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Where has the summer gone? For us, it was a time of hard work and satisfaction in many areas. Tom's new job, our new yard, Josh moving back to Seattle to start the next phase of his life, and the addition of another dog. September is proving to be time of winding down, yet tossing in some fun stuff, too. For example, on September 8th, Tom and I were at Fenway with seats on the Green Monster, where FOUR homeruns were hit into the seats! And the Stundza Clan is going on a boat ride around Boston Harbor next weekend with a yacht club member's cabin cruiser.
The sad news is that my 13-year-old Sebring convertible finally bit the dust. After five years of faithful service, "Baby" started to show the ails of 97,000+ miles and a rough life by the ocean (she never had a garage). It was either spend a small fortune to get her back in shape or let her go. After much thought, it was decided to allow her to quietly go off to rest. The dilemma was whether to spend a small amount and get another clunker or to up the ante and look for
something very dependable. We needed something we could use for our day-trips or even short weekend hops that would not rack up miles on the leased Edge. But, since this would be my primary car, it had to be a rag top. After searching for many weeks, I found a car I really loved and it met all the criteria: Tom was comfortable behind the wheel, there is room for the dogs, the gas mileage is better than "Baby" and it looks HOT! "Sugaa" is now a part of the family. She's a 2006 Toyota Camry Solara with only 35,000 miles on it. She's in really great shape and has a crazy story. THIS IS THE TRUTH!!!! She was owned by a 72 year old Plumber from Revere. He decided that he needed something different so he traded her in for a 2011 Mustang Shelby convertible!!!! His nephew is the sales manager at York Ford and the Solara had just come in the day I saw her. Uncle has to wait another month for his new car, but we have "Sugaa" now and we love her!!!!!
Last week Tom had a visit from one of his old high-school, college & Post-Tribune buddies whom he hadn't seen in a gazillion years. It was wild getting these two together again. The stories! Glenn Arnold Surrette was with us just for one night but he seemed to be an old friend of mine as well. He and his wife live in Charleston, S.C., have a dog and two cats so he fit right in with our zoo. He pulled up to the house in the most beautiful Corvette C5 that I have seen in ages, named the Blue Shark, and it turns out he has an Austin-Healy Sprite MK I too! The Healy is my favorite car of all time and I had a '56 back in my youth. If the guy has that taste in cars, he's #1 in my book!
The yard is as done as it will get except fot the planting of some bulbs for the spring. Some summer plants have been replaced with Mums and Asters for the fall and we added some Ornamental Millet for fall. The work on the upper deck is paused as our contractor had some major problems on a couple of other sites he is working on. The other sites involve unlivable situations vs my outside deck, so I told him to see to the other houses first. I just want the work done before winter sets in. Tom is not pleased, to say the least.
The sad news is that my 13-year-old Sebring convertible finally bit the dust. After five years of faithful service, "Baby" started to show the ails of 97,000+ miles and a rough life by the ocean (she never had a garage). It was either spend a small fortune to get her back in shape or let her go. After much thought, it was decided to allow her to quietly go off to rest. The dilemma was whether to spend a small amount and get another clunker or to up the ante and look for
something very dependable. We needed something we could use for our day-trips or even short weekend hops that would not rack up miles on the leased Edge. But, since this would be my primary car, it had to be a rag top. After searching for many weeks, I found a car I really loved and it met all the criteria: Tom was comfortable behind the wheel, there is room for the dogs, the gas mileage is better than "Baby" and it looks HOT! "Sugaa" is now a part of the family. She's a 2006 Toyota Camry Solara with only 35,000 miles on it. She's in really great shape and has a crazy story. THIS IS THE TRUTH!!!! She was owned by a 72 year old Plumber from Revere. He decided that he needed something different so he traded her in for a 2011 Mustang Shelby convertible!!!! His nephew is the sales manager at York Ford and the Solara had just come in the day I saw her. Uncle has to wait another month for his new car, but we have "Sugaa" now and we love her!!!!!Last week Tom had a visit from one of his old high-school, college & Post-Tribune buddies whom he hadn't seen in a gazillion years. It was wild getting these two together again. The stories! Glenn Arnold Surrette was with us just for one night but he seemed to be an old friend of mine as well. He and his wife live in Charleston, S.C., have a dog and two cats so he fit right in with our zoo. He pulled up to the house in the most beautiful Corvette C5 that I have seen in ages, named the Blue Shark, and it turns out he has an Austin-Healy Sprite MK I too! The Healy is my favorite car of all time and I had a '56 back in my youth. If the guy has that taste in cars, he's #1 in my book!
The yard is as done as it will get except fot the planting of some bulbs for the spring. Some summer plants have been replaced with Mums and Asters for the fall and we added some Ornamental Millet for fall. The work on the upper deck is paused as our contractor had some major problems on a couple of other sites he is working on. The other sites involve unlivable situations vs my outside deck, so I told him to see to the other houses first. I just want the work done before winter sets in. Tom is not pleased, to say the least.
The pups are in a contest for the Cocker Spaniel Rescue of New England. They are having their big fund raiser and you can help by voting for your favorite picture! Go to http://www.csrne.org/ and scroll down until you see the link for "enter your pet pictures", then scroll down until you start to see the pictures. There are so many beautiful dogs. I entered a photo of each dog and then one of "The Pack". The Pack seems to really be getting votes. Each vote costs $2 and the money goes to helping with the care and wellbeing of dogs waiting for their forever homes. We are all going to the Auction and Dinner in early October.
With fall creeping up on us, I was hungry for a chicken chili. None of the recipies I found sounded good and I didn't want to make a trip to the store for a bunch of ingredients I might never use again so I tried just using what I had in the cupboard. SCORE!!! Below is Keleigh's Chicken Chili for Two:
2 chicken breast halves, skinned
1/2 cup chopped white onion
1/2 green pepper, chopped fine
1 T minced garlic
2 T Adobo sauce out of a can of poblano chilies
1 quart of chicken broth
2 small cans of great northern white beans.
Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and brown in large frying pan. Toss in the rest of the ingreidents, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes. Remove the cover and simmer to the thickness you like. Serve with oyster cracker, a good country bread or garlic crutons. A dolop of sour cream adds a coolness to the pepper heat. Give it a try, I think you will like it.
So much for the start of our Fall. I hope our weather holds up for many weeks to come. I really need the time to plant the Spring bulbs! I hope you all are having good days and good health. As always Life at Seagull Cottage is Blessed.
