It’s officially Winter in CT which for the most part makes me feel low-keySAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) as it means the weather is extremely cold, the days short and the nights, super dark on my drive home from work…
To compensate, I try my darndest to look for fun, free, enlightening and/or educational things to do just to keep me from participating in my favorite pastime, i.e., sitting in my La-Z-Boy to watch TV and eat snacks (smile).
So here (in no particular order) are some of the ways (in the past) I have kept myself occupied (and far, far away from the snacks) during the dark, dreary days of Winter in CT:
Ice skating – Since I enjoyed this activity so much as a child growing up in Groton, CT I figured I would try it out again as a full-grown adult – I must admit it was easier said than done (smile).
This is a fun and easy activity, especially in the Winter: taking a hot bubble bath after a long day of work: Put your slippers on…
Visiting a local museum – this free activity is not only educational but truly enlightening.
Relaxing in a salt cave. This was such a unique activity I had to write a blog post about it: Cave Girl
Going to a live taping of The Viewin NYC – a truly magical day from beginning ’till end: The View (from Lajeune)
Spending the day enjoying a special exhibit – educational for sure: Harlem for Days!
Going to see a free lecture at the local university. I recall this event quickly becoming “standing room-only.” To me this proved the staying power of the written word…
Spending a relaxing Day at the Spa – this never gets old…
Skiing in the month of February – Super fun and exhilarating! SkiDate
Spending time (and money) at the casino…
So whatever activity you choose to participate in this Winter in CT, do try to make it memorable 🙂
Anyone who knows me knows I love me some Doxies! “Doxies,” short for dachshunds, are those “short-legged, long-bodied, hound-type dogs.” Dachs meaning badger, hund meaning dog.
Dachshunds originated in Germany and were developed to “scent, chase and flush out badger and other burrow-dwelling animals.” Some people refer to them as the Hot Dog, or the Weiner Dog or even the Sausage Dog. I just call them adorable (smile).
So whether I’m on a staycation in Connecticut or on a real vacation in the U.S. or Abroad, I am often on the look-out for what my girlfriends have come to know as a “Cute Doxie Surprise.” These are the moments when I spot a Doxie in an unexpected place and go nuts – running after it, taking pictures of it, rolling down my car window to ask questions of the pet parent, etc.
Fun fact: While Growing up Hollis in Groton, CT, a neighbor named Mrs. Brown had a beautiful long-haired golden Doxie aptly named Goldie Von Bruen. Goldie gave birth to a litter of full-bred Dachshund puppies. I’m not sure when but at some point my late mother Jean did something kind for Mrs. Brown that caused her to offer my mother one of her prized and valued Doxies at no charge. My mother happily picked out a male puppy. We were so excited because this was our family’s very first canine pet. My older brother Michael came up with the name. He called him Rapper and it stuck (smile). Rapper was a standard (or loooooooooong) red, smooth-haired dachshund with a good disposition. Dogs were not pampered back in the day so Rapper was not “walked,” rather he ran from the house, sometimes disappearing for days at a time (smile).
This is the closest image I could find of what Rapper looked like back in the day as I could not find any of the Polaroid pictures we took of him!
Rapper mostly ate from our plates (often times eating what we didn’t want) despite the fresh, dry dog food sitting in his bowl on a daily basis…
And it was apparently clear who Rapper loved the most – my mother Jean. So much so that when she and my father Jonie B went out on a date, we Hollis girls would take turns putting on my mother’s coat, hat and shoes to trick Rapper into believing she was still home. It worked like a charm (smile).
5 years ago I had two Doxies of my own…I was living in New Haven, CT at the time in a 90-year-old Colonial style house that I owned in the Edgewood neighborhood.
I named my 2 Doxies Coby and Crimson Hollis. Coby was a black and tan smooth-haired, male miniature Doxie and Crimson, a red, smooth-haired female miniature Doxie …They were equally energetic, loveable and fun so lots of good memories were made in that house.
I adopted them both from the same breeder in Canterbury, CT. Coby was just 3 months old when I adopted him and I had him until the ripe old age of 17 (in people years). Unfortunately he died of kidney failure in May of 2012. Coby was 8 when I adopted Crimson, a “breeder dog” who wasn’t producing many pups so the owner “fixed” her to sell her off. On top of this Crimson had social interaction issues since in her world adults coming to visit were coming for the sole purpose of taking away her puppies so I was able to get her at a much lower price than I did Coby. She was 4 1/2 when I adopted her and lived a happy and “normal” pet life to the age of 9 before she was struck (1 month after Coby passed!) by a hit and run driver on a busy residential street.😥 Life was rough without my 2 Doxies but the passing of time eventually healed my broken heart…
Today I am an Insta girl who loves her Instagram pix and I’m happy to admit that the majority of my own collection of saved pix are of the Dachshunds of Instagram. Here are just a few of my personal faves with my very own captions:
Doxie Love – it’s no small wonder that my fave breed,the Dachshund, according to the American Kennel Club, remains one of the top 10 breeds of dogs in the United States.
Back in college in the mid-eighties, I truly had a love affair with pizza.?
What’s not to love?!? It was cheap, it was plentiful and it was easily had! The greasy, gooey, cheesy red variety with pepperoni or sausage was what I craved the most. And I liked my crust thick back then. These were obviously pre-Clean Eating days (I am now a Colon Cancer survivor with a delicate stomach). But back then my stomach was a cast iron that could absorb even the hardiest of dishes. I usually had a beer or two to swallow the slices down as pizza and beer were truly a match made in heaven…
Fast forward to Today and I like to think my tastes are a little bit more sophisticated. Give me an upscale pizza restaurant, with a “wide variety of my favorite pizza toppings,” a coal-fired oven and then (stop it!) spoil me by allowing me to namemy custom-made pie and you have a customer for life! That’s what happened today when I taste tested at the soft opening of a brand new restaurant in downtown New Haven featuring the latest concept in pizza, grinders, and salads…you custom make your pizza or grinder or salad so you get exactly what you want on it.
I stood on line and had everything I love put on my custom-made pie, as well as my own crisp build-your-own salad, and all of the ingredients are fresh and locally produced. Yummy!
If you are at all familiar with the New Haven restaurant scene, think “Chipotle” meets “Modern” in an upscale setting…the restaurant I am speaking of is called Ah-Beetz, which simply means “Pizza” in Italian.
Again, once your pie is finished you get to name it. I named mine LJ’s Vegetarian Delight(smile). My creation was meatless with lots of cheese, tomatoes and veggies. And it only took minutes to cook!
After my first bite of LJ’s Vegetarian Delight I was in love, but this time it felt good and, more importantly, Ifelt healthy…