The Greatest Dessert EVER!!!

Once a year I head to the Cheesecake Factory specifically to have a piece of their Pumpkin Cheesecake. If you know me well, you know I'm not a "dessert person", but their cheesecake is really the greatest! It melts in your mouth, and if you are a fan of pumpkin, then you'll love this. In California, there are many Cheesecake Factory restaurants. They are in most nice shopping centers and are usually very crowded. In CT, there is only ONE in the entire state! It's in West Hartford, which is about an hour away from us. But we decided to make a trip out of it and stopped at places along the way.

If you've never tried it, head to your local Cheesecake Factory for a piece. In my opinion, it's worth every calorie!

Apple Pie with a Twist

Since Matt and I went apple picking a couple of weeks ago, we were trying to find a good apple pie receipe. Last night Matt went online and found this... I don't know who came up with this, but YUCK!!!

Anyone have a good (and fairly easy) apple pie or apple dessert recipe?

The Heat is On

That's the heater in the apartment... We officially turned on the heat in the apartment this weekend as the first taste of cooler temps came in. Over the weekend, the high was in the mid-50s and this morning temps were dipping into the 30s!!! Thankfully this apartment has separate thermostats for each room so we can just heat the room we are in and keep the rest relatively cool. But I worry about Nate when the temps will be a high of 25 during the day, so I started researching some warming pet beds today. Any suggestions from anyone who has kitties in the cold weather (Chloe??)

It was still a beautiful weekend and we did some driving around Connecticut since our leaves have been beautiful around here the past week. Sadly, it won't last much longer so I'm trying to enjoy them as long as possible. The leaves are beginning to drop like crazy too, and our landlord was using his very LOUD leaf blower on our driveway at 10am on a Sunday... too early for me... it woke Nate and I up from a very cuddly sleep!

I assume we won't be getting many visitors for the next several months due to weather (at least not those from CA!), so if you already live in the cold, feel free to come by and visit!

My First Leaf Peeping

So that's what they call it here... when you go for a scenic drive during the Fall in New England to check out the fall leaves, it's called "leaf peeping". Seems a bit weird and almost like being called a "peeping Tom", but whatever. Matt and I went leaf peeping this past Saturday. We ended up spending the entire day out and about... driving through Connecticut, then Massachusetts, then Vermont and finally in New Hampshire. Some of the leaves were a bit "past prime", but still so beautiful. It's something everyone should see at least once!

We ended up at Dartmouth in Hanover, NH (where Matt did his residency). I've been there once before, but it was in April, so it was cold, overcast and not nearly the same. We had PERFECT fall weather... about 70 degrees, no clouds, just perfect. We spent part of the day in Hanover and walked around (Yale was actually playing Dartmouth in football, and won!) Then Matt just drove us all over the place... where ever we felt like going.

We also went apple picking. Another New England Fall tradition. It was actually pretty cool. We went to this orchard where they had "regular" apples that you know, but also had an orchard of heirloom apple trees. They had combined 2 or 3 types of apples into one tree. You just pick an apple off the tree, take a bit, and if you like it, you keep it and if you don't, you drop it on the ground! Very strange, but a lot of fun. And so cheap at only $0.90 per lb! We ended up with about 10 lbs of apples, some of which we plan on trying to turn into apple pie this weekend!

It was a great day. The pictures below really don't do the colors justice, but I hope you enjoy. You really should try to see them in person some day if you can!

Recap of My Parents Visit

My parents came for their 1st visit to Guilford a couple of weeks ago. They stayed for 10 days. I absolutely knew that they would LOVE Guilford with it's beautiful Green, historical homes and "quaint" New England small town feel. So when they finally arrived about 1:45am (they took a late flight and then it's an hour drive from the airport), one of my Mom's first comments were how much she loved the Green. I was hoping to get to pick them up from the airport so I could be in the car when they first saw the Green because I just knew what their reaction would be, but they ended up renting a car so they came in on their own. But I was so excited that they loved it.

We had several things planned for their first weekend. Saturday we went to a Yale football game. They played Georgetown and killed them! Matt and I hadn't been to a game yet, and it was a beautiful day for football. Matt got us some great seats, although we've now learned that it's a very tight squeeze for someone Matt size to fit. My knees were basically hitting the bench in front of us, so Matt, being 6'3", was a bit uncomfortable. I'm used to going to USC football games at the Coliseum in LA which holds about 90,000 people, so this was a considerable smaller stadium. But the weird thing was that it was probably only about 1/3 full! I know that Yale isn't really known its football, but I would think it would be a fun event to attend as a student. Football is (or should be) a part of your college experience... but that's speaking as a child brought up by USC fans who are all die-hard fans the moment they become students. Anyways, it was a lot of fun.

Afterwards we ended up going to downtown New Haven and walking around Yale. Originally I had planned on taking my parents on the Yale tour the next day, but Matt basically knows the route of the tour as well as the history and stories about the school. So he took us on a tour through Old Campus and through some libraries. When I visited Matt for the first time in February 2007, we walked around Yale and I was so impressed by it. It's exactly what you would imagine an Ivy League school to be. I didn't end up taking pictures (because my battery had died), but ended up deciding that I didn't want to take pictures of it because they wouldn't do it justice. I wanted my parents to see it for the first time with no impressions from pictures. And they definately were impressed! They couldn't get over how amazing and beautiful the school is. We walked around downtown a bit and then ended up at this pub Matt and I like that is a converted church so it's got a lot of beautiful wood work inside.

That night we went to the Guilford Fair. For those that know me well, I'm a Fair Girl. I love the Fair and go to the OC Fair every year. I was bummed to miss it this year, but was excited to go the Guilford Fair. It was really cute, considering the town of Guilford only has 24,000 people. It's a scaled down version of your typical fair, but I have to admit that I don't think I would need to go again if we were still living here next year.

On Sunday, Matt had to work, so my parents and I hung out in Mytic, CT (yes, the place where Mytic Pizza resides and the movie was filmed). It was an absolutely beautiful day out so my Dad took the scenic route up Highway 1. So it took us over 2 hours to get a place that would normally take about 45 minutes on the Interstate! But it was great and we had a great time in Mystic... including eating at Mystic Pizza.

During the week, Matt and I were working (I've got a temp job... still no permanent job!!!), so my parents drove all over CT. I think they've practically been on every scenic road in the state. But they seemed to really enjoy it and thought everything was beautiful. I'm so glad they liked it .

That weekend, Matt left for CA for 10 days so it was just my parents and me. Since the weather made a turn for the worse, and we were expecting a lot of rain that weekend, we just kept it low key. Went to a movie, checked out the shops on the Green, went out to eat. Then on Sunday we went to the Big E Fair. It a fair that represents all 6 New England states, including replicas of each states capitol building with products and food from that State. The highlight for my Mom were the Busweiser Clydesdale horses and we even got to see them dressed up and hitched up to the wagon... very impressive. Unfortunately, we ended up getting rained on about 3/4 of the way through, so we cut our visit a bit short, but overall I felt it was a great fair. They left that Monday morning, driving to OH to visit my Dad's family for the week.

We had such a great time and now I'm excited that they know of the places I'm talking about. Hopefully they'll have the chance to visit a few more times before we moved back to California.

My Worst Holiday Nightmare Come True!!!

Some of you know that I am not a fan of those blow up decorations that many people put out on their lawns at Christmas time. For those of you that put them out... I'm sorry. But I just don't like them. To me, they are a bit trashy. So last December when I visited Matt, I was shocked to see his next door neighbors house... tons of blow up decorations that even were lined up in front of the apartment in front of us. Then I learned they have these decorations for most major holidays... Here are the Halloween ones... HELP!!!!





My family is probably cracking up after seeing these... but IT'S NOT FUNNY!!!

A Very Lazy Weekend

This past weekend was VERY lazy!!! Matt is still gone on his trip to CA (thankfully he's coming home late tonight!) and I didn't really have any plans. Nate and the DVR kept me company. I slept in, hung out in my sweats all day, caught up on my shows on the DVR, took a nap here and there and had plenty of "people time" with Nate. And Saturday night I was updated by Matt (who got to go to the game!!) and Bethany during the USC victory over Oregon (we don't get all the USC games shown on the East Coast, unless they are #1). Although Saturday looked like a nice Fall day outside, I just couldn't manage to get motivated enough. Sunday turned into a rainy day, so it was perfect for just lounging around. I'm glad Matt gets home tonight so I have someone other than Nate to talk to!! Although he's really great at chatting back! :)

Nate "Burrito"

I Almost Fell Off The Couch!!!

So last night I was talking to my Mom on the phone. She mentioned they missed Nate (my cat) and I said that I'm sure my Dad misses him. My Dad is an animal person, grew up with pets, and couldn't get enough of Nate. Nate is probably one of the most friendly, social, "people" cat you'll ever meet. If you pet him, he'll love you. He's a major cuddler, which is one of the things I love most about him.

But my Mom is not much of animal person... especially when it comes to cats. She loves the bumper sticker "Lost your cat... check my tires!" So last night after I said that my Dad misses Nate, she actually said... "I actually miss Nate too!!" I was totally in shock. She said what a sweet and nice cat he was and that "if you are going to have a cat, he's the good one to have"! I just had to blog about this, since for those of you that know my Mom and her dislike of cats, you'll find this amazing!

I'm glad that Nate made a good impression on her. I was worried he would keep bothering her knowing that she doesn't really like cats. And a couple of times, he walked up to her and curled up on her chest... but it's seriously so cute, who can resist?!? Even a cat-hater can be changed apparently... with the right cat of course!!!