Plant Nite @ Nu Café

Having done a couple Paint Nite's I thought we would try something a little different. Plant Nite is run by the same company as Paint Night and is a similar class style event where instead of painting a picture you build a unique terrarium of your own using supplied materials. Its a unique idea that we thought would be a fun evening activity.

We signed up for an event at our favorite coffee shop in town called Nu Café. They often have their Paint Nite classes on Monday's but this week the place morphed into a coffee shop garden with about 30 or so participants.  The three of us found a nice quiet table to make our home for the evening.

During check-in I asked if I could swap out the terrarium they provided with the pill shaped one that I had found ad really liked. The instructor told me I could make both if I liked and that she really liked the shape of the one I had found and wanted to know where so she could get some for a future class. Sadly I got it as a one off at Home Goods and it didn't give any indication of where it had come from.

As class began our instructor introduced herself at April Salter and her assistant for the night would be Jamie. She had us recite some simple instructions to have fun, not judge ourselves or the others around us and to drink and be merry.

On the table in large buckets was gravel and soil which would become the foundation for our garden. Each of us started by scooping 3-4 solo cups full of gravel into the base of our empty terrariums. She explained that we want to have the gravel sloped higher in the back and shallow near the opening.

Next we added soil evenly across the surface of the gravel creating about 1" of soil leaving a glass lip to catch anything from falling out. Once the soil and gravel was properly sloped and distributed April and Jamie came around with platters of small plants and advised us all to take 1 cluster of 3 plants. The two clusters I selected had donkey tail, jade tree, grey stonecrop, and mini aloe vera.

Once we were happy with out plans she instructed us to dig small holes about 1" in diameter and roughly that deep for each of the succulents we need to pot. Then we removed each succulent from its brown pot and shook off the majority of the soil it came with exposing the roots. We then carefully planted each succulent giving them sufficient space to grow in time.

It took me a little longer to get the donkey tail planted since the roots were very fine and the plant relatively tall. they just kind of flopped down which I didn't like.  Once everything was planted April and Jamie came around with tubs of colored rocks to cover the soil with and help keep the newly planted succulents in place. I went with a standard white rock so the green of the plants to add the color. I then placed some of the colored moss around the taller plants to keep them stable and upright.

They also came around with big golden nuggets which I placed inside the terrarium near the opening to add a buffer to prevent any soil from falling out. As class wrapped up we took a few pictures with our finished products and April and she handed out care cards to help us keep our new succulents alive. It was a fun experience and perhaps something I'll do again. Unlike the Paint Nite classes where the finished product would never get hung up in my house the terrariums are proudly placed in my window.

Crave Meadery

With only a few hours before work we decided to check out a local Meadery in Blackstone.  Located in a small building right on the town boarder with Woonsocket is Ken Tubman's Crave Mead. The building is nothing fancy and is clearly a working meadery that offered tastings to educate and encourage the community to try something differently instead of just a retail operation. As their slogan says "Rethink your drink!"  

Our tour began with a quick explanation of how Ken got into the mead making business.  As an avid bee enthusiast and keeper who enjoyed making wines and beer he thought what better thing to do then combine his too biggest interests and put his tasty honey to good use.

Our first sample was the paddy mead. The dry mead is made from roughly 1/2 lb honey, water, and yeast.  He uses 4 different yeasts as each yeast creates a different taste depending on what he is trying to create. It had a nice and sweet but refined flavor that I really enjoyed. The dry mead is also the base for all his other flavored meads and ferments for roughly 2 months before it's ready to be bottled and sold. 

As his business grew he stopped using his own wildflower honey and began sourcing it locally from a bee keeper in Bellerica, Ma. The honey is a dark wildflower honey and really adds a great flavor to his mead.   If he is making a flavored mead he then adds either juice or fruit and allows it to ferment for another month or two before bottling. 

We tried 4 flavored meads next.  The first flavored mead was a pear nectar which was dry and slightly bitter but lighter then the dry mead.  Neither Grace or myself cared for this one. It was good but the original dry mead had a more balanced natural taste. 

The second flavored mead we tried was a pomegranate sour cherry mead. The sweetness of the pomegranate was a nice compliment to the very sour cherry taste. This would be a great wine to mix with fruit to make a sangria. 

The third mead we sampled was the blueberry mead. This was a very balanced flavorful blend which received many nods of approval from those in the sampling group. It was a natural taste with a sweetness that complimented the flavors.

The last flavored mead we tried was a strawberry mead which was made with 1lb of strawberries per gallon of dry mead. This was my favorite by far. It was light and refreshing with a nice strawberry flavor that wasn't overpowering. As a lover of anything strawberry it was no surprise that I would pick this as my favorite. 

As a special treat he offers us a chance to taste his just approved blend of mead and wine called Pyment which is a mix of Cabernet and mead; 2/3's Cabernet and 1/3 honey wine. This tasted more like the Cabernet then a mead and had that bitter taste I don't like about many red wines. While I can see how some might like this I felt it strayed too far from what a mead is about. 

Before leaving we each picked up a bottle. I went for the Strawberry Mead and Grace picked up a bottle of the Blueberry Mead. The bottles are $16 a piece and because we used a groupon for our tour we were able to take home a small 8 oz bottle of the honey they use to make their mead. 

It was a cool experience and we got to sample a great product that I doubt I would have otherwise discovered. Having tried mead before I knew I would like it and Crave Meads unique blends were definitely a treat. 

Kayaking Lake Boon

With the sun shining and having a rare day off I decided it would be a perfect day to go kayaking. Dan and I arranged a time with my brother and his family to check out Lake Boon. Lake Boon is a 163 acre lake located on the Hudson/Stow line.

Located a short distance from his house we loaded up the kayaks and their canoe. The lake is long and relatively narrow made up of four basins. 2 larger areas called Boon Pond and the Ramshorn Meadows as well as two swamp areas.  The meadows and swamp areas formed when a dam was built on Barton Road in Stow. The dam is a by-product of our industrial age.

We began our exploration from Dawes Lot located along Sudbury Road in the smaller of the two swampy areas.  From there we paddled along the shores of Ramshorn Meadows before passing through the Narrows into Boon Pond.

Many of the homes surrounding the lake are merely summer cottages while others have morphed into much more luxurious year round homes.  Historically Lake Boon was a hit amongst city dwellers who had once taken the train out to the area during the summer months and staying in lake side hotels. With the introduction of the car the Lake lost favor and today is surrounded only by homes.

With the sun beating down on us we all decided we would take a dip in the cool refreshing waters. I taught Dan and Grace how to exit their kayaks with out flooding it with water or capsizing. They each did a nice job. Chris pushed Aidan and Elyse off the canoe and into the lake with a splash. Those two are like fish they love the water so much.

We enjoyed the cool water and a chance to swim but after a short while we decided to get back underway. I quickly showed Dan and Grace how to reenter a kayak from the water without capsizing the boat while my brother taught Aidan how to reenter the canoe.

Once we were all back aboard we continued along heading for the dam. Having reached the other side of the lake we headed back. I could feel the sun since the dip in the lake had washed off my sunscreen but continued on.

The return trip seemed to go quicker and it wasn't long before we were back at the ramp. It was then we discovered Grace had taken her car key swimming and it was no lost to the depths of Boon Lake. We managed to get all three kayaks on the roof of my car and brought them back to my bothers while we decided what the best course of action would be. It all worked out after picking up her spare key and on the whole the day went great. Its a nice little lake to float around on and enjoy on a hot summer day.

Class A - License to Carry

As some of you may remember I began the process of getting my Class A License to Carry over a year ago. My adventure began after visiting a co-workers sportsman’s club where he officiates as the club safety officer. I took aim on the shooting range under his guidance and did exceptionally well with each of the 5 guns he had my try.

With the majority of my family already having their license I decided it was time for me to get mine. I started checking into what I needed to do to get it and I learned from another coworker that the process requires a few prerequisites before applying. As it turns out he was running the required NRA gun safety course at his sportsman’s club and suggested I enroll.

The 2-day class wrapped up the day before my birthday a year ago.  Since then I will admit it wasn’t a priority of mine to finish the process and I let the quest go idle. With renewed vigor this year I completed and submitted my application in mid-March. The waiting period in the City of Worcester is 2 months from submission to find out if your application was approved.

Waiting until Memorial Day as requested I called first thing and got the good news. Excited I swung down to the Police headquarters before heading into work to pick up my new license. Knowing exactly which gun I plan to purchase I have already ordered a new biometric gun safe and all the tools and equipment to keep it safe and in perfect operational condition.

With an expensive trip to China looming on the horizon I'll update you as soon as the budget allows the purchase of a firearm.

Live Comedy at The Historic Strand Theatre

Live comedy was alive and well last night at the Historic Strand Theatre in downtown Clinton, MA. A few times a year co-owners Rob & Bill bring local comics to the grand stage and only laughter ensues. This time was no different. With an eclectic mix of styles the comediennes kept the entire audience laughing from start to finish.

On this evening good looking, hyper energetic, host and funnyman Jesse Bickford started the show with a quick set of his own before introducing the first of the nights headliners. His witty repertoire of jokes about how the dating world has changed for the worse were light and humorous. His impressions were delightfully spot on and captured the moment. website

The first comedienne to take the stages is a teacher by day and comedian by night. Dave Lamb schooled the audience with his funny and engaging skit. As an IT guy I appreciated his skit about online security. "Passwords are ridiculous and are worth 90 points in scrabble" and his part about google being a more efficient was to search for porn. His joke about black people meets dating website. When he looked it up blackpeoplemeats.com he found a much different kind of website. website

David Rattigan is the ring leader of this group of comediennes. Operating the talent company that brought them all here he too is a funny guy. I loved his skit about Martha Burke who ran the protest at Augusta in support of women's right to join the club.  He went on to say how she inspired him to go home and grab his protest signs and visit the local Curves. website

The best comic of the night was Christine Hurley. website She is the mom everyone wishes they had. As a past finalist of Nick at Nights "Funniest Mom in America" contest she didn't disappoint. Her jokes focused on her life as a mother of 5 and wife to a local fireman. She tells the story of any mom raising that number of children and the hilarity of all the unusual things parents have to deal with. One of my favorite lines from her act was aimed at the mothers in the audience.

“I’m going to tell you ladies a little secret: You can mix Slim Fast with vodka,” she said. “First of all, it doesn’t curdle. Who knew? And second of all, all those condescending bitches at the bus stop can’t smell it on your breath.”

Her stories and views on motherhood and marriage are exactly what everyone is living through…people get it and love it and so did I.

I invite you all to attend one of the Strand's Comedy Nights so you can enjoy the hilarity of many of our local comics.

Strand Theatre - Jim Spinnato, R-rated Hypnotist

Located in sleepy Central Massachusetts town of Clinton is the Historic Strand Theatre. Built in 1924, today it is one of the oldest existing and still operating movie theatres in the area. During the heydays of yesteryear it operated as a vaudeville theatre and movie house until the late 1970's. Able to seat over 1200 patrons when it was built it reopened in 1995 after a lengthy renovation and now seats 304.

In additions to their regular movie schedule they host special events such as comedy nights. New to the Strand Theatre calendar was Jim Spinnato and his r-rated hypnosis. Having performed in the New England area for years at big venues like Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, Six Flags, and numerous colleges Jim brought his comedy, audience participation and hypnosis to Central MA 's Clinton for the first time at the Historic Strand Theatre.

After a brief introduction Jim Spinnato invited everyone in the audience to stand up and test their ability to be hypnotized by following a few specific instructions. Unfortunately I failed the test and would not be a good candidate.  The idea was to help the audience members who wanted to volunteer determine if they would be a good candidate as a participant for the show. 

Next he invited anyone who passed the first test and wanted to participate to come down to the front along the stage. Here he separated the girls and the guys and administered another test. This allowed him to identify 12 participants he felt would be great candidates and invited them on stage. 7 girls and 5 guys were selected.

Once all 12 were seated he asked the audience to be perfectly quiet as he slowly and methodically hypnotized the group of participants through a series of breathing and concentration while soothing music and his voice put them into a hypnotic state. Some it didn't work for and he sent them back to their seats to enjoy the show.

For those that did he become hypnotized the fun was just beginning. He created a key word chosen by the audience. Once that key word was said he told the participants that the closer they got to their fellow participants the better they smelled and the better they smelled the closer you should get.

Next he convinced them that they smelled terrible. The reactions from the participants was hysterical. After torturing them with the pleasant and foul smells he put them back to sleep. I wont ruin the whole experience by telling you everything but I will share a few more of the fun shenanigans

One of his gags was when that trigger word was said that the ladies would feel a tickle between their legs that felt amazingly good. One of the girls was very dramatic about her reaction. It looks almost like she was experiencing the most intense orgasm of her life.

During another At one point he convinced one of the older guys that he has lost his penis and that he could only ask Jim to help him find it. Jim suggested that a particular woman in the audience had it.. the very shy man tried to discretely ask for it back. Jim asked him to describe it and he did just that. The funniest part was Jim talking about how the honesty of the guy suggesting it was of just average size. Finally the guy gets his penis back while his entire family was laughing hysterically.

As a finally he picked one guy and one girl and made the others dance for them Even making the guys dance for the guy and the girls dance for the girl. It was a pretty outrageously funny evening full of giggles and outright laughter. Jim Spinnato is a class act and a spirited performer. His talent and personality made for an enjoyable evening filled with fun and excitement.

Factory of Terror - Worcester

I had seen signs for weeks now about the new haunted house attraction in Worcester and just had to check it out. Located in an abandoned factory building in Worcester's Grafton Hill area is the Factory of Terror. The entrance to the attraction is through an old delivery door where visitors queue up while some of the characters in all their spookiness keep you entertained. Some such characters were the scary clown, the deadly doctor and the silent child.
While you wait you also have a photo opportunity. They take your picture with a few of the props and text you a link to retrieve your group photo after. It was a pretty cool idea and a great way for people to get a reminder of the experience.

After paying the admission price we entered a room where we got a quick introduction to the attraction and a quick scare from yet another actor. As we moved through the next door we entered a more open area that looped around where as you walked along the path you were spooked by hidden actors mixed in amongst the scary props and behind hidden windows. This area while very cool with design wasn't particularly scary.

The next area we entered required 3D glasses which were handed out by a scary fella guarding the entrance. Once inside you were awe inspired but the 3d effect of the colorful and spooky art.

Everything glowed under the blue lights and amplified the feeling that the eyes were following you as you went. Whoever the artist is they did an amazing job and really captured the spookiness of each character.

 

 As we made our way from the maze of eyes and faces we entered a very snug entrance to another spooky and dark section. To pass through you had to squeeze your way through a tight passage. (It was like a balloon entrance that just pressed firmly against you no matter now small or big you are.) Once inside it was darkly lit and you had to follow along the narrow pathway's being greeted by even more actors who used their creepiness to intimidate and spook. Some snuck up close to you only to be discovered when you turned their way.

As we wrapped up the urban alley section we found ourselves finished and walking out the exit door. Over all it took about 15-20 minutes to make our way through the different sections of the Haunted Factory of Terror.

It was a good time and a great evening. I thought the price was fair for a seasonal thrill and I thought the actors really did a great job both spooking and entertaining each and every visitor.

Apple Picking at Tougas Family Farm

An apple a day ..... Keeps the doctor away or so goes the saying and after the 33lbs of Apples picked at Tougas Family Farm in Northborough I'll be eating at least one a day for a while. Apple picking is one of those must do things in the fall and its always a fun experience.

With the variety of farms in the area we selected Tougas Family Farm because of the variety of apples they grow, the reputation they have, and the proximity to where we live. Its a quick simple ride and right off the highway in Shrewsbury, MA. It was also named one of the Ten Best Apple Orchards in Country by Woman's Day and one of the Ten Best pick your own apples by USA Today.

They have a huge parking lot clearly labeled which is a good thing since the crowd of people we saw when we arrived was shocking since we had arrived early. There were  already significant lines to gain entry into the orchards through their small red barn. We lined up with everyone else and the mood seemed energetic and with the sun shining brightly why not be excited to enjoy the fresh air and some great apples.

At 10:00 sharp the doors opened and the lines seemed to move quickly with each group picking the size back they would fill. There were two options a Peck ~ 10lbs was $25 and allowed up to 4 people into the orchard or a 1/2 Bushel ~ 20lbs for $35 which allowed up to 6 people into the orchard.The idea was that you could pick as many apples that will fit in the bag they gave you. The larger back was significantly bigger then the small and since we planned to make a few pies  we selected the 1/2 bushel. After paying we made our way through the gates to the orchard.

The apples that were ready to be picked were on the far side of the orchard and you had two options to get there. By tractor pulled cart or by foot. Since everyone else was in line to take the tractor we decided to walk. As we made our way to the picking area we walked through row after row of apple trees. Each and every row was labeled with the type of apple being grown. That made it easy for lay people like us to figure out which apples we should pick. Also helpful was the chart on the side of our bag telling us which apples were best for eating and which were best for baking.

There were several types of apples ripe for the choosing and they included Jonagold, Empire, McIntosh, Macoun, Crimson Crisp, Fuji, Gala, Cortland, Mutsu, and Honeycrisp. As we wandered the rows of apples looking for those perfect specimen's to add to our apple pies we sampled as many of the different apples as we could. Some with sweet while others tart. some were juicy and others more dry.  I loved the Honeycrisp's as they were described as explosively juicy. We tried to stick to the guidelines for what apples made good pies while picking and it didn't take long before we had a full bag and full stomachs.

Again we had the option to ride back to the barn by tractor or walk. We stuck to walking and it felt much longer a trip on the way back with a bag about ready to explode with apples. Once we cleared the gate of the orchard we put them in the car and returned to the small village of barns for some home made apple cider doughnuts and fresh apple cider.

 
 
I love apple cider doughnuts and these certainly didn't disappoint. The apple cider was equally as good and refreshing. Once done we walked through the other buildings admiring the pies for sale before heading out ourselves. They also had a complementary apple recipe packet for anyone to take. You can download it here.

 

After a great day picking apples it was time to bake some pies. We purchased 6 ready made pie crusts by Pillsbury and enough sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and flour as necessary. Once home we began the long process of peeling, cutting, coring our apples. Well it wasn't really that hard since we had the right tool that did it all for us. All we had to do was crank and then cut up the spiral but apples.

Then we combined sugar mix which is a ratio of 1/2 cup flour with 1 tbsp. of flour and 1/2 tbsp. of cinnamon and 1/2 tbsp. of nutmeg. Once thoroughly combined we coated our apples liberally in the mixture. That sugar coated apple combination we then stacked generously into our pie plates creating a nice mountain of apples. Next we rolled the second pie crust on top and using our thumbs and forks we sealed the two crusts together. We also added some vents to the top of the pie to let it breath. In the old days you would use a pie bird to let the steam out.

We placed our three pies in the oven art 350-degrees for about an hour and tested bu putting a knife into our apples they should be tender and soft. That was it we made three pies and had left over apples from that 33lbs bag of local farm grown apples. we couldn't wait to sink our forks into a slide with some vanilla ice cream on the side. They were delicious.