast. Peggy and Tom Kloempken were in town for Jack's Christening on Saturday. It was nice to see them again and have a chance to visit with them a bit. And, it was Matt and Amy's 3-month wedding anniversary! Can you believe it? It seems like just last weekend we were all playing around Boston's Back Bay in fancy dresses and suits!

Matt and Amy have done a lot of work on their house. They recently pulled out all of the big bushes in front of the house and put in some smaller landscaping. Also, they are having a new brick walkway put in out front. When we arrived at their house on Sunday morning, the contractor was working on the walkway. Tom was out front talking to him. We later learned  that Tom was actually trying to escape from the contractor but was unsuccessful! Matt pointed out to Neal some of the landscaping they had planted in front of the house on the right side.

Breakfast was wonderful - homemade French toast with Vermont maple syrup, beautiful fresh fruit tray, bacon, bagels and cream cheese, muffins, mimosa's - everything was very nice. We ate in the dining room and with the shrubs gone from in front of the window, the sun came shining through. They had a big crowd for breakfast - 9 all together if you count Jack. And even with a house full of company, a big meal to prepare, cook and serve, dishes to clean up and parents to entertain, Aunty Amy always seems to find time for the kids.

When we got back home after breakfast, we did some chores around the house. We had really been gone most of the weekend so we hadn't been able to get to our regular weekend 'stuff' - like doing the laundry, emptying the dish washer, vacuuming the kitchen, etc. So, I did all that stuff on Sunday while watching the first Red Sox game (Yeah Sox!). Meanwhile, Neal started to pull out the bushes in front of the house. He has wanted to get to this since Dave finished the home theater. We're concerned about getting water down stairs. To limit the risk of that happening, Neal wants to regrade the gardens around the perimeter of the house so the rain flows away from the foundation. Next Spring we'll plant some small landscaping, too. Another goal of this is to get as much natural light as possible through the new larger windows we had put in the basement.

While Neal was working out front, I had to go grocery shopping. Since we only needed a few things and it was such a  beautiful afternoon, I decided to ride my bike over to Stop & Shop in Reading. What a great way to go grocery shopping - it was such fun! Since I can only carry one bag on my bike, I had to be very selective about what I bought. My grocery bill was only $17.67. Talk about a win-win, huh?

We ended the weekend much like we started it. Chez Neal created a wonderful supper - fish casserole with fresh shrimp and haddock, served it with fresh vegtables, hot french fries and, of course, a loaf of bread! Bon Appetite!

All in all, it was another great weekend! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, too, whatever you did!