Autumn Gargoyles

I decided to go the longer way to work today to check out the gargoyles.  I could see from a distance that there was something bright and shiny on them.  I thought it was so nice to see the gargoyles wearing their bright autumn wreaths because the drive has become a blur of brown and gray.  The gargoyles always make my day a little brighter, even though they're always sticking their tongues out at me.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Driving home tonight through Wilmington with the snow coming down, I really thought I had skipped a month and that Christmas was only a week away.   The town of Wilmington has all their Christmas decorations up. The reindeer are flying over the road and the telephone poles are decorated with gigantic candy canes, snowflakes, and all of Santa's friends.  

A few friends and coworkers think this is way too early (the town put them up about 2 weeks ago).  Normally I would agree, but just a couple miles up the road is Santa's Workshop. Knowing that Santa works year round preparing for Christmas Day, I wondered if maybe Wilmington, being so close to Santa's Workshop at the North Pole and all, should keep their decorations up year round?  Just a thought.

Steinhof's

Tonight was a very special evening for me and my lady coworker friends ranging in ages 22 - 85 years old.  A bunch of us that live along the Ausable met at Steinhof's in Wilmington for Wing Night.  Every Thursday the sign goes up advertising their 25 cent wings.  I am ashamed to say that I had not been to Steinhof's before.  Nancy, Becky and I arrived on the early side and took a seat at the bar and ordered a drink while we waited for the rest of the group.  The bartender was quite friendly and made us feel comfortable being there, even though we were the only ladies.   Once the rest of our group joined us, we went to the dining room and quickly made our food selections.  Five out of six ordered wings, that's what we were there to sample after all.  On wing night it is eat in only with a minimum of 10 wings per order with a choice of mild, medium, hot, or sweet & tangy.  I had asked Becky earlier what kind of wings she ordered and she said, "I don't like wings.  I'll get a cheeseburger."  Wondering what she doesn't like about wings, she said: "they're veiny."  

So, the Sportsman's Cheeseburger it was for her.  

A few of us sampled her fries and all thought they were homemade.  The fries were delicious, seasoned with just the right amount of salt.  

Onto the wing report...three ordered the mild wings, I ordered the medium, and one ordered the sweet & tangy.  Marie thought her mild wings were, "Very good, nice and moist.  They're just the way I like them."  

Cristina who also had the mild said, "They're just right, not too hot. Those ones are really good too."  She was referring to Lisa's sweet & tangy wings.  

I had tried one of Lisa's wings because I wanted to know what the sweet & tangy was all about. Lisa described them as, "a little like barbecue with a seasoned tang."  I too really enjoyed my wings and thought they were just the right crispness on the outside.  Nancy summed it up best, "They're fingerlicious good."

All of us agreed that we wish our server had brought us some more napkins from the start. But we thought that maybe Steinhof's is trying to go green and only hands out extra napkins if customers ask for them.  Sure enough when we asked, our server brought them right away.

Overall we had a great evening, good food and lots of laughs.  What more could a bunch of ladies ask for?  I will definitely be back!

Animal Heads

About a month ago I had gone to Dartbrook Rustic Goods in Keene.  This is the home store and workshop to the Adirondack rustic furniture maker George Jacques.  Knowing that his furniture sells for quite a bit of money, I knew I would only be browsing.  However, Dartbrook also carries home accents such as baskets, rugs, prints, and of course animal racks.  I am not really a fan of decorating my home with dead animal heads, I think it's a feng shui/dead spirit kind of thing for me.  At Dartbrook there is a wide selection of racks that you can purchase.  Here is the simple deer rack:Or you could have the great Moose Rack:  For some reason I wasn't bothered by the deer or moose, maybe because it is pretty common to see them smiling at you at restaurants in the area.  I was a little taken back by the raccoon though.  Look at the cute little furry face on this guy.  I think this would be a little creepy having the little guy on my living room wall watching tv with me.  

I was pleased to see that Dartbrook has a rack for those of you that would like to have one in your home, but not able to commit to the dead animal head, there is a cardboard deer rack:  

Personally, that was my favorite.  And for those of you that aren't willing to hang one of these in your home unless you proudly killed it yourself, Happy Hunting Season!

Disclosure: No animals were hurt or killed while posting this blog.

Gargoyles for Change!

What a week to be a proud American Gargoyle!

Pumpkin Vandalism

Upon letting our cats out this morning, I noticed a couple of our pumpkins were taken off of our porch.  After taking a quick glance around for clues, there in front of me was our "Welcome Pumpkin" laying there on the lawn.  I never intended for this pumpkin to be an invitation for someone to mess with our pumpkins.  Right next to the "Welcome Pumpkin" was another small pumpkin.  As you can see the culprit really enjoyed the pumpkin.  They scooped out the pumpkin guts and appears to have had a most delicious meal.  I am thinking this was probably a raccoon, only because it was a small pumpkin and I don't think a bear's paw would be small enough to do this. 

I looked around for some scat to identify and was not able to see any.  I did see one strand of dark grey or black animal hair on the pumpkin and that is all I have to figure out who did this. I know it was definitely not a teenager wanting to smash some pumpkins, this was a hungry animal.  What kind of animal though?

I think this happened around 10:30 pm last night when Drew and I heard a loud crash noise. We thought the cats were to blame.  After the second crash, I got up and made sure the doors into the house were all properly shut and did not see an animal in our breeze-way or mud room and knew we were safe.  At least I learned my lesson from last month's bear poop incident and now all I have to clean up are some pumpkin guts.

Hillary

Last week I got my car inspected at Devin's in Jay.  Here, I'm always happy to see Hillary on the garage's shelves along with all the masculine NAPA auto parts.   I ask of you my faithful readers, please vote this Tuesday, because if you don't Hillary will squeeze you with her stainless steel thighs or she might even crack your nuts!