We finally finished the poster!  We’re hoping the website will be completed by the end of day today.

. . . That was the message on a bottle cap on Magic Hat #9 that Niles found while he and I picked up garbage yesterday! We went up Highland Ave through the college, and then down a bit on Highland Ave, where all the college students have apartments. That’s the college behind the trash in the picture. Niles wanted the college to be in the shot.

That afternoon, I went out to the store, and saw Hydrox.  That’s right, Hydrox cookies.  They make them again!!!!!  I know that I googled Hydrox a year or two ago, and they had been discontinued.  But they’re back!!  When I was a little kid, my mom would buy Oreos, she would buy Hydrox. Oreos had lard in them, but Hydrox didn’t, so that’s what she got.  I don’t think there really was a difference in taste, but this is what we had at my house, and we all loved them!!!!  Now, I most definitely wouldn’t buy them today (If I’m going to eat cookies, they’re going to be homemade), but I thought it was nice that they were back.  My sister will appreciate this picture.

Then, late last night, I had a meeting at the Fitchburg Armory to discuss the Brew Years Eve party we are planning for this New Year’s Eve. It’s a fundraiser to purchase books for the Fitchburg Public Library. The library had their budget cut by 65%, and they currently have no money for new books.  We’re throwing a kick ass New Year’s Party with great craft winter beers, live music (featuring New Pond Fondle and the Allstonians), and delicious appetizers to go with the beer (really good cheeses, a nice soup, kielbasa skewers).  Last night, we got to see the draft copy of the poster.  Liz’s husband, Jordan, is a graphic designer and does all of our artwork.  This design is on a piece of 11×17 paper, and we’re going to put two bottles on one piece of paper, and then cut it in the middle.  Then the poster will be very long and slim, just like a beer bottle.  We need to get the graphic completed because we need to get a “save the date” e-mail out!  It’s November already, so people are probably already thinking about their New Years plans.  We also want to get a website up and running, so people can have a place to find information on the event (and about the library).  This is the second event that we’ve planned (Trevor, Liz, my dad, and myself), and Liz thinks we should get a production company name and have that be the website.  That way, people know “Ohhh… this is put on by the same people who did the beer fest this summer!  That was awesome, we’ll definitely go to their New Year’s party.”  Liz suggested “River City Productions” and I like it!  But we NEED to get something together so people can start learning about the event, and can start mark their calendars! We also need volunteers to help set up (decorate), help out the night of the event (if you’re TIPS trained, we could use you to pour beer!), and also cleaning up on New Years day. We’re going to all bring brunch food that morning while we clean up, so we can have a celebratory brunch together. If you’re interested in helping, let me know. It’s a guaranteed great time.

So here are some questions:

Would you like to volunteer your time to help out?  (Emiliano, you can volunteer to do our site design!)
Do you have any other ideas for food items that will go great with winter (dark) beers?  (We’re meeting next week to go over the menu)
Do you have a name for our production company? (They’re all Fitchburg based events, and Fitchburg is “The city by the river”)

1.4 miles there and back.

2.8 miles total. One mile is suppose to be about 2,000 steps. Total, my run should be about 5,600. But I’m home, and my pedometer only reads 4,792, and that includes any steps I took before my run. What the heck? Stupid pedometer! I would have done way more steps if I have WALKED to the Rec Center and back, usually that’s about 3,000 or more alone!

A friend of mine asked me what I voted on one of the questions (it had to do with dog racing), and I told him. In response, he said, “I hope you get euthanized” to which I responded with “*rolls eyes*.” To which my friend said “Whatever Robin.” So then I said “I can have my opinion, and vote for what I want.” And he did not respond.

I have friends that are voting for different things than they are, and I certainly don’t tell them that I want them to die. Seriously.

I made an apple cranberry crisp last night.  It was deeeeelicious.

Apple Cranberry Crisp

• 2 pounds  apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 cup cranberries
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.) Butter an 8 inch square baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, mix together apples, cranberries, white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Place evenly into baking dish.
3. In the same bowl, combine oats, flour and brown sugar. With a fork, mix in butter until crumbly. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle over apples.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until topping is golden brown, and apples are tender.

I have tons of apples hanging around the house, because our local apple orchard (Marshall Farm, or, as I call it, Bitchy Farm) is having an end of season sale.  Apples went from $1.59 to $.59  a pound (at the grocery store, they are $.99, and not from Fitchburg).  I went Friday afternoon, and bought 27 pounds of apples.  $16 worth of apples.  I bought a huge bag of Marshall McIntosh, and then a slightly smaller, but still large, bag of McCouns.  My mom doesn’t like the McCouns, so the smaller bag will be just for me.  We have lots of apples to eat, and bake with.  Today, my mom is baking two apple pies.  One to bake today, and one to freeze for later.

I LOVE baking new things, but don’t really like them hanging around for more than one day.  I have a WONDERFUL book, Small Batch Baking, it has recipes for making four brownies, or six cookies, or two small tarts (among many things).  It’s wonderful to make things that small, especially if I’m cooking for myself.  Anyway, I had probably two servings of the dessert after dinner (I had a small serving of lasagna and small salad to leave room!).  Then, I got hungry around 10, and had a couple more bites while I made popcorn.  Then, I went out with Niles at 11 to get a drink at Hooligans (he had called on his way home from work, and figured I could go out for a bit!).  Then I came home and had several more bites!!!!  It was very yummy, but I wrote a note on it asking my dad to “Bring this to work, and please don’t leave me any.”  I had already eaten probably 1/2 of the entire crisp!!!!  I don’t like things hanging around the house, cause I have absolutely no control over myself, and will just pick and pick and pick.  Dylan made brownies when he was home last weekend, and I told my mom to hide them, cause I couldn’t contain myself.  I would just rather things not hang around like that.  And that is why the small serving sizes are awesome.  Or, just bake sweets when we’re going to a dinner party, and then there won’t be left overs.

Luckily, I’m not crazy about apple pie (I like it, but I don’t love it).  I like more interesting things (crisps, crumbles, tarts, things with more than one fruit, or much more flavor).  I want to make Apple Pumpkin Bread next!

I went on a hike with Jeanne. It was a great hike, and it sure was a workout.  We were very exciting about getting to the top and being able to eat lunch.

This was the view from the top.  It was very beautiful.  It was also a fantastic day for a hike.  It was about 60 degrees, and sunny!

This last picture was something incredibly weird.  This part of the ground was black, like it had been burned, and crunched when we walked on it.  It was strange.  I took a picture of it, cause it looked like the site of a UFO abduction, where the UFO burned the ground. 

This is one of the new dorms at Fitchburg State.  They tore down some houses, and turned one of them into apartment like dorms.  I walk by this dorm every day when I walk to the gym.  I don’t understand all of this unused space.  I have never once seen any students hanging out in this grass.  No playing catch, no reading in the grass, no picnic lunches.  Nothing.

I understand that it’s colder out now, but even in August and September, no one was out in the grass.  It is such beautiful grass, I can’t understand it.  I want the school to put picnic tables there to encourage people to hang out there.

Walked to the gym again, and got a lot of the trash I had missed. There was also, unfortunately, a lot of trash in places that I KNEW that I had gotten all of the trash.  24 hours later, there was trash again.

At the gym, I’ve been doing interval training. One minute jogging at 5mph and one minute running at 8mph. It’s fun, and Eric said it’s the best way to burn fat. I also enjoy walking  to the gym cause it’s a good mile each way!

Fat.

That’s the obvious answer.
What else could it be?

Made her lactose intolerant?
Made her get brain freeze?

Any others?

Mom and I went out early this morning and picked up tons of trash. I brought two bags, she brought only one. We filled all three.  This time, we went down North St, and then picked up trash along the Civic Center parking lot where all the college kids park.  We left the bags there, because the college has a trash can inside that shuttle stop, so when we got home, we just called and said we left bags there for them to pick up.  It was a lot easier than dragging them all home.

Or, pick it up as the case was today! I grabbed two trash bags and headed down Rindge Road. I didn’t even make it half way. My bags got so full!  One of them started ripping, which was super annoying (the one on the left).  It was a different bag than the other one, and it was far inferior.  The other one had cool handles which made it a lot easier to carry.  It also looks like it held a lot more.  Those cute little purple gloves are what I wore to protect my hands from the gross-ness.  They’re cloth, gardening gloves.  No plastic gloves for me!

I think I want to start a Facebook group asking my friends if they want to help me pick up garbage around town.  I think I was out for only 45 minutes (and got about 3,500 steps in).  It’d be nice to have at least one other person with me, cause then we could do even more bags of trash!  If they wanted, they could bring their iPod and listen to music and ignore me.  Or, we could hang out and chat.  It’d just be nice to have someone come with me. We could even make little “picking up trash” t-shirts, with funny logos and sayings on them.

Three people stopped and talked to me as I was picking up trash.  The first was my friend Mark, who was walking home from McKay.  He said that I was “a really good person” (but this was after he gave me a weird look). Then a woman power walking on Rindge Road stopped and said she hopes I find a winning lottery ticket, and that it was really nice that I was doing that.  That’s how I noticed there was all the trash, from exercising on Rindge Road!  Then, as I was almost home with my two full bags of garbage, a man stopped driving and asked if that was garbage from around the neighborhood, and I said “I went down Rindge Road, but I only made it half way.”  And then he said something about it being a lot of garbage, and then he thanked me!  Which I thought was really nice.

I’m going to do it again, but I don’t know when.  Anyone want to come with?