Boston Bruins vs Anaheim Ducks

With 17,565 fans cheering on the players the Boston Bruins and the Anaheim Ducks battled it out. It was an exciting game as I watched from one of the Premium Suites high above the ice. I enjoyed cold beer, some of the best spare ribs ive had, and a platter of jumbo shrimp. While it was a full on luxury buffet in Ste 618 on the ice it was a much cooler reception for the Ducks.

It was the first night back for Bruins favorite David Krejci who returned after 15 games out with a knee injury. With no goals in the 1st quarter the 2nd boosted the crowd excitement and the score board with  the Ducks scoring first followed shortly by the Bruins. At the end of the 2nd and a tied 1:1 score it was up to the 3rd quarter to declare a winner. The Bruins came out strong and score after only 27 seconds on a power play.

Down 2-1 the Anaheim ducks pulled their goalie during the last minutes of regulation play and went on the offensive against the Bruins. With 38.5 seconds remaining the Anaheim Ducks scored tmaking it a tie and taking the game unexpectedly into overtime. With the crowds chanting loudly for the Bruins the Ducks scored the winning goal at 3:09. Defeated the crowds poured out onto the rainy streets of Boston.

While the home team and my favorite didn't win it was a great night out.

Ice Skating

Living in the Boston area there is one iconic place to ice skate in the winter. The Boston Common Frog Pond sits in the oldest public park in the US and was my intended destination for the day but sadly it had already closed for the season. The recent stretch of warm weather has made maintaining the ice impossible and has resulted in most outdoor rinks have closed.

As an alternative we decided to try some indoor ice skating at the Daly Rink in Newton. Like the Frog pond it was an outdoor rink until 2010 when it was enclosed to provide an extended season and a more comfortable skating environment. My friend Grace knew they ran a Public Skating on Sunday’s so we checked the hours and learned that the Public Skate was from 2-4:45. 

We arrived to find the parking lot jammed with cars and people which set the expectation that the ice too would be packed. It cost a modest $5 for admission and another $5 for skate rentals. We took a seat on the benches after getting our rental skates and laced up. It didn’t take long before we were rink side ready to skate. 

It was perfect timing as the Zamboni was out resurfacing the ice. After several passes the ice looked great and the all clear was given for everyone to get on the ice. As expected the rink was packed with people of all ages. 

As we made our way carefully around the ice we each got more confident and were doing fairly well except for a few falls caused by young kids cutting us off. It was fall down or run over a child. As the time went on we played a game of tag with each of us getting more at ease on the ice and increasing our speed to less than a crawl. After about an hour we took a break on one of the team benches and watched as everyone skated by. It was also time again for the Zamboni to come out again.

As we got back on the ice we were all feeling pretty good and our game of tag was in full force. We skated and played another round of tag for another hour before deciding it was time to call it a day and turn in our skates. 

Seasonal Wreaths

Holiday wreaths and their adornment of homes and especially doors have occurred for hundreds of years. They are meant to be a symbol of growth and everlasting life and are often made from materials such as flowers, leaves, and evergreens. 

The wreath as an object spans history and is rooted in religion as far back as the Persian Empire. Originally a circlet or wreath was called a "diadem" and was worn as a headbands adorned in gold and jewels. Wreaths were even used to symbolize success and victory such as the laurel leaves used to crown victors of Olympic Games.

At some point they transitioned from jewelry and instead began to adorn walls as a decoration. Today, beautifully decorated wreaths are not only an integral part of the December holidays, but have grown in popularity throughout the year, decorated to fit each season.

The most common use of this symbol is the Advent wreath. Although its true origin is unknown, some believe it was inspired by the Swedish Crown of Lights, a candle-bearing crown worn by young Swedish girls on St. Lucia's Day. St. Lucia was a young Christian martyr who gave her entire dowry to the poor.

The making of wreaths is an ancient and honored art that began about a thousand years before the birth of Christ and the celebration of Christmas. The Christmas Wreath symbolizes the strength of life overcoming the forces of winter. The custom of hanging a wreath on the front door of your home probably came from the ancient practice to celebrate victory or success.

At Christmas, the wreath is symbolic of Christian immortality. The circle and the sphere are symbols of immortality. The traditional colors of Christmas are green and red. Green represents the continuance of life through the winter and the Christian belief in eternal life through Christ. Red symbolizes the blood that Jesus shed at his crucifixion.

As time progressed people put wreaths on their doors to identify their home. In early Europe each house would have a different wreath made of quite exotic flowers, most likely grown by the home owner right on their own land. Today, wreaths are a common custom in New England, with a different wreath for each season.

I have a small collection of wreaths that adorn my front door and represent the changing of the season and the cycle of life.  
 

LTC Application & Appointment

Sample of a Fingerprint Sheet

Roughly a year ago I began my journey to obtain my LTC. Through no fault other than my own procrastination I still don’t have it. Delayed long enough I made it a New Year’s resolution to finish the process. I called the city licensing office the first week of January to schedule my LTC appointment only to discover they were scheduling 3 months out.

Flash Forward: After waiting a long 3 months, today I took the next step and submitted my application at the Worcester Police Department and got finger printed. It was a painless process and a surprisingly short visit.

I had expected a lengthy interview with lots of questions with an interrogation tone much like others I know had experienced but that wasn’t the case. After an accuracy review of my application to ensure I had completed it correctly and filling out a few forms my interviewing officer then fingerprinted me. 

The finger printing part was the most interesting to me. They did each finger individually then they did the thumbs a second time and then all four other fingers together.

That was it. Now I must wait again for 2 months while the application process is completed to find out if I will receive my Class A Large Capacity License To Carry. 

Phantom Gourmet Wine and Food Festival

This past weekend we continued our sampling of local foods and libations by attending the Phantom Gourmet Wine and Food Festival! The food and wine festival was held in the beautiful main atrium of the Boston Center for the Arts. and provided locals with a sampling of 12 of Phantom's favorite foods, along with 36 varieties of wine.

The Phantom Gourmet is a food-related television and radio show based here in New England. Originally, the Phantom Gourmet was an anonymous critic who visited local restaurants, provided reviews, and conducted interviews with chefs and restaurants owners. Today, The Phantom Gourmet, Inc. is run by the Andelman brothers, Dave and Dan. Though the original concept of the anonymouse critic is no longer part of the show's format, the company logo and overall idiology remain intact: "Food and Fun. That's all we serve." The festival, complete with a "Wine Snob Detector," was very relaxed, and provided a casual, social environment in which to eat, drink, and be merry.

Our group began with samplings of classic red wines such as Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon from Ghost Pines vineyard. Ghost Pines is a California-based vineyard named for the ghost pine tree, which is native to Califronia, and grows in nutrient deficient soils, the same as the grapes used to make their Cabernet. Ghost Pines relies on the blending of grapes from different appellations to craft each of their wines' unique characters. One of the vineyard's signature blends, their Cabernet Sauvignon, is created by the mixing of Cabernet grapes from their Napa county vineyard, and Merlot grapes from Sonoma. Robust, dense, and hinting of oak, Ghost Pines was a favorite amongst our dry wine fans. Though the blending process makes each of these wines unique and impossible to duplicate, our group found the samplings to be a bit too dense for our liking.

Between libations, we sampled local foods from shrimp Mozambique to savory cheesecakes. A favorite among our group was Harrows Chicken Pies. Harrows was originally opened in Reading, MA in 1930 by Charlie and Winnifred Harrows, and has remained a New England staple for more than 70 years. Though the Harrows no longer own the business, it was purchased by an employee, Walter Arsenault, in the 1950's and has been owned and operated by members of the Arsenault family ever since. Harrow's pies are made with all white meat chicken, potatoes, carrots, and the same buttery crust that made the restaurant's pies in 1930. With New England just beginning to emerge from this year's exceptional snowfall, our group agreed that Harrow's pies would make for outstanding comfort food in New England winters.

Towards the end of the festival, we stumbled upon another California vineyard called Bread & Butter.  Bread & Butter is noted for their cool climate grapes and cold fermentation processes, which, combined with their malolactic fermentation process, creates wine that is smooth, rich, and void of sharp acidities. Their flagship wine, a Chardonnay, is a perfect balance between the "bread" and the "butter" for which the vineyard is named. The bread, is B&B's process of storing their wine in barrels made with a range of oak woods from France, the United States, and Eastern Europe, which imparts flavors of vanilla, toast, and nuttiness to the wine. Meanwhile, the butter is B&B's malolactic fermentation process, which takes the malic acid, (the tart notes found in green apples and other citrus) and converts it into lactic acid, (the softer, richer notes found in butter and cream.) This Chardonnay is a personal favorite of our friend Grace, who notes that the stability and buttery notes of this wine make it a wonderful cooking wine, suited best to shellfish and risottos.

Winding down our sampling, our group had a calling of the sweet tooth, and decided to partake in one of Boston's sweetest treats, Chilly Cow's frozen custard. Chilly Cow's has been a New England manufacturer of ice cream pies, cakes, and frozen custards since 2006. Made from high-quality cream, sugar, and eggs, the frozen custard at Chilly Cow's isn't just any old ice cream. The creamy texture of frozen custard courtesy of the egg yolks, sets it apart from traditional ice cream in both texture and flavor profile. Chilly Cow's had vanilla, salted caramel, and black raspberry available for the festival attendees, and our group made sure to sample each variety. Twice.

Overall, the Phantom Gourmet Wine and Food Festival was a very casual event, and an easy way to spend an afternoon. If you are looking to try various types of wine in a snob-free environment, this festival would certainly hit the mark. Though the large crowd was a positive marker for the festival's turnout and provided mass exposure for local businesses, our group feels that this event will not be a repeat offender in our list of weekend excursions, due to the excessive crowding of these events.