miller pond

Last week Matt had a long lunch break so I met him at a little park near our house. We were both surprised at how extensive the park was, and how beautiful! If anyone needs to come and sit and write a novel, this would be the place to do it. Very inspiring.


So we decided we should bring back Moose for a walk, so he could enjoy the view and socialize with the other doggies.

It was very scenic. But it tired him out!

attn: Tennessee Readers

My brother-in-law's practice is doing an innovative Halloween candy buy-back. It was even featured in the paper- fight cavities, support the troops! So all of you in the greater Nashville area should flock to Franklin Pediatric Dentistry on Monday to get money for your candy and donate to the troops overseas.

Or you could just head over there for some top-notch dental care for your kids, any day of the week.

Portraits of Pal

Forgive me for this post. I get a little annoyed when people put multiple pictures of their animals. However, Moose is just so expressive.

A feast for the eyes awaits you.

The Stately Boss

The Georgia Bulldog

The Hungry Boy
subtitled: pleasepleasepleaseplease

The Depths of DespairMuShu Moose

Floppy Pal
(my favorite Moose, with the wrinkly head and big paws)

Dog at Sunset

our beach

Our house overlooks a little inlet of Long Island Sound. Out there, across the sea, is the strange land of Connecticut. But our house faces so that we can't see Connecticut, just our own strip of shoreline. I have fun fabricating ideas about when and by whom and for what reason this house was built - I say a summer home in the 60's that has since been added onto. My neighbors say I'm wrong, it was never a summer home, but it's easy to imagine a family traipsing up and down the now-overgrown path that leads to the sea.

When Matt moved in this summer, he spent many long days battling poison ivy and fixing "the steps." Somewhere between 1960 and 2009, those steps had been left to go. I am so thankful for the one who carved the path out of the hillside in the first place, and to my darling husband for putting it back together again.

Once you get to the bottom of the steps, the path leads through a cedar grove. Our neighbors complete the nautical picture with this seldom-used scull. If only they'd left a paddle out there, you know who'd be out for a morning row.


There she is, through the trees! It's the sea!

I see the sea. That picture above is the only strip of sand in sight. Instead, the beach is covered in smooth pebbles. Lots and lots of sea stones. I have often wished for the company of a four-year-old to help find all the pretty ones.

Can you see all the twinkles of sunlight? That's a little Fibonacci right there.

And that's where the lifeguard sat and looked through his 60's style sunglasses as the kids ran up and down the beach.

Village Life

This is my first time to live in a village. Or rather, a village in America. While our address is Setauket, we technically live in Old Field, which is comprised of the homes at the end of a small peninsula. We don't have any stores or post office, but we do have a constable. He works out of the lighthouse.

Seriously. How adorable is that? (Cue whistling of Andy Griffith.) I ran out to the lighthouse earlier this week, when it was still sunny and cheerfully fall. I think a total of 4 cars passed me then entire time. It's nicely secluded and, I suppose, what a village should be like. Unfortunately, no more running. The next four days look like this:
We met our neighbors last week and they kindly brought over a large mum for the front porch. They also gave us a little history on the area we live in. They bought their land back when our entire neighborhood was farmland, and apparently the area our house occupies was called "the meadow." Hard to believe now with all the trees that completely shield our house from theirs. They said the farmer was reserving the highest ground for himself but had to sell out after he lost his money in pickle futures.

I like learning this stuff. It gives our area even more character.

Speaking of character . . .
Look at old Moose-Pal here. He's effectively won me over. I am going to become one of those people that writes about their dog all the time. This buddy is hilarious. If I remain unemployed I'm considering a segment of blog posts entitled "The Phobias of Pal." Because we've added to balloons, boxes, and vacuums . . . electric cords, baskets, and the fireplace tools. These things don't have to be moving, their very presence sends Moose cowering in the corner. The above picture is Moose barking because his toy is in a basket and he's too scared to get it out.

Well, yesterday the inevitable happened - we found a tick on little old Moose. I'm not surprised, he loves to traipse about in the underbrush, but Matt quickly hauled him onto the table to perform a thorough inspection.

Did I mention Moose had just received his Bama jersey from Murray? He had it on at the time.

Excuse me, Pal, please lift up your shirt.

I think if you're going to take pictures of your kitchen table, you should make sure every piece of mail from the past three days is strewn across it.

So don't worry, we're taking preventative measures on the tick front. Meanwhile Moose snores peacefully beside me.

Korean BBQ

Ironically, it was in Kenya that I had the most exposure to Korean food . . . and it is go-o-o-od. So when our friends Naz and Indira (neither Korean, by the way), offered to bring meat and a grill over on Sunday afternoon, we were pretty excited.

Here's Naz grilling away . . . look at those tasty strips of beef.


We were pretty excited to get out our deluxe grilling tools that we received as a wedding present. I thought we wouldn't be able to use them until next summer. Moose was beside himself with joy as we were all outside together to play with him and he ate like a king.


We set up the table to watch the sunset and lit our little fire pit to keep the chill off. Naz and Indira also brought kimchi, sticky rice, and other things we can't name, and taught us how to roll up our food in lettuce wraps. SO YUMMY.

And when it got too cold, we went inside and sat by the fire with our coffee and enjoyed a round of Scattergories. Some of our answers were rather revealing . . .
Indira: I know we all put the same answer for historic figure starting with I.
Me: What did you put?
Naz: Indira Ghandi.
Indira: Indira Ghandi.
Matt: Oh, I put Ike!
Me: So did I . . .

Oh, we're all so MFEO.

more wedding pictures than you could ever want...

available right here:

http://www.olivecharleston.com/onlineweddings/matt&erica/

You, too, can have a 16x20 wraparound canvas above your fireplace.

Really, we loved our photographers, they were such sweet people and really comfortable to work with. Anyone getting married in the Charleston area should check them out!