A private screening of Sex and the City 2, organized by Luscious Lana and attended by 92 Ladies of the ‘Ham…a great time was had by all but those who get annoyed by people talking during a movie.
Before:
During:
After:
Thanks for organizing, Lana!
Category Archives for Outings
Girls’ Night Out!!!
If you’re local and you need a night of bonding with friends before summer vacation, my pal Luscious Lana has organized an event at the AMC premium theater on Thursday, June 3rd. We start with apps and drinks at 6, followed by a private viewing of Sex and the City 2 at 8.
It will be a blast, so let me know if you want to go and I’ll send you the evite! Movie tix are $19 each, Lana’s working on a package price for apps.
Have Rum Cake, Will Travel
Today I played hooky and went on the kindergarten field trip to Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon. It’s a decent zoo and the kids totally loved it. They ran from one exhibit to the next (screaming all the way – ugh) and they were EXHAUSTED by the time they got back to school (so was I!). According to Adlani, the highlights were the porcupines and when the goat ate our map in the petting zoo. It wasn’t crowded and the weather was nice and cool, so it was a good day. Hopefully we have continued good luck when Norah’s preschool class goes on the same field trip next week.
The first couple of field trips I chaperoned, I didn’t know any better so I rode the bus. I don’t really mind riding the bus except that it makes me a little queasy sometimes, but it’s so much more fun to ride with my friends and get some mommy-time in on the way. We had 5 kindergarten moms in Lana’s car and we have a total of 12 kids between us, so there was plenty of kid-talk and swapping of stories. I don’t know what I’d do without reinforcement from other moms that we’re all dealing with similar challenges and handling them the best we can.
Lana gave me the brilliant idea of bringing rum cake for the ride, and it really hit the spot after a couple of hours at the zoo. I think I’ve made that rum cake at least 50 times since I got the recipe a few years ago, and it’s really easy. If you want to make rum cake for your next field trip, here’s the recipe:
Grease and flour a bundt pan, then sprinkle with 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Mix the following:
1 butter recipe yellow cake mix (I use Betty Crocker)
1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
1/2 cup Captain Morgan Spiced Rum
1/2 cup water
dash of nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground clove
Pour over pecans in bundt pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes.
Just before the cake is done, make the glaze:
Melt 1 stick of butter with 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup of rum, and 1/4 cup of water. Boil for about 3 minutes. When cake is done baking, pour glaze over it while the cake is still in the bundt pan. Let the cake sit in the pan until cool, then invert onto a plate and chow down!
If You Can’t Find it in Brimfield…
Our camp (Vermont term for “lake house”) is about 15 minutes from Brimfield, MA, home of the Brimfield Antique Show. In May, July, and September, 6,000 antique dealers and 130,000 visitors swarm into Brimfield for the week-long show. The show is quite an economic boom for the local area – estimated between 40 and 50 million dollars annually. Along with the 23 people who rent out their yards and fields along the 1-mile stretch of Route 20, there are others who sell parking spaces, food and drinks, delivery services, and even access to their showers. It looks like quite the family affair for some of the dealers…like a camping trip where you’re hauling along a truckload of clutter you want to get rid of.
I love to go, preferably without kids, and this weekend I was able to escape for a couple of hours and go wander around. I wasn’t really in the market for anything in particular, so I made it my mission to take pictures of some of the weird stuff I saw for sale.
Along with lots of furniture and rugs, there were the usual booths of vintage clothing, jewelry, linens, and notions (that’s a fancy word for sewing stuff). The second picture shows stacks and stacks of cards full of buttons.
This guy had THE most amazing collection of musical instruments and sports equipment. The top photo is a pile of marching band helmets in the center, with several sets of bagpipes on the card table, and football pads to the right. Click on any photo to enlarge it…it’s like “Where’s Waldo?” except with junque.
There was a headless eagle:
A REALLY old military diving helmet and boots:
I have one of these green bottles (Can you imagine transporting all of this stuff to the show?!):
The window on the bottom was tempting (“Asylum for the Insane – Evaluation Center for Disturbed Men” – I think this belongs on my office door.):
These carved tusks were gorgeous but out of my league at $2,800 (not to mention that it’s against my personal rules to buy wild animal products):
Sometimes it was the juxtaposition of several items that made them interesting, like this multi-armed deity in the snowshoe section:
Bird (flamingo?) lawn ornament made from a propane tank:
My mother had the matching cookie jar to these:
Ugly giraffe, rocking chicken, and GIANT Frankenstein:
The Betty Boop collection:
Glove display forms?
And for my hardware friends, lots and lots of hardware (I met a member of the Antique Doorknob Collectors of America who loves doorknobs even more than I do.):
This giant bag of kettle corn was all I bought:
If you like banjo music, here’s a short video about one of the fields, May’s Antique Market.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrfmTbtMhBs&hl=en_US&fs=1]