« October 2011 | Main | December 2011 »

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Christmas Mail

Oliver-xmascardsAs you can see in the picture I have been busy writing my Christmas cards and of course the cats have been a great help (or so they think anyway I am sure) I finished my international card batch on Sunday and my domestic US/Canada cards yesterday, Tuesday. Also packaged up all my gifts that need to be mailed. Hopefully we can make it to the post office tomorrow or Friday and get all that mailed out.

Haven't put up any decorations around the house yet but I figure I will do that this weekend. One of my staff members decorated everything up at the office really nice so been surrounded by it at work since Friday last week. Should get to it at home over the weekend.

Work's been steadily busy which is about normal for this time of the year. Ready for another vacation but we won't get a break until New Year's when we have our 2-night B&B getaway in New Hampshire. Definitely looking forward to that. 

Mail update: Received letters from/owe replies to: Carmen/Malta, Eunice/Malta and Nina/WA

Posted by Hanna at 12:02 PM in Cats, Holidays | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, November 25, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

A_charlie_brown_thanksgiving-show Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone. :) Had a nice day yesterday. We slept in, lounged around the house for a bit (I got three letters done while sitting on the couch with the cats and drinking tea) and then went to dinner at the Hopkins Inn at Lake Waramaug with Mike's sister, nephew, niece & niece's boyfriend. Pricey but super delicious. I really enjoyed the way they set everything up. No matter what you ordered (they had scallops, salmon, pork, prime rib, etc. along with the traditional turkey dinner) you still got mashed potatoes & stuffing and a choice of other traditional side dishes & fixings. Very neat. I had Wiener Schnitzel (the inn has an Austrian chef) which was delicious. First time ever having schnitzel alongside of mashed potatoes and stuffing though. But definitely tasted yummy. :) And of course let's not forget the Toblerone Sundae for dessert. Soooo good.

Working today and tomorrow which kind of sucks. Full day on Saturday too but what can you do? Will get a comp day which I can use later on. Looking forward to our weekend in New Hampshire for New Year's which will be nice. 

This weekend I need to get started on my Christmas cards. I need to ask some people for updated addresses, will have to check my list this weekend to see who I am missing. If any of you have changed addresses since last year let me know. :)

I also need to put up our Christmas decorations inside the house but not sure when I will get to that. Might have to wait until next weekend which will only be December 3rd/4th so not unreasonable.

 Mail update: I still need to mail the three letters I wrote so letters should be going out on Monday to: Charles/TN, Jessica/DE and Lotte/Denmark. Still owe replies to: Carmen/Malta, Eunice/Malta and Nina/WA

Posted by Hanna at 09:21 AM in Food and Drink, Holidays | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Almost Thanksgiving - where has the year gone?

Snoopy-autumnAnother week gone by. Was off on Tuesday again. Decluttered part of our closet during the day, amazing how much stuff accumulates over the years. Granted some of it was stuff that was still from Mike's parents too. But a lot of it was also things from when I first moved over here (immigration papers, items from our Austrian wedding, lot of little tidbits)

Yesterday, Saturday, we worked. Then had a late lunch/early dinner and caught up on a bunch of our recorded TV shows. Today we slept in, then met a friend and went for Japenese food for lunch. Yumm. Now back home, catching up on some emails and then going to have cheese & crackers and some wine and catch up on more shows.

Can't believe it's already Thanksgiving next week. Work has been incredibly busy so that's always a challenge. Made reservations at the Hopkins Inn for dinner. None of us feel like cooking so that will be nice. Going with Mike's sister, niece and nephew. Always enjoy the Hopkins Inn so should be good.

Sort mail update for today. A letter went out to: Celia/MA on Thursday. Received letters from: Lotte/Denmark, Carmen/Malta, Eunice/Malta and Nina/WA.  

Posted by Hanna at 04:21 PM in Food and Drink, Holidays | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Autumn Weekend

AutumnStill a busy week but definitely an improvement over last week. Managed to take Tuesday off which was good.Tuesday was a really beautiful fall day as well. Nice, warm, slightly breezy, very pretty. Took Ollie for a check-up and to get his shots updated. The vet was in love with how cute he looked. :) They also said he seemed in very good shape for his age (14 years).  They did detect a slight heart murmur but said it could be something he might have had all his life or something that's normal going through some changes getting older. They didn't seem overly concerned so hopefully that's all it is.

Yesterday, Saturday, I had to work all day but the afternoon was fairly quiet so I was able to get some work done to help prepare for Thanksgiving which is less than two weeks away now.  Can't believe it's already almost mid November again.

Booked a stay at a bed & breakfast for New Year's. Looking forward to that. We will be staying here in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, right across the Maine border. Friday, Dec. 30th to Sunday, January 1st. Should be fun. :)

Sort mail update for today. Received letters from: Lotte/Denmark, Carmen/Malta, Eunice/Malta, Nina/WA and Celia/MA. 

Posted by Hanna at 03:58 PM in Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, November 06, 2011

What a week

CtlightpowerHad a nice veg out Sunday for the most part which was very much needed after the week we had. What a nightmare of a week. Due to the snowstorm last weekend tons and tons of people in this region lost power including two of our offices at work. We didn't have power in our office from Saturday until the end of Monday. Our phones didn't work either and cell phone service was also interrupted. Ended up bringing a bunch of my staff over to my house since at least there we had heat, power and working cell phone service. Made our phone calls to get the orders in and then at the end of the day returned back to the office to key everything into our system (we had some things working on a generator). The biggest hassle/issue though was that our other office and plant in New Britain didn't have power from Saturday until Thursday which meant no production. We had to borrow from other dairy companies in Maine, Vermont, New York, etc. Not a fun week. Taking orders from customers not even knowing if we would even be able to fill those orders. We tried our best but what a pain.

CL&P took its sweet time restoring power to everyone. I think this was even worse than the hurricane back in August. Lots of schools closed for the whole week or part of the week. I am hoping next week will be a slightly better week. We will see.

Today we ran a bunch of errands, groceries, etc. Then started some of my Christmas shopping online. I know, I know. It feels way too early for that. But I always have to keep in mind that I need to ship gifts to people oversees and if I order items online I need to calculate shipping time to myself and then shipping to my friends.  

Short mail update for today. Received letters from: Lotte/Denmark, Carmen/Malta, Eunice/Malta, Nina/WA and Celia/MA. 

Posted by Hanna at 05:03 PM in Work Stories | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack