Technophile

tech·no·phile (těk'nə-fīl') n. One who has a love of or enthusiasm for technology, especially computers and high technology

-http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/technophile

I'm not sure if I've graduated to a full-fledged technophile, but I'm a lot closer than I was a year ago as evidenced by my brand new 1 terabyte external hard drive (yay!) and the insanely long list of blogs that I am now following on my feedreader. (See the list on the bottom right of this page.) This time last year, the word 'feedreader' wasn't even in my vocabulary and now mine is multiple pages and commands a fair amount of my daily reading time. (What hasn't changed is my love for food...hence the myriad food blogs I follow.)

Like the rest of the world, of course I'm on FriendFace, the time suck otherwise known as Facebook; and more excitingly, I've graduated to the addiction that is Twitter (follow me at @roxymigs). My iphone now has 6 pages of apps, and I add more weekly. I've filled over 250gb on my laptop hard drive (thank Danny for the computer surgery on the hd and the battery). Who ever would have thought I'd even speak this lingo, much less know how to organize multiple playlists, convert files, download, stream, and upload videos? What's more frightening, is how much I still don't know! There is so much to learn, but I'm working on it. Currently, I'm learning how to use shortcuts and hot keys with QuickSilver. For my next lesson, I'm open to suggestions from any of my readers who are far more expert in these things than I am.

On a totally different note, in spite of some early season Bah-humbugging, I did manage to get a tree up, and I will post pictures of the Festivus miracle that is my apartment soon. (Because seriously, it looks like Christmas threw-up in here.) In the meantime, I send to you this holiday the closest I can get to Christmas cards, by way of this blog. With Christmas only 9 days away, it's safe to say that I'm in big trouble mister.

Christmas To Do List:

bake annual biscotti - check

eat biscotti - check

share biscotti with friends, family, and coworkers - fail

bake second batch of biscotti for sharing - fail, (but hoping to change to check this weekend)

bake cheesecake and banana cream pie per order - on calendar for Tuesday 12/22

send cards - fail

decorate inside of house - check

hang wreath on door - fail (it sounds so simple, but trust me, it's not)

buy presents - fail (seriously, not a single gift purchased yet. um, in fact, currently, the list only has 2 things on it. yup, i'm in trouble.)

wrap presents and stuff stockings - see previous fail

I could give you lots of excuses for my inability to satisfy the social conventions of mailing Christmas cards including the time spent prepping in my new job, learning my way around a new town, socializing with new friends, and earning my honorary Cornell degree. Or I could tell you that this is part of my effort to be more environmentally friendly. The truth is, I didn't place my order in time.

I know Danny didn't send out cards either, although I suspect his earning of a legitimate degree probably holds more water than my excuse. So, in the interest of staying on Santa's 'nice' list and avoiding a lump of coal in our stockings, we've teamed up to create a Christmas card:

Crave Case

Oh yes, in typical Migliacci fashion, my first White Castle experience couldn't just be 1 hamburger - Danny and I dove face first into a crave case. (For those of you who don't know, that means 30 little bits of delicious hamburger heaven.) We also had chicken rings, french fries, and orange Hi-C. As if that isn't disgusting enough, we had this taste-bud altering experience at midnight, in the car, on the way back from a quick visit into the city. (Yup, we were in NYC, land of a million amazing restaurants and we chose White Castle.) I apologize for the poor picture quality - phone photos taken in a moving car.

Sadly, we failed and could not finish all 30 that night, so we ate them for breakfast the next morning. I think it's safe to say we won't need to eat White Castle again for a few days.

Arissa

Puppy kisses

(thanks Danny!)

TURKEY DAY - the results

Banana Cream Pie

Aunt Geri's Chocolate Mousse Cake

Aunt Geri's NY Cheesecake

Wouldn't you know, I got so carried away with dessert that I forgot to take a picture of the turkey!

Family, food, and music...that's what I'm thankful for this year.

Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the kitchen...

a mess we were making, to taste we were itchin'.

A cake to be frozen, a mousse to be chilled,

but that's for tomorrow, tonight it's dinner that thrilled!

Preparations for the big feast...we were in charge of dessert:

the bigger the mess, the more fun we had baking!

Mushroom, onion, swiss burgers:

Baby spinach salad with goat cheese, blueberries, butternut squash and champagne vinegar dressing:

Yeah, we eat on the fancy china...

The journey of a thousand miles...

Begins with a single step. So I'm taking one, a big one.

Wait for it...yes, I've finally done it. I finally got a haircut, the

first since I've been back in the US.

That may sound crazy to you, but this is a totally traumatizing

prospect for me.

I've been having my hair cut by the same person for the past 11

years; the thought of having to find someone new now that I've moved has been a scary one.

Fortunately, I had some moral support, and the reality that even abad haircut would look better than how my hair had been

looking.

Before:

and after:

Catching up...

No, not on sleep, but finally on blogging. Maybe someday sleep will come...for now, at least I can get you guys caught up on my relocation to the US. As you can see, I finally finished posting pictures from vacation, and what you can't see, because I've been negligent in my photography, is that I'm mostly settled into my apartment and job. So first, my apartment. It's starting to feel like home now that I've been doing a little baking. In the past week there were two batches of granola (wild blueberry almond and vanilla raisin), Aunt Geri's famous cheesecake, pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, and oatmeal raisin cookies. I'm all unpacked and organized, and I suspect once I hang pictures on the walls the place will look like mine. My piano is here, and I'm working on getting back into the habit of playing, with a little encouragement from my own personal rock star/pianist/teacher. My bedroom and living room look onto the lake, which is as lovely in the fall as it was in the summer. And I couldn't ask for a better commute, about 6 miles round trip. I'm about 45 minutes to an hour from most of my family, which has been great for catching up with everyone. Mahopac is a cute little town where everyone is really friendly.

Better than my apartment is my job. I love teaching at Mahopac. When I decided to move back home, I kept saying that I wished I could pick up Ballston Spa and relocate it "downstate." I kind of feel like that wish came true. I teach four sections of English 9, with a writing lab. My kids are sweet and fun, and I feel at home teaching there. My colleagues are also kind, helpful, and hilarious. I enjoy being in the department office with everyone. Teaching at 7:30am again is a little rough, especially with my insomnia, but the days go by fast in 42 minute periods. Can you believe next week is the end of first quarter??? So far, we've gone through Oedipus, Antigone, and The Odyssey and now we're working on writing the first critical lens essay of the year. Spring will lead us to research papers and Romeo and Juliet. After delving into existentialists and post-modernists last year, I'm thrilled to be hanging out in the classics again. School has definitely been keeping me busy. We have professional development classes in the evenings, and plenty of opportunities to chaperone - I'll be at the school musical, Footloose, next week.

In addition to the insanity of my school schedule, which has wreaked havoc with my yoga schedule and provided me a wonderful set of excuses for not running, my weekends have been crazy too. Most weekends I travel. After flying nearly 30 hours each direction to come home from Bulgaria, driving 3-4 hours just doesn't seem so intimidating. I haven't taken advantage of being close to the city as much as I'd like, but that's about to change. I have made several pilgrimages upstate though. I escape to Ithaca and Albany, to family and friends. It's nice to visit, to relax, to eat out, and to enjoy the beauty of New York. I may be singing a different song when the snow comes, but for now, the drives have been really pretty. Soon, my traveling will slow down and I hope to be doing more hosting. Many of you may remember that in addition to baking, I like to cook. There is an open invitation for dinner parties. Come on over!

That's it in a nutshell. I'm glad to be home. There are elements about life in Europe that I miss. Certainly I long a little bit for the Never-Never Land aspect of dorm life that my friends and I had, the nights up on the rooftop of the Spaghetti Company, and the fact that 4 hours of travel landed me in Western Europe or someplace equally cool (as opposed to Ithaca), but that's a worthwhile trade to be close to my family, in a land of great pizza, great deli, and great bakery, and watching the Yankees about to begin (what I hope) is the final game in their 27th World Series win!

Christmas List

A while back I posted this must have item. I still don't have it, but you better believe it's on my Christmas list. This time around, I'm posting the floss with its friend, the adorable bag that would be just perfect for school. (Hint, hint.) But the true purpose of this post is for the beanie. Seriously, how much more perfect can something be? The big question is do we go chocolate/strawberry or vanilla/vanilla? Hmmm...

http://www.mcphee.com/shop/search.php?search_query=cupcake&x=0&y=0

http://fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=3978&cat=366&bf=hs#

The Real Beauty of Paris

Need I say more?

Ahhh Paris

Everyone waxes poetic about Paris, so I'll spare you my monologue on the beauty of the buildings, the gardens, the boulevards, the clouds.  I will, however, post some iconic (and not so iconic) images of one of my favorite cities.