2008 Grape Harvest Festival

Fall is here and that means it's time to harvest concord grapes in our backyard.

Every year that's we've been at this house I've made wine. Well, this year Elle is older and can help so instead of making wine we thought she'd prefer to make grape jelly. Her favorite sandwich is Peanut butter and jelly.

We set outside early this morning in the rain to pick'em. I clipped the grapes from the vine and Elle put the in the bucket. Johanna was in the house preparing all the essentials. Boiling our jars and getting all the pots that we needed ready. After about 30-40 minutes of picking we came in out of the rain.

Every year when I make wine I do it alone. It takes all day and it's hard work. This year was a treat since the 3 us all worked together. J did a ton of work! All the prep work and cooking and canning. We had 8 jars an sure enough we made exactly that.

They're currently cooling on the stove top. Once they're cooled they'll be ready to spread on some bread. Oh wait... no they won't. Being a designer/package designer I'll have to finish this product off just right. It needs a label and a name...

"Ellie Jelly".

Hopefully it'll make the local store shelves this winter!
It's Rhodie fresh!

I'll be sure to post the final package design here. Stay tuned!

Run Ellie Run

Well, this morning ended a wonderful weekend.
Despite being up at 6:30-7:00 on a beautiful Sunday morning we had good reason.

J signed Ellie up to participate in a fundraising road race to benefit different local charities through CVS. The CVS Downtown 5K Run in downtown Providence. Now lemme be clear. Ellie didn't run 5K she ran about 150 feet.

It was a brisk morning down in providence and we saw loads of people getting prepared and warmed up for their races. Elle's age group was the 1st of the morning. It was a bit hairy as we got the starting line just in time with all the people crowded to see. Even the PA announcer who play by played the race halted as he play by played Johanna running with Ellie to the starting line to get ready (I wish I had it on video!).

Within moments the gun went off and they bolted. Elle looked like she was running through a field of daisies. Bouncing along as if not to hurt the ground she stepped on. The kids funneled together to collect their goodies (a banana and a bottle of water) and of course their medals!

After we congratulated Elle and J & I were able to catch our breathe from all the running around we strolled Providence as it was shut down so it was great for walking. We checked out a few tents and got some more freebies.

We had a blast.

It was a great way to start out Sunday and end our weekend. We were in Providence on Friday night taking Elle to Disney of Ice and fortunately for us there was a partial Water Fire when the show got out. So perfect. A brisk night for the 3 of us to walk around and it wasn't crowded. Amazing. As we walked around we both said how much we love Providence. It's so accessible we love it!

Friday night was something we'd never be able to do in Boston. Saturday was our hometown of Johnston's annual Apple Festival. A Corcoran family tradition. Elle got to ride a pony, get her face painted and see some friends from school and ballet. JJ got to get some gorgeous jewelry.

This past weekend was awesome. Something we know we wouldn't be able to do if we lived any of place than here (that we know of). How can you go to Disney on Ice, walk across the street to see an amazing urban city turn into a piece of art? The following day is a country fair and today is a downtown road race... all within a small budget and 20 minutes of each other.

We found it... it's called home.

Oh, and I had a lobster and some local clams for dinner. It just seals the deal!

The Reality TV show friend of club

A few weeks ago my good friend John from college told me a somewhat friend of his family who I hung out with through John a few times was going to be a reality TV show.

So I have finally joined the club where I knew someone on a reality TV show. I heard some stat about the odds of someone you knew on a reality based show and it was higher than I had expected.

I have found more and more people mentioning they went to school or know someone that was on this show or that show. I can count a handful of those conversations that I've had in the past 5 years. It's amazing.

I didn't know Rick (who was on The Toughest Job: see the big guy in the yellow hard hat above) very well. Not really at all. But John and I were invited over to his place a few times and since he lived in Everett it was perfect. Always had a good time hanging at their place.

But there is one story that really sticks out when I think of those days.

John and I met at Rick & his wife's place. John, Rick, myself and a few more people were all going to a Halloween party. We were all decked out in our costumes. We piled into Rick's car. At the time he was driving an old police cruiser he got at auction. The back seat was uncomfortable... Given it was made for would be criminals. We had a bit of a drive to get to the party so we took the highway.

While on the highway we were having a good time. People were driving by laughing at us all in our costumes. Our driver Rick as the Grim Reaper taunting other drivers. It was hysterical. It was a slightly rainy night.

As we drove along the highway we saw a car that seemed to weaving a lot. We guessed he was lost and didn't exactly know which exit to get off. Without hesitation Rick said "Watch this". At that moment he toggled a switched and all of a sudden we heard sirens.... We all looked behind us like uh oh we're getting pulled over.... But there was no cruiser....

The cruiser was us. Ricks' auctioned police car still had working sirens and flashing headlights. And this poor lost guy was being pulled over by the Grim Reaper and a handful of laughing, costumed 20 something's.

We really wanted Rick( who's about 6'4) to get out of the car with his sickle, cape and make-up to tell the driver to come with him....

However, to avoid us getting arrested for impersonating a police car we decided to pull up behind him and then roll around him and speed away.

We wondered how long that guy might have sat there thinking we'd come back.

That was a fun night where we went to 2 Halloween parties.

I'm officially a part of the I know a guy who was on a Reality TV show club.

Where's my t-shirt?

Irish Festival Pics Part 2

Newport Irish Festival

We had another great weekend with Nana & Papa.
They came to visit Ellorie (oh and J and I too). They spoiled her out and about whiel J and I attended a wedding in Western Mass.

Ellie got to show N&P the new Little Mermaid movie... OHHH was she excited!
The weather turned out beautiful for the wedding. It was a sweet outside ceremony at an old barn . We had prime rib. Yea baby

Sunday we recovered nicely down in Newport at the Irish Festival. It was fun. 3 staged or music, food, vendors and beer.... or should I say Guinness. N&P are gearing up for a whirlwind adventure to Ireland in a few weeks so this was a nice trial run so to speak for them to get their drinking legs under them.

We danced, we sang, we drank, we made crafts.... the kids crafts that is.

We had a blast!
I saw a shirt that made me laugh. God made beer so the Irish wouldn't rule the world.

We finished the night off with a wonderful dinner that Mom & J picked up at a local Italian pasta shop... lobster ravioli. And capped it off with a camp fire on the back deck.

Thanks again Nana & Pop for a great weekend! And the caramel smores creation.