Laura's Blog

HoHoHo

2009-12-06T10:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some Christmas pysanky pics!

Great Book!

2009-09-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

Pair this with the movies "Lost in Austen" and "Becoming Jane" and you have yourself a perfect Austen droolfest ;)

Honeymoon pics

2009-08-20T11:05:00.001-07:00

Here are some honeymoon pictures!

Done got hitched

2009-08-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hooray! Some great photos are rolling in- thanks guys :)

Sweetest people ever!

2009-08-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

I have no idea how they found time to do this (and how I didn't notice it was going on!) They were also so busy knitting tiny baby things for Nancy (who is due on our wedding day!). We are so blessed to have these wonderful people in our lives! They made this gorgeous afghan out of Lions Brand- it is so soft! The stitches range from basketweave, to stockinette to beautiful cables! Here we are with some of the lovely people who made it (and we send love to the others who didn't get to see us open it!)!

Cat proofing

2009-07-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

So, Comet is a big orange tomcat... and he likes to perch ontop of my wee aerogarden. So after a few sprays of water from a squirt bottle he still looks at me like "wha?" So I turned to my trusty hot glue gun and made it Comet-proof-- with the help of 20 clothespins (hey, it's been too wet to hang clothes outside lately anyway). Me hopes it works.

Camp Pictures

2009-07-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we started camp with Krysta and then went to Schroon for some fishin' and more friends!

Sing for your supper

2009-07-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

Somehow through osmosis I've inherited the "feed people gene" from my Italian grandmother. But that doesn't mean I don't make them sing for their supper :)

NYC with Aunt Nan

2009-07-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

Went to NYC with Aunt Nan and Megs. Here are some pics. Got our makeup done at Barneys and went to this beautiful French perfume boutique also famous for their powders (which we got!). Amazing. So check this place out... this blog will tell you about it. This one is my favorite. Then we went to Gino's and Megan matched the wallpaper.

Blogging about a Blog

2009-07-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

Do you know 97.7 FM WEXT? You should. They are listener supported radio, no commercials, and they love local music. I'm on tonight at 9pm and Sunday at 11am. You can listen online too!

http://local518.blogspot.com/

http://www.exit977.org/

Muder Ballads and Lies... and visual artists

2009-07-14T18:28:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering who the mastermind for my visual effects and printing was http://www.twilightprinting.com/clients.cfm

Recording

2009-07-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

I'm a compulsive picture taker. Why do I have pictures of us eating sandwiches or being goofy at camp? Well, I once heard that if an alien was to collect the videos and photographs from all over Earth they would think that we live on beaches, with cakes and candles, in suits and with babies and that life started at 0 and went to 12 with an entirely different group of pictures from 18 to 25 and then strange older people. You know what I mean? So I try to take pictures of all the neat stuff that might not be important. The aliens would know we ate sandwiches. Here are pictures of us recording.

Welcome to America

2009-07-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

I'm an ambassador! Of course, after a thorough discussion of gun safety and shotguns, and showing Maeve the mechanisms and how the gun was not loaded, and there were no shells anywhere in sight ( I have to do this disclaimer, my father is an NRA instructor). We took these pictures.

So here is the deal. As I see it, Jason and I are quintessential Americans. We are mutts, we love country music, we are facinated by religion, history and the lot of academia, we play and sing everything, we make jam-wine-cheese, we garden and knit and read read read... so why not bring your foreigners to our house for a quick lesson in America. Krysta Dennis (local singer-songwriter-Notre Dame French Professor) went to Paris to study for a while and met Maeve, a lovely Irish girl. They are great friends. Maeve came to America to tour around and her next stop is Nashville. Incidentally, if you have a couch in between here and somewhere else in America, email me your # for Maeve.

Boggs 4th of July CD News

2009-07-04T06:12:00.001-07:00

Yes, that's a cat in a guitar case. Cat's outta the bag. Brand new CD to be recorded this summer. "Murder Ballads and Lies" features traditional tunes, banjo and mountain dulcimer, and new country inspired ditties... gypsies, forest fires, Ohio, even a song about succession. Oh and I guess my "honey-smooth-croon" a description from some review that I can never run away from. Why don't you buy my last CD so you know what you're getting into? See the Rev Records label, etc here: http://www.therevrecs.com/artists_lauraboggs.html

What is the french word for the person in the restaurant that makes thee soup?

2009-07-02T16:01:00.001-07:00

My new favorite sentence in french, Je ferais mieux de m'arrêter. Il est dangereux de conduire dans cette purée de pois.

Pea soup day part II

2009-07-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

Dave asked me where I got my spicy pea soup recipe. Page 213 of this cookbook! It's also great because it can be made vegan ( just take out the butter, and don't add cream at the end). We did it during Lent and it worked. I also love the emphasis on BEANS and the many environment, waistline, and wallet conscious recipes.

I'll show you how I adapt it for the crock pot:
The night before I put all the ingredients (except the water) into a crock pot. Then in the morning Jason just throws in the water and it starts cooking (on low, 8 hours, but more doesn't hurt it).

5 tsp. bouillon powder
1lb dried green split peas (though you could use lentils if you want)
2 Tbs butter
1/2 cup chopped onion ( I just cut up whatever onion i have around, more doesn't hurt it)
1 clove garlic finely chopped(I use like 5... but I'm a garlicy gal)
1 Tbs curry powder
1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper ( I use a whole tsp... but we love hot stuff in this house)
add some salt if your bouillon isn't salty enough for you

* I also like to sneak in cayenne... but I sneak a big pinch into most things I cook...

then just add 10 cups of water (or 5 cups of water, and 5 cups of veggie or chicken broth if you want to eliminate the bouillon) and plug in your crock pot on low all day. When you get home add1/2 c light cream or milk. Jason sometimes purees it with an immersion blender. But you don't have to.
I like to smash a bunch of saltines into my bowl... yum yum yum!

What does your fortune say?

2009-07-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

This book speaks to me. Maybe it is because the author reminds me of a Chinese-American Bill Bryson or maybe it's because I secretly want a numeral as my middle name. For those who are not so secretly obsessed with winning the lottery, ethnic identity, and food- this is a great book.

Pea soup day

2009-07-02T06:19:00.000-07:00

I love my crock pot and making spicy pea soup. Today looks like pea soup. The trees look like pea soup... the river looks like pea soup. I feel like "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"

Street view maps

2009-07-02T06:16:00.000-07:00

Do you know how Google makes those street view maps? They use cars like these. I met one at a gas station, it let me take its picture.

Interesting Party

2009-06-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

So here is the story of this Saturday. Jason and I invited some friends over. The boys' fishing/cheese/sausage party was balanced by some lovely ladies that came out that day. First, we assembled, then the boys fished. Then we ate pulled pork, cornbread and more sausage and cheese.Then came the musical instruments and the wacky fun.

And by wacky, I mean that several people could have been horribly maimed-- though there were no fireworks or explosives involved this time. While making the cornbread, Jason was warned not to touch his hands (that had just touched hot peppers) to his eyes... or " [his] feet"
"His feet?" we asked...
"Yes, his feet... they will start to burn."
"Surely you jest."
"No, it's true."

So later we taste tested our infused strawberry vodka. It was great. The strawberries that had infused the vodka were taste tested by all-- they were lethal. So we had two strawberries left. I dared Adrian to eat them. He refused. I offered to give him a dollar if he ate them. He refused. I told him that I would rub a hot pepper on my foot if he would eat the strawberries. There were no grownups in the room to advise us not to do this.

I rubbed the pepper on my foot. It was, days later, still warmer than my other foot. But other than that, there was no painful effects. He ate the strawberry and it was a pretty good time had by all. Cayenne pepper can help with poor circulation in your feet though.

Then we played with a boomerang and it got stuck in the tree. Matt knocked it out with a hatchet tied to a rope ( I know, cringe, many people could have been injured in this activity).

Then... if that wasn't enough... they sharpened knives and then one person shaved their arm with the knife.

THEN... if the sharp, spicy, alcoholic dangers weren't enough, they decided to make cheese.

Though the cheese making process for mozzarella and ricotta is not difficult, we are sure that one could very easily create a biological weapon. But it was good. And we all went home happy.

Knock on wood there were no headlines the next day, "Teacher maimed in bizarre accident." "Librarian says, 'it seemed like a good idea at the time.'"

Cool hats

2009-06-29T13:43:00.001-07:00

We have cool hats that we got at the Old Songs Festival.

Congrats Sam and Janice!

2009-06-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

Dr Figity Dixieland band and an outdoor wedding. How sweeeeet. Sam and Janice gave me some wedding envy.

Plus they had purple damselflies all over the place... did you know the difference between a damselfly and a dragonfly is that damselfly wings go back, dragonfly wings are perpendicular to their bodies.

On the news

2009-06-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

We saw the green screens and all the lights and cameras! We had fun!

Cat Cuddle

2009-06-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

You knew I was a sap. I am making greeting cards from some of my cat pictures. Here is a cat huggle.

Instrument Addiction

2009-06-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

You know that I have long coveted the dulcimer. You also know that of my two addictions (shoes and musical instruments.... oh wait... three... yarn) musical instrument addiction is the most dangerous. And luckily, I don't have some people's Gucci or Jimmy Chou preferences, my shoe problem is monetarily under control with nothing much richer than Borne .

So I'll count my blessings and say it's OK to buy beautiful things like my new mountain dulcimer I bought at Old Songs!

I'm on the news!

2009-06-27T05:10:00.000-07:00

http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S998380.shtml?cat=10517

Follow the link to see me being interviewed, with one of my students about our documentary! As a HUGE collaborative project between our school library, our entire 5th grade, our school band, our local historical society, the Old Stone Fort library and museum in Schoharie- we produced a documentary called "The Battle of Cobleskill 1778". We created a primary source based documentary with living history reinactments. Our students researched in the Stone Fort Library, wrote the storyboard and script, made the maps, played the music for the soundtrack, learned about geneology and the daugthers of the american revolution, became actors, learned about film composition.... oh and had fun yelling "quiet on the set" :) We premiered it at our 5th grade banquet for all the students and their parents, then had a special showing for the whole school plus the Richmondville, Cobleskill and Schoharie Historical Societies. We even got a plaque from the Schoharie Historical Society. Woohoo!

Melding gardens

2009-06-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

We doubled the size of Dude's garden this year. Jason and I helped him plant it. Together we have dozens of tomato, pepper, squash, bean, and herb plants. Hooray

Mum's roses are nice

2009-06-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

Mom's rose garden is nice. We are going to send her to Colonial Acres Nursery in Guilderland to buy one more for the garden. They are the nicest there. We bought the apple trees there

Gave Dude Apple Trees for Dude's Day

2009-06-21T10:14:00.001-07:00

We bought two for dude, they like to be different varieties to produce more fruit. They will produce over 6 bushels of apples! Good thing he likes apple pie, apple sauce, apple butter...

I love my salad spinner

2009-06-21T10:04:00.001-07:00

I love my salad spinner

Big Red Corvette

2009-06-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

Uncle Dan's corvette was the star of the show last weekend!

and the cats sleep through it all

2009-06-21T09:57:00.001-07:00

Canning sauce! Eating eggplant!

2009-06-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

Our eggplant parm plans were derailed by our eggplant afternoon snack. Baked eggplant rounds topped with feta, tomato, parsley, green peppers and onions. So then I had to can all the tomato sauce we made. So much better than freezing it. We made 6 quarts! Added the fresh basil from our garden!

Picked this up

2009-06-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

We picked this up at the Armenian church festival. Pretty.

I love Armenians

2009-06-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

What do you know about Armenians? They are the best. Here is the wonderful Armenian Festival at Saint Peter's in Watervliet. If you are lucky, you can go tomorrow. If not, you can go with us next year.
A wonderful vendor made an anklet for me, shown below. The church is shown in one picture, and a monument for those killed in the Armenian genocide.

Pysanky

2009-06-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

From Left to right is the blown egg, then the first colors, next the lightest colors, all the way to the darkest. The black egg will be heated near a candle and the wax will come off. It will look like the eggs below.

Pysanky Pictures

Proud of our Corvettes

2009-06-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

My AC's corvette club made it out for our Richmondville Day's parade. Wonderful!

Here is also, the CRCS marching band! And LAMAS!!!!

Tandem Cooking

2009-06-13T18:37:00.000-07:00

I think I should just post my tandem cooking here, and get rid of the other blog...
so much of our cooking is mixed in with our other affairs, as it should be! So I'll just post it all together.

Here is a great Ukrainian wine. It's a perfect desert wine. Yum.

Friends Kayak

2009-06-13T18:33:00.001-07:00

Did you know we love to kayak? Here Marlene and Lenny kayak with us. Kayak is Inuit for "soggy bottom".

Cat tries to help...

2009-06-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

The cat tried to help making jam...

Wedding flowers

2009-06-13T18:30:00.001-07:00

Beautiful pale yellow roses, and these asters as boutonnieres. Know what I love most about them? They kind of look like the kind of flower that you can squeeze and would squirt water at you ;)

Jason's parents visit and we put them to work

2009-06-13T18:26:00.001-07:00

We love Jason's parents. And, they make excellent helpers :) This is wonderful carménère we just bottled memorial day weekend. SO GOOD... and it'll only get better as it matures.

Today strawberry jam, tomorrow the world!!

2009-06-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

Strawberry jam, then strawberry wine... and THEN strawberry vodka. We were busy today.

A lot of Catching Up to Do

2009-06-13T18:17:00.001-07:00

Here we go. Lots of catching up to do.

About 50 days to the wedding, the garden is starting to prosper, festival season is beginning, school is going marvelously, and Jason and I are cooking up a storm. So here are the pictures.

A simple picture to get us started. My friends and family are excellent gift givers. Here is a wonderful batter bowl that we found doubles as a wonderful bowl to soak chick peas! Hooray!

Tea Party

2009-04-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

"Let me keep my money and my guns, you keep the change"

Buy your spices at Penzey's

2009-03-01T12:49:00.000-08:00

Buy your spices from a spice dealer, either online, at a health food store or through the mail (like Penzey's Spices) Check out the difference between a more expensive supermarket (cough*mccormic*cough) bay leaf and the bay leaves we bought at a health food store for a lot less.

www.penzeys.com

Feb 8th Library Gig

2009-02-24T18:41:00.000-08:00

Pics from the library gig. Thomas wrote a report about the show ( he was my 3rd grade door guy!). Very cool!
Joe introduced me and lots of people showed up to hear me play. I was glad Joe brought his banjo and we did a duet!

Funny Hat

2009-02-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

Me in a funny hat with Jason laughing too.

This hat is great though. I bought Dude one too.

Cat in the Hat... er... Bag

2009-02-22T11:58:00.000-08:00

Starbuck tried to steal my friend Hilary's bag. No Starbuck, I will not buy you a monogrammed LLBean bag.

The Fam

2009-02-22T11:51:00.001-08:00

Here is the fam the day of the Super Bowl. We all had sinus infections or colds- Megan had hers for over two weeks but other than that it was a great get together.
Wooo Hoo-- go Steelers! Yes, there were peirogies in that big stock pot!

Holupchi

2009-02-22T11:39:00.000-08:00

Did we tell you we made Holupchi too? Please ignore me sans makeup and in my PJs... but we made it on a Saturday night for a Sunday dinner.

First you boil the cabbage, then you peel off the leaves and roll up your meat mixture. Sometimes you'll put them in the pressure cooker, or you can cook them on the stovetop in some kind of tomato based broth. We have a cookbook with recipes from all over Eastern Europe (it's actually called "cooking across Russia" from sometime shortly after the Soviet era- grrr). ANYway --- this recipe called for a special sour cream and tomato sauce, then dill and BACON laid over the holupchi before you bake it.... oh my it was good.

Great Lebanese Restaurant

2009-02-18T19:10:00.001-08:00

You need to go to my friend Robert's family restaurant. If you love falafel, babaganoush, or just kebabs --it will wow you. Even my dad, who is a relatively unadventurous eater, loves the food here. And the walls have beautiful murals, all hand painted. Give it a try,

http://www.restaurantdb.net/restaurants/view-620626.html

this blog is weird but it does talk about how wonderful the restaurant is. As to his mention of a lack of patrons, he must have been blind- it's busy every time I drive by and Robert told us about his bazillion Valentine's day reservations:
http://ridiculousfoodsociety.blogspot.com/2008/11/phoenicians-restaurant-review.html

My cats are... interesting

2009-02-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

We gave them toys called "midnight escapades"yesterday-- little jingle bell balls they played with for the past 12 hours...

Comet is very photogenic and a bit of a ham. Starbuck always looks a little like a cylon...but that's to be expected I suppose.

2 great new books

2009-01-30T16:15:00.000-08:00

Hey grown ups out there who read grown-up books. Look at me reading two whole new grown up books!!! Hooray a book with more than 32 pages!

So to you overworked people, I've done the hard work and picked out two new great books just about to be published. Manual of Detection is great if you love smart mysteries. There is a little fantasy in there too. The main character, detective Unwin, is easy to like. The hip old timey detective speak is top notch.

The other is The Mighty Queens of Freeville. The author is of "Ask Amy' fame, and she is hilarious. Small town girl who succeeds dispite herself. She's alittle Bridget Jones plus single mom.

So try one, or both! Let me know what you think!

GO STEELERS!

2009-01-18T09:35:00.000-08:00

Here's my outfit from Friday at school. Jason stood on the couch to get a good picture of the top of the hat :) Nothing like a kindergartner saying, "Miss Boggs, I like that Big Ben!" :)

My cat is nuts

2009-01-18T09:32:00.001-08:00

Comet likes to roast his butt. To be fair, Starbuck was doing this yesterday too, so they're both nuts. Ah well.

Perogies!!!!!!

2009-01-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

First you mix the dough... which we should have taken a picture of because Alexis mixed it by hand and it was up to her elbows!
Then you mix the potato filling.... and the secret ingredient... one huge stick of Velveeta!

Then you roll it out, cut it, boil them, then sautee them in a thousand onions and butter!!! It takes a productive Ukrainian grandma about 4 hours... it took up nearly 8. But hey, they looked and tasted good :) Yay!!! We had a lot of fun!

Pipoha, is how it's spelled on my recipe... that's been taped to the rolling pin since 1993. Wikipedia says, "Pierogi (also perogi, perogy, pirohi, piroghi, pirogi, pirogen, pierogy, pirohy, or pyrohy), from the Proto-Slavic "pir" (festivity), is the name most commonly used in English speaking areas to refer to a variety of Slavic semicircular (or, in some cuisines, square) boiled dumplings of unleavened dough stuffed with varying ingredients. In English the word pierogi and its variants are pronounced with a stress on the letter "o"."

Either way- here's the pictures of Jason, Me and Alexis working from 1- 8pm yesterday making them. (We took a short break for trip to Catnap bookstore in Cobleskill, and to eat some great snacks we picked up from Peronne's (on rt 7))

Next Halloween

2008-11-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

Next Halloween I'm rocking out as Queen Mary I
Sweeet!

Queen Arwen

2008-10-31T14:32:00.000-07:00

Halloween is great!

I really want one... but I know it's totally lame

2008-08-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

http://www.omlet.us/homepage/homepage.php

it's to house chickens... they say, "Infact, you could surprise your neighbors by inviting them round for a quiche and then proudly announcing you made it with eggs from your own chickens."
a quiche?! Lame... but delicious... and hobby farming.... It's sooooo green... I hate those green bandwagon people... but I like the environment...

Alas, I am divided. It's pretty hilarious.

New digs

2008-08-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

Jason and I have a wonderful new place!!! Check out our view of the river! Check out our deck and fire pit! Totally awesome!

New Book Review

2008-08-10T03:52:00.000-07:00

Dewey Readmore Books has a new book about him (He's the Spencer, Iowa library cat-- see picture). I just got the advance reader copy (ARC) of the book from Baker and Taylor. It is amazing. I do realize that I am a librarian and a cat lover... and the author is a librarian and the book is about a wonderful cat... so I'm kind of the target demographic on this one... but it's amazing. I'm about 3 chapters in... more on this one soon.

Fishing, trap shooting and then the ballet!

2008-07-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

This has been a super week. Jason and I had a lot of fun with my family this weekend. We visited our good friends in Rhinebeck and went fishing off of Rt 2 the Roeliff Jansenkill. Well, Jason and my dad fished- I sat in a lawn chair and watched the water for a few hours- it was nice. Then we went to Newpalz on Sunday and had a great time walking around town.

Then, yesterday, my dad, Jason, and I went down to the range and shot trap. It was awesome. The guys at the Woodlawn club are the nicest people- they gave me a lot of good tips. In the first round I shot 9 birds! I only shot 4 the last time, and the first time I shot on the trap range. Next time I hope to do better- but first I practice my form and getting a goodb sight picture.

Today, I'm going to go to the ballet with my mom and then to go see my friends' gig downtown... woohoo! I'm glad it's summer!

Here are some pictures of my first trap shooting - other than practice- with 4 other shooters. :)

The 2nd Ammendment is Important

2008-07-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I'm learning how to shoot trap! Here I am with my fancy fancy shotgun. My Dude is helping me learn how to shoot well- father daughter bonding! The Woodlawn Sportsmen's Club is awesome. There are lots of nice people- and lady shooters too!

Maine

2008-06-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from our field trip, 4 days and 3 nights in Maine with 20 4th and 5th graders. It was a blast. On lobster boats, climbing on rocks... and Oi vey, this bench was a hoot.

Maple Fest

2008-06-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post the pictures of our adventures at the Maple Festival in Cobleskill. Here are pictures of us enjoying the festival, and watching the parade... the tractor part of the parade was super-cool.

Ron Paul is neato-burrito!

2008-04-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

Let them eat cake!

2008-04-18T10:46:00.000-07:00

I made a cake out of rice crispie treats, raspberry jam, ice cream cones- and the flags are fruit roll-ups. It may not get me onto Ace of Cakes- but it won the kindergartens over!

New CD

2008-04-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

Friday's show was good- here is a cute pic.
I'm going to record a new CD this summer, but for now you can look forward to the Rev Records compilation album that will come out June 14th at Valentines. Hooray! We're recording this Friday!

In other news- Jason and I both got 100% on our hunters safety course exams! Yay for us! Here we are practicing gun safety while we blow up clay pigeons- and then practiced our marksmanship at the 50ft indoor range!

Welcome to the Kingdom of Readalot

2008-03-12T14:31:00.001-07:00

Hello my loyal subjects!
I am Queen of the Land of Readalot!
Pam made this great poster this morning! Today was princess/knight dress up (guess which one I picked).

Major shoutout to Maria at Library Development at the NYSL, she gave me this snazzy magic wand!

In other news, I'm opening for King Vidor at the Lark Tavern on April 4th around 10:30- after all the 1st friday festivities- so go look at some art around Lark Street, and come over to the tavern to hear some tunes. I'll be playing for about 45 minutes. See you there! (or I'll banish you!!!)

Oooopsies!!!!!

2008-01-26T13:04:00.001-08:00

The FEB 10th CONCERT IS FROM 2- 3ISH!!!! Sorry that I told everyone a different time before!!!!

FEB 10th

2008-01-24T15:47:00.000-08:00

Come to my Sunday, February 10th show at the Guilderland Public Library. It's part of their "Second Sunday" concert series- 12pm-2pm!
Be there!

Baby Sweater!

2008-01-24T15:43:00.000-08:00

Say it together now... Awwwwwww.

One of my favorite 2nd grade teachers is having a baby boy in February!

I knit this little sweater for him! The shower was today at school and it was super cute-- I decorated with Pam :)

Yay!

Micki Nevett

2007-12-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

This has been a really tough week. My good friend Micki Nevett, Westmere Elementary librarian, died on Monday. She was my professor for the administration of school library media programs- she was the kindest and smartest teacher. Here is the news from her school http://www.guilderlandschools.org/westmere/Westhome.htm

So I'm freaking out- Micki was the best librarian EVER. She was so awesome. I always told her she was my librarian-fairy-godmother- I call her my librarymom too :)

I don't know what to do without her!

I am librarymomless :(

I may at some juncture accept applications for a new librarymom, I suppose- though no one can replace Micki. I'm a good librarykid- I give cookies and knitted goods.

I miss my Micki :(

Here are some lyrics to Sister Winter by Sufjan Stevens:

Oh my friends I've

Begun to worry right

Where I should be grateful

I should be satisfied

Oh my heart I

Would clap and dance in place

With my friends I have so

Much pleasure to embrace

But my heart is

Returned to sister winter

My first snow day

2007-12-10T05:39:00.001-08:00

Oh hooray! It is a snow day! My first REAL snow day of my professional career! I am so excited! I am going to wrap presents, and finish knitting things, and work on school work too... but from HOME! Oh happy day!

To the left are images from "Snowflake Bentley" the first dude to photograph snowflakes :) Working on a project with some snazzy 5th graders to present at morning program on Thursday, woohoo!

Fun weekend!

2007-12-01T14:37:00.000-08:00

Wow I had the best time at our Caldecott immersion weekend with Micki Nevett and Robert :) it was awesome! We did a mock vote on books that are eligible this year and my favorite one won after our vote! yay! It would be so awesome if it won for 2008. Check out www.ala.org in mid January to see if it won!

check it out! http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com/index.htm

Fancy

2007-11-12T10:23:00.001-08:00

Here's the fancy. Jason and I are going to Vegas. Send presents.

Next Weekend - Rev Records Birthday!

2007-11-10T07:50:00.000-08:00

Wow! It's hard to believe that I released my CD just last year around this time with Rev Records! It's their birthday bash and I'm playing a show Nov 17th at the Lark Tavern with a bunch of other Rev Recs artists- it will be a lot of fun!
myspace.com/lauraboggs

New Gigs

2007-11-07T12:13:00.001-08:00

I'll be playing at the Lark Tavern on November 17th!
I will be playing at the Guilderland Public Library February 10th!
More information to follow soon!

Snow White the Librarian

2007-10-31T12:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!!! Here are pictures of my costume and library :)
I wish I got a picture of Pam (my aide), she dressed up as the evil queen/witch with a basket of apples :)

The dog house is for Beethoven, our mascot. He is given to the best performer at morning program each week. Joe and I won him for this week. He is super cute. I put him in a display of neat dog books :) Shakespeare is chillin' and the blue and yellow thing might look like a Ukrainian flag, but it's really a time line of the Revolutionary War- Blue is National and Yellow is local history- the 5th graders are having a lot of fun with that project :)

Bonfire last weekend, garlic fest today!

2007-09-29T06:48:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of Jan and Jim's annual bonfire! It was a lot of fun to hang out with them and Ruth, Lee, Kendall, and Miss Megan :) We got to meet Kendall's parents and see their Teepee (spelling?) that they made themselves!

Jason and I are going to the garlic festival today, whee! It was so much fun last year- I hope it's just as good this year!

Tourism

2007-09-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

I really should start my own tourism bureau for Schoharie County. Here Jason and I hiked and took in the sights.

Stop and smell the roses

2007-09-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

Our open house was tonight at school. But who says I don't have time to stop and smell the roses? Here is a picture- I look silly, but they smell so good! My good friend and fellow library diva sent me these beeeeautiful flowers today! I love my job, and my friends :)

Wheeeee!

2007-09-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the deck and roof that AC and Dan are building for AC's trailer. Jason helped out a bit too. I miss camp already!!! School is going well though. Really busy, but it's a lot of fun too.

Best concert of the year

2007-09-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

Wow. I just went to my best concert of the year so far.
I love all the bands that I've seen this year, but you have to check these guys out. They call themselves the McDades. They are 3 siblings and 2 buddies that they picked up. They're from Canada. They played on performance space today on NPR, and were crashing out here in Schoharie- so they were playing an impromptu concert in this Presbyterian church in Schoharie... acoustic... it was AMAZING.
They were billed to me as kinda celtic traditional- and they definitely have those roots- but it was so much more than that- they were jazzy folky blues with so many other influences too- and such precise musicians. And, well, we all know I love when people sing in french. (but they sing mostly in english). They had the most fantastic sense of humor- the violinist was a particularly charming and funny lady!
SO, we have to get them some gigs in Albany. So, let's do it up already. Friend them on myspace and listen to their tunes. They have a CDbaby site too. I bought their latest CD- I am going to play it during the 5th graders check out time tomorrow (hey, hook 'em on good music when they're young). Sounds like how these guys must have started out ;)

http://www.myspace.com/themcdades

http://www.themcdades.com/home/index.php

http://cdbaby.com/cd/mcdades4

They have lots of CD's out... oh and they won a Juno Award! neato!

I tunes for me! For you!

2007-09-05T15:21:00.001-07:00

Wow Ladies and Gents, I am starting my first day of classes tomorrow- but I have more news! This is the email I just got about my music being on Itunes! Check it out!

The -Apple iTunes just gave us a new URL for you: FOR THIS ALBUM:Laura Boggs: Whiskey & SpringtimeTHE Apple iTunes LINK WILL BE: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=261508750 THE "BUY THE CD" link on CD Baby is: http://cdbaby.com/cd/lauraboggs If their link doesn't work yet, it will soon. (Unfortunately "soon" can mean anywhere from 5 days to 30 days, but Apple has received it and they will process it as fast as they can.)If you don't have Apple iTunes software installed yet, you will need to install their software first, for that link to work. Use these links to iTunes and CD Baby wherever you are promoting yourmusic, to encourage people to BUY it!

I finished it!

2007-08-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

I finished my shirt I've been working on all summer. It's from knitty.com 's free patterns. Check it out!

Whew, nothing bigger than a sock should be made on size 3s... man it takes a long time! But I am happy with how it turned out!

Here's a picture, though it looks better on! You'll see me wearing it A LOT though. I want to live in it considering how long it took me to make!!!

Beautiful

2007-08-27T13:23:00.001-07:00

It is pretty beautiful out here. I took some pictures in the car. They're not great, but it is purdy out here.

Harry Potter

2007-08-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

Jason, Stephanie and I rocked the Harry Potter release, I forgot to post these pictures! We saw Wendy and Melissa there (in costume too!) at the Little Bookhouse in Guilderland!

Adventure!!!

2007-08-16T04:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this was mad scary, but I am glad that we did it!

We white water rafted with the Adventure Sports Company out of Indian Lake. It was a 17 mile trip, 3 on Indian River and 14 on the Hudson. 2 people fell out of our boat, and we picked up one out of another that fell into the water when we went over some big 'ol rapids... so that was scary. But we had fun, and there were only minor injuries- poor Jeff! Ok I exagerate a bit, this was the more sane of the trips that they do, the spring one has freezing water and class 5 rapids... we had a sunny day and more tame water :)

Gig tomorrow

2007-07-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

Here's the flyer for tomorrow!

More Water!

2007-07-16T10:26:00.001-07:00

This is our new gig flyer for July 31st at the Lark Tavern!

Camp was a lot of fun this weekend! We brought our friend Krysta up to camp! She takes us to her camp all the time so it was great to have her at our camp too!
We went up to Split Rock and looked at the waterfall! Jason, Krysta and my uncle were a bit more adventerous than me and hopped around on the rocks. Dan got some good pictures from the middle of the waterfall! Here we are!
We drove around the Adirondacks to Paradox Lake, to Eagle Point, and up to Fort Ticonderoga- where there was some motorcycle/NASCAR event going on, which was neat but slightly disconcerting.
We went down to the lake and hung out there for a bit, but it was alittle cloudy, so we went back to camp!

2007-07-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.supernaturale.com/articles.html?id=199
I can't quite tell you why, but this site made me happy and sad. Though I think it would make me happy to actually make the upholstered tree stump... I think it comes from being very attached to Shel Silverstein's " The Giving Tree".

2007-07-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

I'm going to play some music with my friend Meg today- she may join me when I play with Krysta at the Lark Tavern on Tuesday the 31st- so perhaps the picture Tanya took really is an album cover shot... or atleast a flyer... here's the edited image :)

Lamps, check!

2007-07-05T05:17:00.000-07:00

Ah, what a fun weekend is coming up! Angela's birthday, hanging with Colleen and her fam, visiting Krysta's camp. So many fun things! Also, making some progress on things for the new apartment. Voila! Here is my pretty floor lamp! I got it on sale! Hooray!

Mercury in Retrograde and assorted ramblings

2007-07-02T11:31:00.001-07:00

Here Mercury looks cool :)
Ah the never ending roller coaster of life changes...
I am very excited, but at the same time I'm not so sure that anyone in the human species likes change. The most stressful things other than death of a loved one, and divorce, are moving and starting a new job. I'm happy about it, but I'm also buggin'
I'm glad that I'm going to Pittsburgh for a vacation though, and glad that I'm going to go white water rafting with Megan A and some good friends! I'll keep you posted!
Presently, I am stressing over
1. Bookcases, I need them, will they fit in my apartment? Will I suffocate under the weight of our combined library?
2. Floor lamps
3. Storage containers
Oh and my car battery died yesterday. Thanks to Angela and Dave for helping me out though :) And Jason for fixing it today :)
Oh and Richard Thompson is much better just acoustic, though his band was really good. I just prefer him to rock less and folk more.

More about camp

2007-06-27T05:16:00.000-07:00

Ah, many people have been asking me about camp lately, it is truely the best place to go. It is not for those afraid of mosquitos, but otherwise it is super great!
Here are some more pictures!

WATER!

Dude poses here in a self portrait entitled: Fishing Dude with Dog

Then we sat around camp and roasted marshmallows!
What do librarians do at camp? Read in the sun!!!

Ahhhh the beeeeeautiful river. A short drive away it is a great fishing spot for brown trout!

Camp!!

2007-06-25T05:39:00.000-07:00

How awesome is camp?! Pretty awesome!

Here we are eating dinner- dude came up for the day to go fishing with us (he took this picture)

Craft-astic

2007-06-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

The Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn was awesome last year so we decided to go again! I got some great loot from the hipsters. Here are the pictures of us knitters.

Here we look so cute! Tom took this pic before we all went to dinner!

This is what Tanya called the "album cover" shot. I wonder who would play what instrument? Meg has a kind of bass player pose going on... Anne looks like she's the drummer. I'm just sayin'

Life

2007-06-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

Life is going pretty well. We have a big trip to the big city planned for Saturday. We're going to check out the renegade craft festival! It's going to be awesome. Then we're going fishing on Father's Day.

Things are good- though a little stressful! I am so happy about my new job- it's going to be great- but moving and apartment hunting is stressful. Last weekend Jason decided that we either needed to see nature or have nervous breakdowns... we chose to see nature. Here he is happily driving towards nature... and our friend Krysta!

I knew it was going to be a good day because I got a pack of fruit mentos and most of them were pink!

We missed our friends party though, jason was supposed to bring the corn... :( it made me sad- but we still had a great day full of fun! Here is a picture of Krysta making her awesome salad dressing. We have a gig together, the last tuesday of July at the Lark Tavern. It's part of the Rev Records series. Be there!