FLOTUS Birthday Wish

Happy 50th Birthday to the FLOTUS!



Nothing personal, Michele, but I will really be celebrating on your 53rd.

Income Taxes

Time to feed the cat

New Year's Resolutions - 2014

Plan and Confront Each Day.
We have the ability to guide our own experiences of this life's journey, rather than randomly bump into the future.  Planning helps you to enhance your observation of your life events.
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Respect the time it takes to complete tasks and realize that everything will eventually get done, but not necessarily today.   Spread your tasks into realistic time slots in your daily calendar, and don't be afraid to push items ahead to future time slots.  Sometimes, accomplishing a task is realizing that it can not be completed immediately.   This technique reduces stress.

Process the Present.
Deal with the events and challenges that are sent your way daily.  To procrastinate is to give our challenges power that they don't deserve.
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 Open your mail as soon as you receive it, scan it, and discard as much paper as possible in real time. Never let an envelope rest unopened.   If you can't pay a bill immediately using Internet Banking, set a time in the future when you will pay it.  Return emails and calls as soon as possible.  Business is a tennis match.  Make sure that the ball doesn't sit in your court.
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Exercise every day.... no excuse.  Keeping healthy is more important than sitting on the couch watching TV, or conducting business.    Exercise and Health is essential to good business and needs to be recognized as a first priority  in the present.

Try Not to Judge Your Life's Experiences
This is God's Plan, not Your's.  Planning helps you to recognize and appreciate the direction of the Journey that has been chosen for you.  Good and Bad are changing, transitory labels.
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Keep the Drama to a minimum.  Life is mean't to be joyful.  It it doesn't seem that way, be patient... it will.  Eventually there is always a reason for the bad that leads to the good,... although it may take a few lifetimes to see it through.

BTW, these resolutions are hard to keep, but I believe that attention to them will aid the quality of life..

2014 Nanepashemet Peep of the Year

The moment that so many of you have waited all year to witness is now upon you.  As we witness the waning moments of 2013 and look to the birth of a New Year of hope and promise, the time to select the Nanepashemet Peep of the Year descends upon us with its normal elements of gripping intrigue and intensity.
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The most sophisticated Nanepashemet Peeps know the criteria for selection and keep its tenets close to their bosom week in and week out during the year.  To be selected as a recipient of this Honor/Disgrace, the hapless yet fortunate individual must....

• Not be Dead.
• Not be an Animal.
• Have done something either exceptionally Inspirational or exceptionally Annoying.

And the reason for the selection must never be disclosed lest a severe tear be made in the fabric of the Universe.   There is nothing more annoying than to have a Peep of the Week ask me the moronic question, "Why was I picked?"   It immediately justifies the selection and so becomes self explanatory.
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Last year, for reasons that should be as clear as a Moonlit Maine Sky, the Peep of the Year for 2013 was my new Son-in-Law, Brady Boyle.   Brady responded to his selection with an acceptance poem that would have put Robert Frost to shame, and carried out his reign with with incredible style as he carried out his plan to wed my daughter Katelyn in a most memorable matrimonial event.  It was a class act all year long.

But now, Brady's POTY run draws to a close, and it is time to pass the crown to a new Peep of the Year,,, the 2014 POTY.
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People are going to say that you have to become a fully functional member of the Mountain of a Man's immediate family to become POTY..... and that may indeed be the circumstantial evidence.... but I put that squarely in the realm of stranger than life coincidences.

The 2014 Nanepashemet Peep of the Year is Kim Hause... who is to be renamed this year as Kim Nestor, but not because of this POTY gig.

Congratulationss Kim.   Your predecessors will attest that this year promises to to be a whirlwind breakthough as the psychic power of the POTY permeates a most eventful year for you.

TommyO said2:42 PM

Congratulations Kim. Well Done Mr. Nestor.
Some life changes that you should be aware of. Buy hats and sunglasses. Privacy can be tough when you hold such a lofty status. You can't just go out of the house and not expect the throngs of people out there to just nod as you walk buy. They are relentless in thier pursuit to have a brush with greatness. Then there are the tough decisions, your wedding for example will present a tough call. You can sit at the head table with Ryan or sit at the POTY table with the important people. Feel free to call on me if it gets too tough out there, we have to stick together, we can help get you through those times when you just want to be left alone. Congrats again, all the best and Happy New Year. TommyO

POTY Stress

Can you feel the tension?

• Tom McMahon ~ 2007
• Lauren Rathbone ~ 2008
• Michael "Murph" Murphy ~ 2009
• Jeremy Johnson  ~ 2010
• Tommy O'Shea  ~ 2011
• Kerry Russell D'Orio  ~  2012
• Brady Boyle  ~  2013
•   ???????   ~  2014

Pie Crust Recipe for Cuisinart

“ This recipe makes ample crust for a 9 to 11 inch regular or deep-dish pie or tart. Leftover pastry may be rolled out and cut into shapes to garnish the pie, or brushed with milk, sprinkled with sugar or cinnamon and sugar, and baked until lightly browned. "

 Ingredients

 3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in ½-inch pieces, well chilled
2 tablespoons shortening (Crisco), cut in ½-inch pieces, well chilled
5 to 8 tablespoons ice water

 Instructions

 Insert the metal blade. Process the flour, salt and baking powder to sift, 10 seconds.

 Add the well chilled butter and shortening. Use short rapid pulses until the mixture resembles coarse corn meal and no pieces of butter larger than a “pea” remain visible, 15 to 20 pulses.

 Sprinkle half the maximum ice water on the flour and butter mixture, then pulse 5 or 6 times. The dough will be crumbly, but should begin to hold together when a small amount is picked up and pressed together.

Sprinkle on more water, a teaspoon (two for the two-crust recipe) at a time, with 2 to 3 quick pulses after each addition, adding just enough water for the dough to hold together easily when pressed into a ball. Add the liquid sparingly so that the dough is not sticky. Do not over process or the pastry will be tough, not tender and flaky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Press together into a ball, then flatten into a disk about 6 –inches in diameter (two disks for the two-crust recipe). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour before continuing to allow the glutens in the flour to rest.

 The dough will keep refrigerated for up to 3 days, or may be frozen (double wrapped) for up to a month, thaw at room temperature for an hour before using.

 To bake the pastry blind for a single crust filled pie or tart, roll out pastry 1/8-inch thick to fit pan, crimp and seal edges. Prick bottom all over with a fork. Chill for 30 minutes.

 Preheat the oven to 400º F.

 Line with a sheet of aluminum foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights, dry rice or beans. Bake for 15 minutes. -

See more at: http://www.cuisinart.com/recipes/desserts/405.html

Smartphone Photo Consequense

It was another wonderful Christmas... now in the record books.   Even a Mountain of a Man can take a break from the reveling and frivolity.... but not without bearing the consequences of unforgiving smartphone photos.

Merry Christmas from Henry the Cat

Christmas Eve Excursion

Are you ready for Christmas?
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With so many raised expectations, it is a time of much planning and not a little stress.
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Thanks to Amazon, I can generally take care of my relatives in Florida, and leave the grandkids to Joanne.
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But now that the kids all have significant others that Joanne and I really love, the Christmas Eve. restaurant dinner is threatening to be a break the bank affair.  There will be eight joyous people, festively libating and celebrating the season with uninhibited ordering from the high priced menu.
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If it wasn't so much fun, I would really be dreading it... but some of these Christmas Eve. Family restaurant excursions have become my favorite holiday memories.... I'm sure another is in store tomorrow night.

PAtriot Game Strategy

Apple Crisp... Antidote for a ton of apples that I bought.

This is on the diet for the Christmas season and well beyond.  I'm doing a telecom lease with a beautiful apple orchard on the NH Seacoast Region and bought a lot of apples in the process.

 

Apple Crisp

 

• 
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Total Time: 45 mins
• Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 8 apples or 8 peaches, peeled
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup cold butter

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. Lightly grease a 13x9 glass pan.
3. Cut fruit into slices (removing pit or seeds) and layer in bottom of pan.
4. Mix dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and then cut in butter with a pastry cutter (cut until crumbly).
5. Sprinkle mixture over fruit.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
7. Top should be browned.
8. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.