BrianandLibby.com

• I love hanging out with my neices! They are at an awesome age right now (four and a half) where they are just plain fun! They are also hilarious and somewhat scandalous, but since I’m not the one disciplining them, even their scandals are pretty humorous (sorry, Em)
• Posh and the neices got along famously. Instead of requiring constant supervision, like they did when we put them together on our last visit, they entertained eachother marvelously, giving all “parents” involved a break. It was fun to watch them play, but I think the twins got a bit overzealous with having someone they were in charge of…by the second day they’d emphatically scold her with “Posh, no biting”; even when she was just laying on the floor. Again, still very funny
• Broke my relatively new tradition of getting up before dawn on Black Friday. All of my best selling skills couldn’t get my mom or sister to be excited about being at Kohl’s at 4am, and Brian was clearly only agreeing to accompany me out of obligation, so I succumbed to them (and a cold I felt coming on) and slept in. We did manage to hit the retail world before noon and get a great deal on a digital camera, since ours looks like the first digital camera ever made. A nice Kodak Easyshare 8.2 MP. It is about 1/10 the size of our old camera, and maybe we will actually use it now for stuff like taking pictures
• We started what I hope will be a new tradition in the Massey family. Instead of just going to my uncles for what I like to call “Paki-Pilgrim-Fusion Feasting,” we added to our repertoire a traditional wednesday night thanksgiving dinner with ALL the trimmings. After three years of Brian’s mom grooming me for cooking Thanksgiving dinner, I felt comfortable tackling my own turkey (I give it 8 out of 10 stars) and all that goes with it. I did have lots of help; it was really a team effort. Emily made the best stuffing ever and we all contributed to the desserts, both gluten-full and gluten-free. By the way, gluten free flour = not half bad in pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

Tuesday evening Brian, Posh and myself are headed to the ‘Cuse for our first Thanksgiving in the ‘Cuse since we got married. We have been doing Christmas in Syracuse since we’re always in Albany Christmas Eve until at least 8pm and, well, it’s a lot closer. We have developed a lovely Christmas Eve tradition of promising my mom we will not eat until we arrive there at 11pm for our family tradition of a honeybaked ham Christmas Eve feast, but breaking down in our hunger as soon as we leave Northway’s Christmas Eve services at a conveniently located McDonalds in Malta. Those people probably think we have no family. Anyways, this is the first year I have a lot of time off so we’re going to hike down to Pittsburgh for Christmas, and spend Thanksgiving with my family in Syracuse.

My mom found out this year that she has Celiac disease which means she has a gluten allergy, much like a growing population of adults and children (which thankfully, according to a recent blood test, does not include me). So we are using our creativity to come up with gluten free delights for our humble feast. Fortunately most of the classics are gluten-free already. Turkey, check. Mashed potatoes, check. Stuffing…not so much but I don’t think my mom ever really ate it anyways. We’re really getting creative with our desserts. We’re still making my mom make her classicly delicious pumpkin pie (kind of cruel, I know) and we are all making her something gluten free! Buckeyes (aka peanut butter balls) and crust-less cheesecake “muffins” to name a couple. There was a great flourless chocolate cake but it looked pretty labor intensive. So that’s what we’ve got goin on. Then it’s back to the wonderful town of Milton for the weekend, where Brian will be speaking in all services at Northway (yay)! We’ll keep you posted on all the gluten-free goodness.

Everything you’ve heard is true. We put Posh in a Halloween costume for this year’s festivities. Before you pass judgment let me remind you that, first of all, Brian and I don’t have any “real” kids so we are going to be “those wierd people who are obsessed with their dog” for a yet undetermined amount of time until we do have kids. Second, the costume was only 6 dollars.

If you think that is bad, you should have seen the lobster costume we originally bought her. It was heavier and had all these tentacles. As soon as we put it on her, she stood perfectly still for a couple of minutes, only moving to shuffle herself shamingly into a corner and sit staring at the well. I’m thinking she knew how ridiculous she looked. We felt pretty cruel after putting her through this charade 2-3 times, so we took it back. By that point Target had put all of the costumes on sale so I tried out the ladybug, which was still not her favorite thing, but I didn’t feel like the SPCA was coming to rescue her on account of our cruelty either. Hey, she got used to it and all of our trick or treaters loved it. Maybe she’ll be ready for the lobster next year…

So yeah. Hi. It’s been a while. I was thinking about waiting until November 15th so it would have been a full month since I last blogged, but I’m sitting here and, oh, what the heck. Any fellow blogger knows the pressure that builds with each day that passes since your last blog, which makes you feel like you have to reintroduce yourself with something absolutely fascinating. Instead, today I give you my absolutely nonsensical thoughts, which fall under the heading of “whatever is on my mind right now.”

• At the end of last summer (06) I found a pair of beige Guess pumps at Marshalls. They were an odd color but a great classic pump shape with the most comfortable 3.5 inch heels I’d ever slipped my weary feet into. They quickly became my favorite pair and, surprisingly, their odd color matched almost anything, and they are completely season and occasion neutral (Well they don’t really go with sweats, but just about anything else). If you are a woman and you are reading this you should realize that these are beautiful, comfortable, versatile and did I mention they were under $15 bucks? THEY ARE THE PERFECT SHOES! But they are on their deathbed and I have vowed to let them go down swinging. They have been repaired twice but are beyond help now and I will wear them until their last day. I will also, however, continue searching (thus far to no avail) for the exact same pair to replace them the moment they become useless to me. If you know anyone at Guess and can convince them to make one more pair of the beige Impression-T pumps with the gold lining in a size 8, I am prepared to pay up to $100, no, $200 dollars. Really. Sad but true.
• Last week we picked up a few days’ worth of mail and found a piece in it from someone in Maine addressed to Verizon. It must have gotten stuck to something, because it hasn’t been processed by the post office at all. It’s on my kitchen counter and I feel like it is very special and has endured a very unique journey, travelling here without being snatched up by the Post Office authorities…but I think all I’m accomplishing is making someone’s bill late.
• My dog has the worst gas. Ever.
• I’ve gotta run, I’m happy to report that I’m having a “just girls” dinner with two ladies I don’t ever get enough of, Liz and Val. Debbie had to cancel but I don’t ever get enough of her either! You know how you see people and you’re like “we should get together” but you never do? Well, I know that half of those people you don’t really want to hang out with, but some of them, you really do! And we actually are doing it! Not only will it be fun and girly to just hang out, but we’re going to a super cute girly place, The Whistling Kettle in Ballston Spa. And if I don’t leave RIGHT NOW I’ll be late!

Bye!

So Libby has seemed to abandon the Blogging World but I promise she will be back. This blog will be used for her musings, family stuff, and of course pics of Posh…Halloween Pics are coming soon, I promise. I have started my own blog…you can check it out at www.brianhowe.wordpress.com if you so desire. It will contain my thoughts on life, church, and more then likely sports. Thanks for sticking with us through the silence…