Mice suck

Sometimes complaining gets you nowhere other times it gets you something you might not have bargained for like maybe a 10 ft wide christmas tree. Last year I teased Ben about our little Charlie Brown tree so this year he showed me and brought home this monster. Every ornament we own and 7 strings of lights later the thing still looks bare. Not to mention the fact we had to scoot our couch so close to the tv I get dizzy everytime I watch it. I guess complainers get what they have coming huh.

Lately we have been hearing noises in the area where we trapped the squirrel last month. Thinking maybe the squirrel that got away was back Ben set a mouse trap and hoped it wasn't a squirrel because a mouse trap just wasn't going to cut it. Later that night we were sitting at the kitchen table when we heard a noise like a pool ball rolling down the track inside an old pool table. Ben snickered while I was confused. "We got one" Sure enough, the trap had went off and we had a mouse inside the crawl space above our woodstove. Saturday morning we had another and as I sat at the kitchen table all day Saturday trying to write a paper I heard the trap go off 4 times. Sunday morning, yep you guessed it, 7 mice in 24 hours, that is disgusting.

This blog is still active

Facebook has been the demise of this blog, facebook I hate you and all your flaws and addictiveness. Pffft.

Halloween is a big deal here in Bangor. There were some houses that were decorated so awesome and I meant to go take pictures but I never did, I was probably on facebook. We did put together a couple of costumes that were pretty sweet in my opinion but almost totally lost on the crowd we hang out with. Seriously who has not seen the movie Juno? Tell me why? It was an awesome movie and well I know it was a bigger deal in MN because it was shot there and stuff but still...COME ON. I did get some laughs drinking a beer wearing my pregnant suit but why that was funny I do not know. We see pregnant women walking down the street drinking a beer and we don't laugh at them. Maybe they laughed because I didn't have the full effect without a smoke to go with the beer?

Thanksgiving takes on a whole new spin when you don't have family to celebrate with. It was more like a vacation than a holiday. We deep fried a turkey and trimmed all the fixings, invited our Canadian friend over and ate a great lunch, then packed up and headed up to camp.

A few weeks ago we watched the movie The Strangers. That movie freaked me out and a number of times I wanted to just shut it off and forget about it but we watched the whole thing and now I am a little weary of staying somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Late Friday, while we were staying in the middle of nowhere, we heard a knock on the door and then this dude just walked on in. Ben and I were sitting under the propane light reading and I freaked out. If he had asked if Tina was home I know I would have crapped my pants (line from scary movie) But no it was just toothless Charlie from down the road who forgot his blankety blank dammit corn starch. He wanted to make coconut chicken but no cornstarch, oh the travesty. Sorry man we don't have cornstarch, we have like salt and pepper, a bottle of vegetable oil and some antifreeze, that's about it. See ya and thanks for scaring the crap out of me. BTW you made going to the outhouse after dark a near death experience for me for the REST of the weekend. Thanks

Living like Little House on the Prairie, even for just a few days is pretty weird. After dark we played cards, read, took turns on the guitar and I worked on a quilt but by about 9 o'clock we were ready for bed. It felt like we were like 80 and had nothing to do. In some ways it was a nice break from everything, in other ways it sucked. Like I really dislike radio, especially the bad middle of the boondocks radio we had to listen to and my fingers, yep they kill from too much quilting and too much guitar and oh did I mention my hair after not washing it for 4 days. Yes that sucked too.

But soon enough the weekend was gone as weekends tend to do and we were on the long drive home. We keep 20 Questions in the car for such occasions and usually have some fun with it. My mom hates 20 Questions, she thinks the things sees inside her brain and that scares her. Hmm I don't think that is how it works but there was that one time her word was kangaroo and she answered I don't know for almost every question and it still got kangaroo. I can't explain that. But anyways we were playing on the way home and I stumped the thing with fish hook, score for me. Ben was on like question 14 and I guessed his word, it was gum. Again 20 Questions was stumped, its first guess was sanitary napkin and then it guessed spaghetti. Seriously that was almost as weird as kangaroo.

Yes We Can

Furry Brats

We really dig having a big ol' house. It is great for visitors, entertaining, and having my own space when Ben is getting on my nerves. On the other hand there are some ways it really sucks, like in the winter when we have to heat the massive thing and all the time and energy spent keeping all the critters out. We have had bats, mice, a stinky dog and now a pair of red squirrels.

I was doing homework late one night in the kitchen and heard a whole lot of scratching, running and scurrying. We knew a tame red squirrel had been in the basement eating sunflower seeds. What we didn't know was we had a pair making a nest somewhere close to the vent above our wood stove. Little jerks. The Saturday after my run in with the squirrels both Ben and I were in the kitchen making lunch and I spotted the squirrel above the wood stove. Being the thing was so tame I was able to talk to him through the vent while Ben lifted the vent cap and snatched him from above. The squirrel screamed bloody murder which scared the other squirrel into hiding. We kept squirrel #1 in a bucket while we waited to catch #2. We never caught #2 and #1 spent so much time in the bucket we couldn't re catch the pissed off rodent to terminate him. So we had to drive him across the river into Brewer and let him go. We haven't seen or heard from either of them since.Which is good because we don't have time to deal with squirrels, we got enough going on with Woof, the furry brat. Woof expects a certain amount of attention and if he doesn't get it he whines or pees in the porch or digs a hole in the yard. Some days, I would gladly give him away, other days he is all right. But Ben he loves Woof all the time. You see Ben and Woof love to hunt, I think hunting is for rednecks. So they go do their hunt thing and Ben kills stuff and Woof goes and gets it. On special days like this one here, Woof does what no hunting dog should ever do. Ben was in the house talking to me on the phone when he had to put me on hold. Through the window he spotted Woof eating his ducks. I am not bummed, I think duck tastes like tire, but Ben he was PISSED off. Hah!! See Ben, the dog is a brat, you were just in denial.

Family Fall Fun

In the last month I turned 30 and both our parents visited for a week a pop. You understand why I haven't posted, S-T-R-E-S-S.

Teasing we had good times, viewed the New England colors and ate hearty. Mom and Dad #2 were a couple of busy bees, Bert rebuilt our dilapidated deck and Xuyen cooked up a storm and brought home half a cow from the grocery store. Yep she thinks we are going to starve to death out here without her taking care of us. We eat good Mom #2 but better when you are here.


In between the parents I had me birthday #30. It really wasn't traumatic like it has been for some of my friends. Who cares if I don't know what I want to do or where I am going to live, I got my friends, my family and Ben, it is all good. Oh and Woof you too! Ben planned a surprise party that I kind of ruined by inviting people over the same night. But it was fun and I got Dairy Queen cake and lobster wellies. The boots are sweet, I wear them everywhere, no lie, with sweatpants.

Last week Mom and Dad #1 rolled into town at the peak of fall colors. I am not sure they were that impressed. My dad just wanted to play cards and my mom wanted to sit on the deck and watch the river. They were a huge help getting our house ready for winter by hauling wood and cleaning up the yard. Thanks again to our little migrant worker (mom) and beer wench (dad) . I pulled off a surprise birthday party/retirement party that I know they were not expecting. Probably has something to do with the fact that their birthdays are in August, but hey I missed it and 60 only comes around once in a lifetime. My buddy Lisa's parents were also in town from afar so they even had friends their age (almost) to talk to. I know I am awesome!

My parents are awesome too. They got us early Christmas presents including a sweet patio set for our refurbished deck. It looks pretty fancy but I think it is a nice fit and the new waffle maker, oh I love it.

Notre Maison

One post in September, wow I am lame. What the heck have I been doing? I think school is sucking out my brains.

I got the remodel bug again, the bathroom has been done for months, so on to the kitchen. I only intended to pull off wallpaper and paint BUT that is not what went down. We found paneling under the wallpaper so we spent a week removing wallpaper paste, mudding and sanding. Yuck. Plus I had timed it right before Ben's parents were due in town so we were in a rush. We ended up spraypainting the stove (almond to white), painting the trim and baseboard heaters, changing the light fixtures and putting in a new sink. Okay everything but the kitchen sink! We actually got most of it done, I still plan to paint the cabinets and do a few things but fresh paint and a modern light fixture made a huge difference. Who says $100 can't get you far these days!

When I bought paint for the kitchen I also bought new colors for 3 of the bedrooms upstairs. That did not thrill Ben as he hates to paint but my friend Lisa loves to paint so I have a great helper. Bedroom #1 was painted from peach to maroon while on a break from scraping wallpaper paste from the kitchen. But bedroom #1 also turned into a massive project when I was coerced by the neighbor to pull the carpet and refinish the hardwood floors. The first 2 feet of the floors looked great but after that were just plain bad and I now understand why once upon a time people had put down carpet. Well the carpet is gone and if you plan to stay with us you better bring slippers because we won't be finishing this one for awhile.

Beijing 2008

If you know me at all you know I love the Olympics, alot. This year's olympiad was like every other in the fact that I intended to watch every minute of it but pretty much missed it all. But the swimming, I saw the swimming! Way to go Phelps, Crocker and man god Lochte. You guys were incredible.

One way we did celebrate was to hold our own Beer Olympics Maine style.I know the beer olympics is not a novel idea, in fact if you google it you will see that every bar, fraternity and serious drinker in the country has been involved in beer olympics. Still it was a first for all of us and we had 5 teams, 5 events, opening cermonies, the medal stand, a keg of Bud Lite and one fun night. Too bad we got last place and 2 losers were the winners. Oh the irony!

Although summer was sad to let go fall is pretty sweet too. The leaves are starting to change and it is football and harvest time. We had an awesome garden season, here is one day's picking. Nice veggies huh?

Too bad fall also means school, because going back to school is a real drag. The first 2 weeks are past and I survived but it has not been fun. Plus I am teaching freshman engineering majors, physics. Oh boy they are full of excuses for why they don't come to class or turn in their homework. I don't care if your roommate wouldn't give you a ride to campus or you got locked out of your dorm, I am not your babysitter. Jeez, 18 year old boys, they are annoying!

Summer gone sad...

In our never ending quest to be absolutely miserable we planned a 3 day, 33 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail during the tailend of a 4 week rainstorm. Even though it was pouring rain at start time we waited out for a clear spot and headed on the first leg of our journey. It mostly stopped raining but fog was hanging and the views were nonexistent. Then throw in the mud which on the trail is basically decaying matter and smells like death and yep you got one unhappy hiker. Blech it was nasty, my boots were soaked and my pants were covered in mud up to my knees. Not fun people, let me go home. Well I got my wish as we camped just one night and hiked out the 2nd day. Next time we will conquer this section, until then my boots are taking a break.

Fall comes way too fast especially when there is firewood to collect. Some friends had some downed trees they offered us so we sawed, split, and hauled the wood home. Okay really I just hauled and supervised because I do not touch mauls or chainsaws, they are just too dangerous for this accident prone chicka, but Mr. Anderson, he did his fair share of chainsawing and chopping last weekend. Ben got his reward though when we drove thru town like a couple of hillbillies with a load of wood and a chainsaw and wheelbarrow strapped on top of his man truck. It makes him happy to look like we fit in, and that day we looked like true Maine-ahs. Wow we have come a long ways in just one year.

Kind of seems most everyone has a blog these days but there are still those people out there who say the word BLOG like it is something quite special. My mom has a knack for that one and so does my grad school advisor. Last weekend at a work retreat me and my research partner asked our advisor if she would take a photo with us. Sure she said, I am sure Mindi wants to put it on her BLOG. Hmm only if it is funny or cool or something. Well it is kinda of funny, who knew we all had the same the left head tilt pose for photos. Neato huh??

Flying Rabid Mice

The other night I was chilling on the couch reading a magazine when I saw a huge moth come flying down the steps. I was like wow that is one ginormous moth and then I realized we had a bird in our living room. Oh a poor bird, trapped in the house. OMG NOT A BIRD! I screamed bloody murder and Ben came flying out of the kitchen to find me huddled on the couch under a blanket. After a bit of convincing that it was the man's job to take care of such things he followed the thing upstairs and trapped it in our bedroom. I had to have one more look and yes I was still scared, freaked out actually. Ben told me he didn't think I was the kind of girl to scream, like a girl anyways. Oh yes I am and you can hear it here.



The day after bat day, I jetted down to Washington DC to meet my buddy Darcie and her sisters and brother on their annual sibling bonding vacation. The first night we took a walk around the Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials and were joined by a flock of bats out hunting for dinner. How did they know I was going to be there?

Traveling in a group of 7 can be a challenge. What are we going to do? Where should we eat? Who has to go to the bathroom. Oh boy! But we had a great time, saw the sights and for just one day I got to be a member of their club. Check it out, I am the sister underneath the sailor. Thanks guys for making me feel welcome!

Good to be Home

Home again home again, we made it home again. I found some super deals on flights outta Boston so we last minute decided to make an appearance in MN. The flights were cheap mostly because they were crap but hey we made it home. In order to catch our 5 am flight in BeanTown we left Bangor after work to catch the last Amtrak from Portland. Sound inconvenient, oh yes it got worse. I decided we needed to bring a load of fresh seafood home, so I loaded up a cooler and put Ben in charge of carrying it. We had some time to kill in Boston, okay like 6 hours, and to my glee the new batman movie opened that night at midnight. Ben had never seen anything like the 19 screen megaplex I drug him to, it was huge and had escalators which was great because we had suitcases and a giant red cooler. We were hoping to put our luggage under a counter but were denied. Awesome, 5000 people waiting for the doors to open and Ben holding a cooler. Everybody stared, everybody commented and we just stood there like a couple of freaks in the midst of actual freaks dressed up like Batman and the Joker. The movie ended up being awesome, we got wheelchair seats to stash our luggage and we were able to go right to the airport without really waiting around at all. It ended up sweet!

The forecast for our weekend at the lake looked horrible but ended up perfect. I got to meet my new nephew, way cute, my sister's family's new puppy, also way cute and catch up on these two monsters, cute but trouble. We got some much needed boat time, family time and enjoyed a Seafood dinner party. As an added bonus some of my buddies from way back made it down to visit. Good times!

Now that I have two families and we live away our time is at a premium. Luckily our families get along well and we are able to do things together. Plus our families have quite a bit in common. For instance check out my Mom and Ben's Grandpa, they are both missing 3 teeth. And not just any teeth but those right up there where you can see them. How neat huh!! (If I don't explain my Mother's situation I know I will get a phone call, she is getting them fixed and has temporaries that she can take out, which she did for this photo)One of my favorite things to do when I am home besides play cards and waterski is to have Ben's Mom teach me how to make cool Vietnamese cuisine. Here we are making bhan com which is a dessert of coconut, mung bean and sweet flour. Sound yucky, well it's not, it's real good. While we were rolling the dough Ben's mom told me about the time she offered to buy Ben the stuff that would make his hair grow back but he said no. She said it won't have mattered because her friend bought it and it didn't work anyways. Oh I laughed at Ben's expense because it was so funny. No secrets are safe with us two Benjamin, I am sure you already know that

Our week in MN flew away and soon we were on the road, on the road in the new pickup truck we bought from my Papa. Ben is stoked to have a truck in Maine. Now we don't have to cut sheetrock in half to get it home and we can haul anything we want. Can you tell I am so excited to haul stuff. Anyways the truck was a pretty comfy ride in fact I fell asleep alot except when we parked at Niagara Falls to sleep overnight. Then I couldn't sleep at all, what a drag. Niagara Falls in the dark is really scary, a gagillion gallons of loud, roaring water that I didn't even want to go near but during the day it is breathataking and definitely worth putting on your bucket list. Now driving the 1700 miles from MN to Maine, not really bucket list material.

Trash talking is for fools

Woof 0 - Porcupine 2. Nice move blockhead. Dogs, like boys, they never learn.

I've learned though, learned how to make another quilt. I made this flannel baby cover for my buddy Kelly who is expecting in August. Happy baby day Kelly! Quilting has been good for me, it keeps my idle hands busy and distracts me from working on my thesis. Perfect!

Living in RedSox country has been a little tiresome for a couple of diehard Twins fans like Ben and I. "We won the World Series last year", "We have a great pitching staff","All our starters made the All Star Team", blah, blah, blah blahbahhhh! "Who won '87 and '91, huh, tell me who won?!" Anyways when the red hot Twins rode into Fenway for a series with the slumping RedSox I took full advantage of the opportunity to do a little trash talking to anyone who would listen. Unfortunately my talk came back to bite me as the series did not at all go the way we had planned. Wednesday evening we returned home to find a gift to reminds us how many games the Twins won against Boston. Oh there will be other games and ....I should probably just stop talking.

Back in MN we had a gigantic garden, about 100' by 50'. Ben loved it because he HAD to use a full size tractor to maintain the thing, I hated it because it took many, many hours to weed and water the thing. Here in Maine we have a sweet little 8 by 8 garden. I can weed and water this baby in 5 minutes flat. Now that is the kind of garden I dig and I bet my right hand we will pull more veggies out of this little fertile plot then we ever got out of the Minnesota monster.

The AT ain't bad

Last weekend we embarked on our first hike on the Appalachian Trail. It has been pretty wet here so the trail was real sloppy and I was a mess, I know how to find the mud. I also stepped through a bridge and up to my knee in a river about 10 minutes into the trip. By the time we set up camp 8 hours later I had smelly prune foot. Our camp was just below 4000 feet and it got pretty cool and really wet, oh and the bugs were horrible. Yes I spent the evening in the tent.

We met a thru hiker on our trek in, he must have left Georgia in like March to already be in Maine. I wonder how much snow he hit on the way and HOW he could do the trail solo. I think I would go crazy walking this by myself. Although doing all of it or a big chunk of it is something we would like to do someday.

Good times, here we are on one of the 2 peaks of the Bigelows. It was my first time at 4000 feet, on my own two feet. First time for Woofer too and he did awesome on the technical climbing with his new pack. Now if we could just get him to pose for photos we would be all good.

Crash Test Dummy

Last Sunday the 66 John Deere mowed our whole lawn for the first time ever (it has never ever run right). It was almost like the thing knew it was going to die soon. As an afterthought I decided to make a couple of quick passes in the swatch of grass between our deck and garage because the push mower is not working. Not my best move. Not my best move because we have a 15 foot drop off behind our house, the grass was wet and the tires on the tractor are really worn. Oh yeah and there is that one big tree, the dead one we were going to cut down this spring.


The last photo shows the view from the clearing behind our house, it is quite a drop. Even though I bailed halfway, riding the mower just 10 feet down the hill was by far scarier than any rollercoaster I have ever been on. Minus that one tree we would be laughing but I am pretty sure Ben shed a tear when he viewed the aftermath.

Not a Girlscout you say?

Summer is here and moving dang fast. For those of you have not started your summer activities you better get a move on. My mom visited for a long weekend and we took her on her very first camping expedition. We chose a really cool hike-in spot downeast that overlooks the ocean. It's a little bit of a hike in and my mom is 60, which she reminded us many times. She did great although she about sweated through her pants and the bugs were pretty bad. We made it to camp and the woman who claimed she was going to die scavenged enough wood for a 2 day fire. Hmm you are that tired huh?

Woof on the other hand acted like he was not well. It was his first day wearing his new pack and the longest hike of the year but still he had me worried. We were setting up tents and he just plopped down right were the tent was going and layed there breathing all weird. Eventually he did snap out of it but he gave us a little scare.

Once the sun set the bugs went away and we had a nice evening by the fire. We were able to see 3 lighthouses which doesn't happen everyday and had a nice bit of moonshine to look at.

We packed up and made it out in record time and set off for Campabello Island Canada. We had crossed the border with no problems other than a couple of unsigned passports. There is an old light house that can be visitied at low tide and luckily we planned accordingly to be able to do just that. Woof came with and did very well until we got to the light house and he started acting like a dead dog again. Here we are waiting for him to snap out of it. The East Quoddy Head light house is pretty neat and is in the process of being restored by a bunch of really old people from the island. They were out working the day we visited and they were not the ablest bunch. One old lady offloaded most of her gear onto Ben including a bucket of paint and her BRAND new camera. He must look trustworthy or something? But not 100 feet later he about wiped on some slippery seaweed. That would have been cool huh? That crazy old canuck would have probably kicked his butt.
The rest of the weekend we put my mom to work. We planted our garden, planted grass, planted flowers and transplanted all kinds of stuff, she was like our little migrant worker.

She talks like a migrant worker too. We played alot of Wii bowling and the one time I beat her she called me a s**thead. What is up with that? I deserve better especially from my mother...