Family

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Friday Dance Party – Emeli Sandé’s ‘Next To Me’ With A Routine I Like

It’s time for another edition of Friday Dance Party here on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

So I know my post is late today versus previous Friday Dance Party posts.  There is a reason and it has to do with routine.  I have been thinking a lot lately that I am getting sick and tired of doing the same routine day in and day out.  I want my life to be more exciting, more spontaneous.  Honestly, I do the same things at the same time day after day after day.  For example, I brush my teeth every day at 7:15 AM.  I leave for work at 8:10 AM.  I eat the same foods over and over.  I go to bed at the same time every night.  I am feeling like an old boring man and I want to change it up.  I want to live life more on the edge.  Be careful what you wish for…..because today I got my wish!

I walked out of the house this morning thinking my briefcase was in the car.  I was the last one to leave the house and so I locked it up tight.  With just my car key, my cellphone and a Pepsi Max, I went to my car only to realize that I did not have my briefcase.  It wasn’t inside my car.  Instead, it was inside the locked house.  Which means I don’t have a house key, an office key, a file drawer key where I lock my work computer up each night or a security badge to get into work.  All of these things are in my briefcase.  So I call everyone that has a key to the house on Glen Road and, of course, no one answers.  They just don’t answer their phones, but their texts and emails as well.  Smartphones are great if everyone utilizes them at the same time!  I finally decide to go to work–I’ll be in there in person and, worse case, I won’t have my computer.  However, most of my remaining morning has been tied up in getting a temporary security badge to get into my company’s building, then waiting for security to come unlock my office.  I have found out there are loaner computers, but they take an hour to be delivered and another hour to load with your personal settings.  Bottom line, it’s noon and I’m sick of change.  I want my old, boring, routine life back.  What was I thinking?  I don’t want to have to beg, plead, show my ID or pay money to get one-day replacements.  Can Friday start again the old way for me?  I just want everything I like and need to be right up next to me.  Which reminds me of this week’s song.  It’s ‘Next To Me’ by Emeli Sande.  Emeli is a big hit in the UK and only now being heard in the US.  So turn up your speakers and dance.  You’ve scored another week.  Even if it’s been a little wild and frenzied, like my Friday, it still counts.  I’ll see you later….it is about 12:30 PM here….that’s the time I ALWAYS eat lunch.  I love my routine!

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Friday Dance Party – Bon Jovi’s ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’

Guess what?  It is time for another edition of Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

Do you ever have one of those weeks that seem to fly by?  So fast that it is almost a blur.  You know you went through it, but you don’t remember much about it.  Well, this seems to be the week that I’ve had.  I’ve been working a lot and so that has left little time to do other, more exciting things.  Who would have thought that the woodchuck trapping adventure would be the highlight of my week?  It seems for a while that all I was doing was running a 24-hour woodchuck reporting network.  I was so crazed to catch that animal and save my garden!  One part of the story I didn’t write about yet was that every time I went out to deal with the trap I hummed or sang Bon Jovi’s ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ under my breath.  The song just seemed to get me into the proper mindset for the work that had to be done.  Funny how I feel bad now about removing the animal from our property.  It’s like the universe is going to hunt me down or something for upsetting the cosmic pecking order of things in the environment.  So here’s to the woodchuck and all the excitement that he caused.  Yes, the woodchuck was ‘Wanted – Dead or Alive’.  Glad the alive part worked out for him.  Glad the week worked out for us.  Another one down and we made it through.  Let’s celebrate and dance to my personal ode to the varmint, Bon Jovi’s ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’.  I’ve always liked this song and the video with the big hair from the ’80s brings back a lot of old memories.  Honestly, I kind of miss that big-haired rocker look.  Do you?  Have fun dancing!

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We’re Back – Random Thoughts And Shots From Las Vegas

I know that what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas, but I won’t give too much away from our trip.  As usual, the weather was hot and so was the Strip.  Lots of great food, some wild cocktails, a trip to see Celine, some shopping and lots of gambling has to add up to a great time and this trip was no exception.  Turn up Elvis and enjoy my random thoughts and shots from our trip.  It’s good to be home, but Viva Las Vegas!!

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Friday Dance Party – Luck Be A Lady Tonight

It’s time for Friday Dance Party here on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

It’s time for a little vacation for us here on Glen Road.  We’ve decided to head out to Las Vegas.  Nothing is smarter than leaving Connecticut when it’s 99 degrees outside and heading to Las Vegas where it is 107 degrees!  Don’t worry that we will go up in flames and melt into the desert.  For the most part, we hardly go outside.  If you do, it is usually off to the pool where you can find a cabana to shield you from the sun or misters that blow water on you to keep you cool.  While we like to gamble, we also like a few days in Las Vegas to hit up a few restaurants, see some shows and just have fun.  But back to the gambling…..it would be nice to win a little bit of money.  I’m not talking millions (well, maybe I am), but at least enough to cover the cost of our trip.  It just never really seems to happen.  We must not have that much luck.  That’s where Frank Sinatra comes in.  I’ve decided if I listen to this week’s song “Luck Be A Lady Tonight” over and over and over, then I will get enough luck to win some money.  Either that or I’ll get so sick of listening to the song, I will never want to listen to it again.  So, turn your speakers up a little and go back in time with Frank on his wish for luck.  You’ll notice Frank does a little dancing and you should too.  You’ve made it through another week and deserve it.  If you don’t hear from us again, you’ll know that we hit it big and are looking for our new house in Beverly Hills.  Wouldn’t that be great!?!

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A Happy Father’s Day Wish To All The Dads Out There

All of us here at Acorns On Glen want all the Fathers out there to have the absolute best day possible.  This is the first Father’s Day since my Dad passed away and so now, more than ever, I want everyone to realize the importance of calling up your Father and saying “I love you”.  Such simple words to mutter, but so important for your Father to hear.  So here’s to the all the Dads out there.  May each of you understand how important you are in your children’s life and how much you are loved.  Tell us, how are YOU going to celebrate?

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Friday Dance Party – Alex Clare’s Too Close

It’s time for another edition of Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

It’s graduation time everywhere I turn here in Connecticut.  When I was little, families only celebrated when you graduated from high school.  Today, we are going to parties to celebrate graduations from elementary school, junior high school and high school.  I guess the more parties the better, right?  While I like to go to a graduation party, I have always tried my hardest to get out of times where I was invited to go to the actual graduation ceremony.  I find them extremely boring…..really, so boring they are painful.  The truth be told, I find them so boring that I didn’t even attend my own college graduation.  I had the college send me my diploma and instead of going to my own ceremony, I enjoyed a long vacation in New York.  I think I don’t like the ceremony because of the speakers that are there to encourage the youth.  I have always cringed at the speakers that are chosen for graduation ceremonies.  What really can these speakers say to the young ones that is not cliché and something we’ve heard a thousand times.  Unless you can nab Obama or Oprah to speak at your graduation, you should just skip it in my opinion.

I say all this about graduation speakers and their weak speeches and then I kind of do the same thing this week.  Someone at work asked me what advice I would give to a young employee and I said without hesitation one of the oldest pieces of graduation advice ever given:  “never give up”.  Even though it’s true, it is a lame piece of advice.  I’ve been in the working world over 25 years and this is the best I can do?  I guess I understand why I’ve never given a graduation speech.  So my piece of advice, in all its wisdom, is why this week we are listening to Alex Clare’s song ‘Too Close’.  The actual song and the album it was on bombed when it was released in 2011.  Fast forward to now and have the song used on an Internet Explorer commercial and you come back with an instant hit.  Just goes to show you to “never give up” and you can have a hit with whatever it is that you do in life.  I’m a prophet!  So enjoy the song and dance while listening to it.  You made it through another week…you deserve it.

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Friday Dance Party – Back Again

I just looked up the last time I posted something here on Acorns On Glen and I can’t believe that it has been close to three months ago.  A year ago, I was posting stories (sometimes almost daily) about my life here in Connecticut and now I am posting nothing.  From cooking and gardening stories to absolutely nothing.  I just haven’t felt like it.  I just haven’t had the energy.  You see, I lost my father on April 12.  You may remember that I briefly wrote about it during the holidays.  The days leading up to his leaving and all these days after have been some of the hardest of my 48 years.  I think I have learned a lot about myself during these days of despair.  I know that I have faith.  I have never really been a religious man.  Don’t get me wrong, I have always believed in a power bigger than me.  I think it’s God, but whatever you want to call it is fine by me.  But the belief that there is someone or something up there for me to talk to as well as someone or someplace up there for my father to go to has been very comforting to me over the last few months.

I have also discovered from the ‘most played’ feature on my iPad, that I have listened to the same group of songs over and over during the last few months.  Songs of inspiration, understanding, hope and faith.  The one I chose for today is the one that I listened to the most.  Sometimes it made me think about myself and sometimes it made me think of my father and his battle against cancer.  I’m just glad I found it.

I think my father left us in Spring so that there would be so much for us to do after he was gone.  We’d get on with our lives in a quick manner because there would be gardens to plant, yards to be mowed and flowers to watch bloom.  He wouldn’t want us to be sad for very long and he would want us to quickly get back to living our lives to the fullest without him, just like we did when he was here.  So guess what?  Like I’ve done for so many Fridays here on Acorns On Glen:

It is time for another edition of Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

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Friday Dance Party – Beyonce’s Countdown

So here’s another edition of Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

It’s strange what makes the news nowadays.  It seems we hear more and more celebrity drama reported right up there with the European debt crisis, the war in Afghanistan and the Republican primaries.  On a recent newscast I watched, Mitt Romney’s win in New Hampshire was followed by an in-depth story on Katy Perry’s divorce and the reaction it has gotten from her very Christian parents.  Was this newscast for real?  Do people really care?  I guess they do or this type of reporting wouldn’t exist.  Is it that there is so much going on in the world to depress people that any chance to show someone fall down who seems to “have it all” makes the masses a little happier?  Case in point, the birth this week of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s baby girl, Blue Ivy.  Can you imagine how you would feel if you got your contractions down to a few minutes apart, you rush to the hospital, you deliver your child and at the same time you are creating an international scandal.  Here are some headlines across New York City newspapers this week:

“See The Room Where Beyoncé Gave Birth”

“Beyoncé Gives Birth On Saturday”

“Beyoncé And Jay-Z Welcome Blue Ivy”

“Name Blue IVy Centers On Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Infatuation With The Number 4″

“What Kind Of Name Is Beyoncé’s Baby Blue Ivy”

(Picture courtesy of 50 Cent on Twitter)

“NYC Hospital Under Scrutiny After Beyoncé Birth”

“Hospital Investigating Beyoncé Birth Allegations”

“NYC Mayor Weighs In On Beyoncé Birth”

“New Mother – I Couldn’t Breast Feed My New Baby Because Of Beyoncé Security”

Enough already.  Just let them enjoy the birth of their daughter.  Yes, I know that people say they make a lot of money and sign up for this type of scrutiny, but really, does this mean intense scrutiny even in the most private of life events like the birth of a child.  I just don’t agree with that theory.  So here’s my headline:

“Beyoncé Gives Birth –  Let’s Dance”

We made it through another week.  Let’s celebrate with “Countdown” by Beyoncé.  Go on, you deserve it.  Get up and dance (just don’t let any paparazzi take your picture).  Don’t even let me see you on the cover of the National Enquirer.

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Good Food From Fellow Bloggers

It’s funny how my recipe hunting habits have changed since we started Acorns On Glen.  I used to spend hours reading cookbooks to find that one recipe that was  perfect for that night’s dinner or just the right dessert to end a certain meal on a high note.  I love to cook, but have always cooked using recipes from cookbooks.  I envy people like the Notorious B.I.G. (Brooklyn Italian Grandmother) that can cook a variety of dishes from memory, using just the right amount of this or that by feel versus measuring cups and spoons to get exactly the amount the recipe states.  I think it is the accountant in me that is the reason why I always cook from cookbook recipes.  I like to be able to read the step-by-step narrative and picture in my head what each step will look like and exactly when I will need to chop something or measure something out.

Cookbook reading can also turn into an expensive habit.  I have at least two bookcases full of them ranging from the newest selection from one of the chef’s on the Food Network to cookbooks from chefs that cook at one of the many restaurants we go to when staying in New York City or when we go on vacation.  So while I still spend a lot of time reading and looking for a recipe that will make that night’s perfect dish, I now do it through all the great cooks that blog here on WordPress.  Almost every day, I go into the list of WordPress topics and click on “Recipes” or “Food”.  That takes me into the best cookbook I have read in years.  I’ve been calling it “The WordPress Cookbook”.  There are so many cooks posting recipes for great dishes from all around the world and honestly, I’ve cooked a lot of them.

Which brings me to the sticky buns I made over the weekend from joshuafagans.  His writing about how they are his family’s Christmas tradition was great, but it was the picture of the buns themselves that made my mouth water.  I have to say that I don’t have great luck in making dough.  For whatever reason, my dough never seems to rise very high or seems like a big strip of rubber.  However, after seeing the picture from joshuafagans, I was ready for a little dough adventure.  Please read the original post over at joshuafagans and see how to make it the sane way as well as the quick way, which is pretty funny.  My version is below.  I followed the recipe exactly as written using the “sane” way….read his post and you’ll understand.  Thanks joshuafagans for such a great post and a delicious recipe!

  • 1 cup scalded milk (scalded milk is just heated milk.  You know you are there when bubbles come up on the sides of the pan, but the milk is not yet boiling)
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 package yeast
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 3 eggs
  • 5 1/2 cups flour

Melt the butter in the scalded milk and allow to cool.  Soften the yeast in the water.  Mix milk mixture with the yeast, eggs, sugar, salt and flour.  I did this in a standing mixer until a ball formed and then took the dough out and kneaded it until smooth and elastic.  I let the dough rise for 3 hours inside of my oven with the “Proof” setting turned on.

Divide the dough in half and roll each half into a 10″ x 18″ rectangle.  Spread the butter onto each half.  Combine the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over each rectangle.  Drizzle the syrup over both as well.

Roll the rectangles up in a jelly roll fashion and then slice each roll into 12 slices.  Place into two 9 inch cake pans and let rise for another hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 and bake until nice and brown, at least 30 minutes.  Allow to cool for a few minutes before taking out of the pan.

So give “The WordPress Cookbook” a try if you haven’t already.  If you make these sticky buns, be sure to stop by joshuafagans and thank him.  Enjoy!

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Happy New Year 2012 – Two Ways

There are many ways to bring in the New Year.  So whether you want to bring it in all sweet and sentimental or you bring it in rowdy and crazy, the choice is for you to make.  Whatever way you choose, please know that all of us here at Acorns On Glen want to wish you, your family and your friends a very Happy New Year 2012 and may even your wildest and craziest dreams come true.  We look forward to spending more time with you in 2012.  Our best to you in the New Year…………and where is the Advil for our friend below?