Happy Tuesday

Nothing special to write about today...busy day at work. We got our Christmas tree on Sunday (7.5 foot fir). I've started a new blog for our adult Christian Education program at church. Check it out here. We had a wonderful time with my mom on Saturday attending the production of Ebenezer! at the Columbus Children's Theater.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas! We started get out the holiday decorations this past weekend. Mistletoe is up, stockings are hung. We'll be getting a tree soon. I got some new energy-saving LED lights strung on the porch and it looks all festive. The 1-2 inches of snow over the weekend helped to brighten the spirits also (well, except for me who was a bit grumpy about being out in the cold on a ladder). What else is going on? Sydney has a Christmas choir concert at school on the 18th. The kids and I are participating in the Christmas Masque at the church. Cookies are being baked and eaten...ho, ho, ho...

Oh yeah, I've yet to give a summary of our Thanksgiving meal. As some of you know, I decided to take on the bird cooking duties for the first time. Following Martha's explicit instructions (Nov issue) I used a "dry" brine method on the organic free-range turkey I got via OEFFA's (http://www.oeffa.org/) "Thanksgiving box" program. It turned out great! All the meat eaters said the bird was delicious and moist. I almost wanted to try it but stuck to the BBQ seitan I made for Maryanne and myself. The roasted celery root dressing was also a hit. The complete menu:

Curried Pumpkin Soup
Turkey
Roasted Celery Root Dressing w/ sage & walnuts
Cranberry/golden raisin chutney
Yukon Gold mashed potatoes
Gravy
Roasted root veggies (beets/carrots/pototoes) with Brussel Sprouts
BBQ Seitan
Swiss Cheese Knots (rolls)
Pumpkin & Apple Pies
Pumpkin spice cake
Pinot Noir

I'll get a pic of my golden bird up soon...until then, here's the Obama cake I made for the volunteers at the local Obama campaign office. Change has come!

Pics from the fall season

Scenes from the fall...Ethan in goal at a Saturday morning soccer match; creeking with friends at Whetstone; apple-picking with other friends.

Slacker...

That's me...sorry for not posting anything recently. I'm still a novice blogger you know, yet to get the full blogging bug of posting all the time. So much has happened since the last post...the kids have finished up fall soccer and started judo classes after school on Wednesday (they have learned how to "pin" someone...ask and they'll be glad to show you.) Oscar keeps getting bigger. After a few restless nights trying to satisfy sleeping arrangements for all (he preferred our bed - we did not), we settled on a nice spot at the foot of Ethan's bed. All parties seem satisfied with the arrangement and I get to rest sans a loving paw on my nose. Poor Oscar has been battling a mite problem - it's not as creepy as it seems. Apparently all dogs have a basic level of mites on them, but their immune systems keep the little buggers in check. But, when you've got a dog who is growing faster than his immune system can keep up...well, then you've got a scratchy pup on your hands. Don't worry, the mites aren't transferable to humans (or so they say, Ethan hasn't started scratching yet).

What else has happened? Well, Halloween, Scout got her ears pierced, we baked an Obama cake and more. I'll try and add some pics in the coming days and more highlights from the Red House!! Until then....

Photos of Oscar

My friend Dan from work is a budding pet photographer...he took some nice pics of Oscar recently.

Like Ike? Big wind storm hits the hood hard...

Hello all,

It's been a while. I've recovered from the wonderful but short trip to Boston and it's back to fall activities at the Red House. Soccer season is in full swing, Scout & Ethan have both moved up a league this year and are getting acclimated to the bigger fields and bigger kids. Saturdays mornings & early afternoons are devoted to their games and then our tradition is to watch the OSU football game with Joe & Trudy across the street on their HD 52 inch plasma - it's like sitting in the stands except Trudy has better snacks.

The big news is the wind storm that hit us on Sunday the 13th, remnants of hurricane Ike. We lost power on Sunday afternoon and didn't get it back until Tuesday afternoon. It was quite the adventure. Some folks waited almost a week for power to be restored. The NWS noted 70 mph winds which knocked down numerous big trees in the neighborhood. Check out some of these pics:

Carroll and Sons - Now Open

I got the opportunity to fly out to Boston this weekend to attend the grand opening of my brother Joe's fine arts gallery.  Check it out at here.

Friday night was the opening for his first show featuring the artists Amy Chan & Thomas Allen.  After the opening we had a great dinner a tasty chinese restaurant right around the corner from the gallery. Joe (or Uncle Jojo as he is known at the Red House) has been putting in hour after hour getting the space ready...building new walls, tearing some down, scrubing floors, painting and on and on. The end result, a beautiful space! We're all so proud and excited for him!

Here's me and mom hanging at the gallery on Saturday.

Introducing Oscar!

We are very excited to announce a new addition to the Red House...Oscar! After several months of debate (well, mostly trying to convince me) we decided to dive into the challenging world of dog ownership. Oscar was 8 weeks when we got him and very adorable as you can see - he's a purebred boxer: good with kids and very loyal. Maryanne is very diligent about training and Oscar is an excellent student. He's at the top of his class at puppy school at the OSU vet school. We are very proud of him. He has already gotten a lot bigger and went with us to the beach (OC, MD). He has made friends with all the neighborhood dogs and often has puppy play dates with Digby our neighbor's Basenji mix. Stay tuned for more about our Oscar adventures.

Here we go!

The Carroll/Tranter gang is launching into the blog-o-sphere!