It really is difficult to comprehend ...

... the amount of chocolate we now have in our apartment.

Merry Christmas!

(It's even snowing outside, a little!)

"Those houses"

Every year, Tom and I make a point of driving by certain houses that have outlandish outdoor Christmas decorations. There is one particular neighborhood that has a few very dependable displays every year. People who live within ten miles of this stretch know exactly which ones we mean.

This one is on a side street.


It has actually toned down over the years -- originally, there were lights on the rooftop that were made to look like snowballs. For some reason (actually I can think of plenty of good reasons!) they stopped putting those up.

If you roll down the windows, you can here some tinny-sounding Christmas music coming from god knows which of those decorations.

Then, a short drive around the corner is this:

(and they've actually toned this one down since last year -- much less kitsch, and they picked a color scheme!)

That one's on a pretty major road, and people tend to slow down and stare in disbelief. When we were there, a tow truck was towing away a dented car (no one was hurt) -- right across the street from this house. I'd be surprised if it was the only fender-bender in the vicinity with all those lights on.

And a short drive from there was this.

Yikes.

I know there are other crazy-houses around, but these? They're the must-sees.

Is it a sign?

This perfect red leaf was lying on the steps of my workplace the other day.


But there were no trees nearby that had leaves of that color. There was just this one, all by itself, lying patiently on the stair.

It was gone when I went out at lunchtime.

Perhaps it had accomplished its mission by then.

Three-day weekends rule

Had some extra vacation days that needed using up, so I've been taking Fridays off.

I highly recommend it. It's amazing how much adding one day to the "weekend" improves quality of life.

Of course, almost as fun was announcing a couple weeks ago, "I'm not coming in on Friday FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR!"

One of the many nice things about this time of year ...

... is that I can usually convince Tom to bake a batch or two of his stunningly wonderful cookies.

The chocolate/chocolate-chunk/walnut was the latest master creation. They're amazing out of the oven, but even a couple days later, just pop a couple in the microwave for 15 seconds apiece ... mmmm.

Happiness!

Nasty attack sidewalks

Last month, I was out walking around town. I came upon this curb.


I checked traffic, decided it was safe, and confidently strode out, only to discover ...

... that someone had stolen the concrete.

The results were startling and spectacular (not to mention painful and bloody!). It was only just a couple weeks ago that I finally stopped wearing an ankle brace. I can walk just fine on it, but I wouldn't want to run a 50-yard dash just yet.

I politely emailed the city asking them to please consider fixing little evil surprises like this one. Sure enough, in under two weeks, it was paved over.

I just wish my ankle would heal that quickly! Ouch.

Accelerated turkey preparation

How it went down yesterday at the home where we spend Thanksgiving:

12:05pm - set up deep fryer outside (propane heater, large vat of oil). Eat appetizers and chat with guests.

12:55pm - determine that the bubbling oil is at the right temperature (I think he said 375F). Enlist a guest to help as you bring the trussed-up turkey outside and lower it into the oil. Go back inside, and think about serving the soup course.

1:56pm - turkey is done. Turn off propane, lift turkey out of boiling oil, bring inside. Carve.

It's a pretty impressive operation he's got, really -- and while the turkey is bubbling away outside, the oven is free for roasting veggies, baking bread, etc. The only time he uses the oven for the Thanksgiving turkey is if it's pouring rain outside (which it hasn't done in years).

Thanksgiving is always a great time with this group. The leftover pumpkin pie is an awesome bonus, too.

I think that's a new one for me ...

Even growing up in the Snow Belt in western New York, I don't think I ever heard of a town having to cancel trick-or-treating on Halloween night because of a bad storm.

Some towns even -- and I'm quoting this -- "cancelled Halloween, with no makeup dates established."

Not cancelled trick-or-treating -- cancelled Halloween! Hmm ...

Still, getting a howling ice-and-snowstorm complete with thunder, lightning, and cracking of tree branches (many of which had not lost their leaves yet) was not what we were in the mood for. And in October, no less!

We may have to turn the heat on before Thanksgiving this year.

The return of Cake Wrecks

Jen and John of Cake Wrecks were in Boston last night, at Brookline Booksmith. They gave a hilarious slide show and talk featuring unbelievable cake designs, and a cupcake contest -- to see who could imitate a previous wreck in the form of a cupcake.


In honor of the seriously hideous category of "pregnant belly cakes" (if you haven't seen some of these, you wouldn't believe that some baker would actually sit down and plan out some of these things ... ugh!).


And Darth Vader, as usual, riding a ... purple deer?! Yeah.

After the talk, Jen and John hung around to talk and sign books.


And of course, there was cake.


Mmmm ... oreo frosting ...


The audience pretty much devoured this cake -- it was really tasty. Tom couldn't come with me last night but I brought him a slice (I would like to point out that when I left the bookstore, it was SNOWING! Ahem?! It's still October, do you mind?).

After I got home we spent a good half hour going through the book, laughing and cringing at the pictures.

Very fun!

I will always remember exactly where I was

when I found out about Steve Jobs.

Signage near Bar Harbor

There seemed to be a theme to this one block in the downtown.

Love the photo of the example "manly men".

And around the corner:


The funniest part about this place was the slightly put-out looking teenage girl running the cashier at the MAN store.

There were dozens of places to get lobster, of course.

Live lobsters, packed for travel. Hmmm ...

But this one really took the prize.

It's a bargain!

Saw this storefront downtown today.

Really striking -- you see this huge window, with a big grid of shelves in front of it.


That whole grid is made up of old sewing machines.

At least a hundred of them!

It's an unusually long storefront, and the effect is very dramatic.


Very cool (and more interesting than the merchandise sold inside!).

Well, that was an unexpected reaction

There's a cupcake shop that has special "autumn flavors" that we really like -- especially ginger molasses! We buy a small assortment and then split each one so we can both have a taste.

They have a flavor called "salted chocolate" that for some reason they consider an autumn treat. I really like it -- it's like a brownie with a sprinkling of salt crystals on top.

Tom never seemed to like this flavor as much as I did. Last night he told me why:

"Salt together with chocolate tastes like mustard."

I have no explanation.

However, I can understand why a mustard-flavored cupcake might not make one's personal top-ten list. He probably won't be wanting to split the salted chocolate cupcakes with me anymore -- so if we ever get another, I will have to eat it all myself. Tragic ...

Around Southwest Harbor

The day after the Gorham hike, we checked out the western side of Mount Desert Island.

We did some very mellow, easy, trails, including this really nice one.


We liked this trail a lot. It went through woods, then blueberry patches and led to rocky shores, where we walked on boulders and spent lots of time staring into tide pools, trying to spot as many crabs as possible.




When we were driving around the area, we found this pretty view in Somes.


It was a nice kind of rest day.

After the Gorham hike ...

We thought we'd relax on Sand Beach for awhile.

But not for long!

Brrr!

All the fog we saw from the mountain top made the beach kinda chilly.

Not to mention that the ocean isn't exactly balmy up in Maine; some people were swimming happily enough, granted, but there was one college-age guy who ran into the water, then turned around and sprinted out, screaming like a banshee. Bit of a nasty shock for him!

So we walked along the Ocean Trail, a nice easy scenic shore trail.


Not to mention it had great rocks to rest on.

And seagulls to amuse the photographer.

Verrry relaxing.

Trail markers

Normally, on the hikes Tom and I take, the trails are marked with little circular signs tacked to trees, or paint blazes on a tree trunk or a rock. But on some of the trails in Acadia, we saw these.


I hadn't seen these before, but apparently they are fairly common on mountain trails and are called cairns (I'm sure many of you already knew that!).

They had a pretty uniform look: two base rocks, a long flat rock connecting them, and a small rock on top of that.


They were plentiful on the Gorham trail, especially near the summit.



And then there were a few that didn't quite make it.

Oops?

But we got the idea anyway.

Maybe we'll do this one next time ...

One the walk down from Gorham Mountain, we saw this view.


There was a group of people standing around just staring up at the people doing this hike.


Look how tiny the people up there are! And how ... near the edge they are, too!

That's the Beehive Trail, and apparently it's a short but rather vertical walk ... and from what other people were saying, that trail is really, really narrow in some places. And there's not exactly a hand railing as you go.

Tom and I watched for awhile in a kind of fascinated horror, but later that evening, we agreed that it would be really cool to try going up that trail ... some other time!

Whoa!

The top of Gorham Mountain

The views up there were awesome.


Watching the fog roll in and change shape over the land was really mesmerizing.




This isn't quite the top, but it wasn't far from here.


I think it was a little breezier up there.

The seagull didn't seem to notice.

Phew!

Climbing a mountain

We had a perfect day to do the Gorham Mountain trail. As mountain climbing goes, this wasn't very hard, and it had great rocks to climb on and stunning views at the top. Big payoff, as climbs go.

Partway up the mountain, the trail split off this way.


We decided to walk the Cadillac Cliff Walks part, and were rewarded with lots of terrific boulders to scramble into and over. It was also shadier and cooler.

Almost there!

When we rejoined the Gorham Mountain Trail, the walk up to the summit was mellow compared to hauling around and over all those rocks! But this part of the trail was the most fun.

Hiking the Jordan Stream Trail

One of the hikes we did in Acadia National Park was the Jordan Stream Trail - it was nice and cool and shady and had the sound of a bubbly stream next to us through the entire walk.

It also features this nice stone bridge.

"Hi there!"

It was a really beautiful and peaceful trail - we only ran into two other people the entire time we were on it. Near the end of the trail, though, some of the wooden plank walkways looked a little worn out.

Um, yeah. Watch your step.

The trail joined a carriage road, which we took back to the Jordan Pond House and the outdoor cafe.

What a relief to flop on the grass after that hike!

It was a great place to rest and have food. The recommended experience there was the Afternoon Tea -- your choice of tea and two popovers, which are fluffy pastries baked in a muffin tin but with lots of air in the middle. They're served with butter and jams and they're delicious (but perhaps next time Tom and I can just split one order!).

Plus, this is the view while you eat.

Jordan Pond, with the North and South "Bubbles" in the distance.

Not surprisingly, parking at Jordan Pond House was no laughing matter either. But once you're there, even the lot is full and it seems like there's got to be a million people around, it's still easy to find a trail with hardly anyone on it.

It's such a beautiful place.