We often go to Cheshire Arena in Swanzey, NH for skating, but there are several other options in the area.  Peterborough has an ice rink, but unfortunately it's currently non-functioning due to needing some major repairs. The Jaffrey Rec. Dept. turns its basketball court into a rink at Humiston Field and The Clark in Winchendon, MA supposedly maintains a rink while Conway Arena in Nashua has recreational skating times for all.  But the Monadnock region, with more than its share of lakes and ponds, offers many alternatives to regularly maintained or Zamboni-smoothed ice for those in search of a more rustic, outdoorsy, natural experience.

 The cold weather has finally arrived and Thanksgiving is on the horizon, but don’t put away your ice cream maker just yet. The up and coming holiday is a great opportunity to offer your guests a refreshing non-traditional treat. Why not add a delightful Cranberry Sorbet in between courses or serve it as a light ending to an otherwise heavy dinner?  Maybe a little something to settle the belly before you break out the pies? It can be made well enough in advance and it would certainly be a welcome edition to the holiday table.

 When you are dealing with a whole turkey, cooking it to perfection isn't always an easy task. Many Thanksgiving tables are laden with dry breast meat. Leaving one to feel quite thankful for the copious amounts of gravy in which to drown it in. As most people know, the breast cooks faster then the legs and even the most talented of cooks can not change that fact. But if one is willing to forgo the presenting of the whole roasted turkey at the dinner table, then one can enjoy a deliciously moist turkey. The process is simple; cook the turkey in separate parts. Brining the turkey in a salt brine two days before roasting also lends moisture.

Today we celebrate fatherhood. My father and mother both live in Utah. A daunting distance from my family. I miss them very much and would love to be sitting with him, talking politics and just enjoying the warm feeling I have whenever I am with him and my mom. After all, they are responsible for helping mold me into the man...husband and father, I have become. For now I will have to settle for a late evening call and some time shooting the breeze courtesy of MCI.

We all know them, we most likely work with a few of them, some of us may even live with them.  "They" are people who I like to call martyrs.  Outsiders often label them as compulsive, irritable, controlling and critical, among other such descriptives.  I know all about them. I can usually spot them fairly easily because I am one, or I was at one time anyway.  I understand the driving need to make everything just so, and how convinced these people are that they are the only ones who can "do it right".  I call them martyrs because in making sure everything is done "just right" they often lose sight of themselves and their own needs.

I worked at a bank about 12 years ago and I recall that during one of my reviews with my manager she told me that I needed to slow down.  She indicated that my work was sloppy and full of errors because I was moving at warp speed. She also indicated that my misery was all self-inflicted. Although I knew I had been making errors in my rush to get it all "just so", I riled at her criticism.  "Let her walk a mile in my shoes" I silently fumed. 

I came from a very small family unit of 5; my parents, my grandmother, my sister and I.  Family gatherings consisted of the 5 of us.  Holidays consisted of the 5 of us.  The only extended family we kept in touch with was my mother's sister and her family, but there was rarely a family gathering of the two families.  In fact, after we moved a few towns over in New York we never had a family get-together.  Since I had grown up this way, I never thought about family time being anything beyond the immediate family, fun but often quiet.  My cousins were a good 10 years older than me and they are really complete strangers to me to this day. 

Somehow every man I ever dated came from a very large family.  My high school sweetheart was one of 7 children, whose parents were also from large families.  As each married and had children, their family increased by leaps and bounds and they all kept in close contact.  Family gatherings with his family often seemed chaotic and loud to me.  There were the typical squabbles between siblings and cousins, but there was always someone else to turn to for companionship and support.  There always seemed to be camaraderie and a level of gaiety that was lacking in my family.  I didn't particularly like my sister, loved her, but didn't always like her.  It made for a lonely existence sometimes.

I'll admit, it was my own error.  I didn't do the research; I made an assumption.  The price paid: complete and utter embarrassment for myself and my son.

I enjoy going to the movies.  My companions are usually my S.O. or my eldest son.  The weekend before last I broke down and took my 16 year old son to see a movie he had been bugging me to go see with him ever since he first saw the previews several months ago. The movie he was so anixous to see was "The Watchmen" and I soon learned a whole new reason to be anxious over a movie. I knew it was a movie based on a graphic novel, but so was the latest Batman movies.  Without delving into it much more than that, I figured how bad could this R rated movie be.  It's not like the kid hasn't seen or heard his fair share of dirty words, violent gunfire and the ugly and humorous side of drug use in other R rated movies he's had the privilege of viewing (not to mention video games). What neither one of us were expecting was the graphic sex scenes, nor the completely naked blue man floating about throughout the entire movie. 

It's that awful time of year again. Every year it gets harder and harder for me to find a reason to like December, let alone love it. My S.O. and I see Christmas as a one day Holiday, not a Holiday that is spread out over a month, sometimes longer. We view Christmas much the way we view Thanksgiving, a time to be with family. We try to keep it as low key as possible and we spend only what we can truly afford. In the last couple of years I have stopped giving silly little gifts to friends and coworkers and give to the needy instead if I have the extra cash.