Lagging Behind

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That tiny little bird on the far right? That's me.

I need to catch up on posts!!!!

I thought for sure I'd write more than one with this being a long weekend (and even longer for me, as I took Friday off), but no can do.

Oh well, if this is the worst problem I have at this moment, I'll take it.

As I said, I took Friday off, as did John. For a few months, I'd been saying that I wanted to see a special exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston -- John Singer Sargent's watercolors.

I LOVE Singer Sargent's portraits (which he's known for). I can't remember if I first saw them in D.C. at the National Gallery or at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

This is my fave:

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This is entitled, "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit." It's a rather dark picture, but I love the youthfulness of it.

When I heard that Singer Sargent had done watercolors, I was pretty surprised. His portraits tend to be dark, like the one above, while as watercolors are generally much lighter.

I bought tickets online and on Friday morning, John and I drove into Boston to check out the exhibit.

We had to wait in line for maybe 20 minutes and it was VERY crowded.

This is the design that was on the elevator bank:

We made it to the lower level!

Once we finally got into the exhibit, the crowd didn't thin out at all. At first we stood "in line" and followed the crowd around the walls. At some point, I couldn't take it anymore and broke free. I realized that I didn't need to be front and center, but could admire the paintings from afar.

Here are some of my favorites (excuse the not so good pics, but not being front & center does have its drawbacks):

All in all, it was a real nice exhibit. I wasn't fond of the quarry series he did, I otherwise like the rest. Interestingly, there weren't as many watercolors as I thought there'd be and there were oils mixed in AND there were paintings from Edward Darley Boit mixed in. Huh.

What else has been going on?

My Mom was here for about five days. I had some time off with her before I got sick (ugh) and we had a nice visit. We shopped, we ate, we shopped, we watched HGTV, we shopped. OK...like mother, like daughter.

I've been engrossed in cookbooks that I've gotten from the library. I bookmark the recipes I like and try to find them online and Pin them. If I can't, I go the old fashioned route and photocopy. Here are the latest I've been plowing through:

Let's talk British TV, shall we?

As you probably know, Season 4 of Downton Abbey has started.

This is me and my reaction so far:

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It's sad, really. The first episode had promise, but since then it's all gone to crap. Grrr. (Of course, I'll still watch in case it makes a miraculous turnaround.)

On the other side of the spectrum, I started watching another British TV series (from the very beginning) and wasn't so sure about it, but by the end of the first episode of the first season, I'm sold!

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It's on Netflix, so check it out!

I have to do my 2013 "Year in Books" post -- I read some good ones. (The one I started 2014 with was a dud and I stopped reading it, which I almost NEVER do.)

Got about 100 pages in and couldn't take the arduous details anymore (it's close to 600 pages in total). My Mom loved it, but I just couldn't see wasting my time on it. If you read it and like it, let me know.

I was looking into taking a beginning sewing class, but....

you have to bring your own machine.

WTF? Some people I've told that to thought it made sense and others, not so much.

Needless to say, I won't be buying a sewing machine to take one class to find out I suck at it or hate it.

Phew.

I think that catches us up.

I'd promise that I'll write another post soon, but it might be a lie.

State of Affairs Here

We have a LOT of snow here in northeastern Massachusetts.

Like, 17-20".

I now know what it's like to live in the tundra.

This was from my Weather Channel app last night.

Brrrrrr.

Even the deer thought it was chilly and were hunkered down. (In my backyard.)

In other non-weather related news...

I have a blog to profile for my next installment of "50 States? 50 Blogs!" Georgia's up and I have a really unique blog to write about (at least I consider it unique). I'm  hoping to get that published tomorrow.

I've been a cooking maniac again!

I haven't been taking pics, but I can share the recipes with you.

For New Year's Eve, I made two new recipes:

Spicy Kielbasa Dip from the blog From Valerie's Kitchen. It was AWESOME! A hot dip (temperature and spice-wise) was perfect for a cold night.

PSA: I'm totally loving recipes From Valerie's Kitchen. Check it out. (I also made her Crock-Pot Cocktail Meatballs, which I'd made before. This time I just did them on the stovetop, though and they were just as good!)

The other recipe I made for New Year's Eve was not quite as good as the Spicy Kielbasa Dip.

Long story short -- I had a coupon for Stonewall Kitchen's Apple Cranberry Chutney, so I had to buy it (of course). I immediately set off on their website to find a recipe to go with it. I selected Cranberry Brie Bites, because who doesn't like brie and who doesn't like pastry? (I've also had good luck with other Stonewall recipes.)

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First let me say that I think I thought chutney was something altogether different. (I didn't realize it would have an Indian spice twist to it). 

Second, let me say that my bites didn't look quite as lovely/crispy as above photo.

They weren't bad, but they weren't superb, either. If you're into chutney you might like them. We didn't.

This is my next project:

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Chorizo-Queso Egg Rolls. Because again, who doesn't like cheese? I'll let you know how these work out.

After dining on our yummy apps on New Year's Eve, we watched this "interesting" movie:

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Jayne Mansfield's Car. Weird name for a weird movie. Admittedly it was the only non-kids/semi-interesting movie left at Redbox. It's a Billy Bob Thornton movie. Need I say more? (He's in it, too. What a weirdo.) To summarize it, I'd say Southern dysfunctional family meets British dysfunctional family. Ok then.

My Mom comes for a visit on Friday...I can't wait to see her! Hopefully it will have warmed up and maybe some cleaning fairies will have appeared and whipped this place into shape?

Oh, and yeah, about that last blog post? I lasted 48 hours and then reactivated Facebook.

Not bad.

It probably wasn't the best idea to quit cold turkey in the middle of a snowstorm during which it was too cold to go outside, my office was closed, etc..

It's all good, however. Social media relapse is a part of that personalized 12-step program I mentioned. It was fully expected. I can only hope to go twice as long next time I quit!

Step Away from Facebook

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Approximately 30 hours ago I took the first step in my personalized 12-step program.

I deactivated my Facebook account.



My name is Katie.

I was addicted to Facebook.


Sad, but true.

I found myself realizing that I was spending much too much time on Facebook.

I was using it as an excuse when I didn't want to do things that I should be doing, i.e., cleaning, organizing, working.

Don't get me wrong -- Facebook's not ALL bad.

A friend from college was reunited with a high school friend and fell in love and married on New Year's Eve. I loved watching their relationship blossom and seeing over the moon happy pics from their wedding.

I was reunited with friends that I had lost touch with over the years and was happy to see how their lives have developed.

You know what, though?

In addition to Facebook being an excuse for not doing the things I mention above, I tend to think it's hindered my personal contact with friends and family.

I aim to change that.

As I told my friends from my Facebook-based chat board, "This may only last 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 days. Who knows."

I'm taking it one minute at a time (spoken like a true addict!)

I may go back.

I may not.

And maybe...just maybe...with all this free time, I'll even blog more!