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Skating in Shirt Sleeves, Show This to That Groundhog!

Before we listen to the opinion of some silly rodent from Pennsylvania, I think we should slip Phil a copy of this photo of a guy skating in shirt sleeves on Boston Common on February 1, 2012!

There were also other strange phenomena in Boston yesterday. Everyone wanted to be outside to enjoy the weather. We have proof. We walked into Neptune Oyster at 12:19 pm and were greeted by one of our favorite Neptune bartenders like this!

(Needless to say, these seats soon filled in.)

So Mr Phil, no matter what you say, we're going to enjoy each sunny day until it gets too hot to indulge in long hours outside. And, if it snows some more, we'll hold you personally responsible!

We told you this was not going to be an easy call for the rodent!

Groundhog Stressed Over 2012 Prediction!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

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February 2, 2012
Celebrating February with an Impressive Budget Sparkler– Dibon Cava

We’re toasting the arrival of February with a budget sparkler that has high-end taste!

Dibon Cava Brut Reserve ($9.99) is so impressive, you’ll want to share this find with every wine-lover you know.

If “balance” is a fault, then it’s this wine’s only fault! It will please a wide range of tastes– not too dry or too fruity. A light nose that reminded us of citrus? lemon curd? No, dried apricot.

It's light, refreshing, and inviting. Very food-friendly (spicy chicken wings, potatoes, roasted root vegetables worked for us). This cava also shines all on it’s own! And, it was still very good as it warmed.

Dibon Cava would be a perfect opener for a party, at a restaurant with friends, to begin a meal or an evening. And, a special way to celebrate the start of a new month. Salud!

We found Dibon Cava at Bauer Wine & Spirits

It's all part of Our Sparkling Resolution

Our Sparkling Resolution Winner’s List

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Words: Penny Cherubino
Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

February 1, 2012
Voter Registration Deadlines & Election Dates 2012
Here are the deadlines you need to meet to vote in elections scheduled for 2012 in Massachusetts.

From the Elections Division of the Secretary of State's Office and the City of Boston's Election Department.
- Wednesday, February 15, 2012: Last day to register to vote and change party enrollment for the Presidential Primary.
- Tuesday, March 6, 2012: Presidential Primary Election
- Friday, August 17, 2012: Last day to register to vote and change party enrollment for the State Primary.
- Thursday, September 6, 2012: Voting day for the State Primary
- Wednesday, October 17, 2012: Last day to register to vote and change party enrollment for the Presidential Election.
- Tuesday, November 6, 2012: Voting day for the Presidential Election.
How to Register to Vote

If you're reluctant to register to vote because you think it will make you more likely to be called for jury duty, we've already researched that idea and learned that it is a myth. Click here for our full report.
- You can download a voter registration form here.
- If there is time, you can mail it to:
```
City of Boston Election Department   
City Hall, Room 241   
Boston, MA 02201
```
- The safest way to do it is to stop by the Election Department at City Hall and complete the form.
- The Boston Elections Department is located in room 241 at Boston City Hall and is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, except on city holidays.
- Complete information, including the identification documents you need, and other ways to register to vote can be found at The Secretary of State's Office
- Absentee Ballot applications are available here
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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2009 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We reserve the right to edit ads out of comments.
January 31, 2012
Three Tips for Your New Camera

Here are a few tips for anyone with a new camera. We just added the Nikon D7000 to our photo fleet and here are some of the things we're doing in our first weeks of using it.

First: Take a photo of the camera with your phone. And, take a close-up photo of the identification plate you’ll find on the bottom of most DSLRs, point-and-shoot, and camcorders. That will help you identify your camera and prove ownership if it's lost or stolen.

Second: Go to the manufacturer’s site and download a copy of your owner’s manual. Pop that into your Dropbox folder, and you'll be able to refer to it anywhere from any computer, tablet, or smartphone. Often, cameras get the most use when you are away from home and it’s great to have that reference on hand wherever you are.

Don’t have a Dropbox account? Why not? It’s reliable and if you click here your first 250MB of storage is free. They'll also add 250MB to our account and we’ll say thank you. Then, you can add storage up to 8GB by referring your friends.

Third: If you have new Memory Cards, take a photo of your business card or write your contact information, including a cell phone number, on a piece of paper and photograph it. Then, lock the photo so it can’t be erased. Should you drop a memory card or leave your camera on a park bench, a good samaritan will have a way to reach you. If you format your cards rather than erase the photos, you will have to do this every time you format.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Artwork: Courtesy of Dropbox

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

January 30, 2012
Groundhog Stressed Over 2012 Prediction!

Phil's Magic Touch! (photo by AlicePopkorn)

I can only imagine the excruciating stress Punxsutawney Phil must be feeling as Groundhog Day 2012 approaches. Let’s be honest, the little guy is faced with a very difficult prognostication! His job description states that he must work his magic to reliably determine spring’s ETA. But, this year, the question is not how much time until spring, but is there enough time left for a "real" winter!

Of course, this suggests that we’ve gone from fall to spring having somehow skipped right over winter. And, if winter finally does arrive, will there be another spring or an abrupt switch to summer? It’s no wonder rumors are spreading about Phil’s clandestine visits to a special therapist.

"Phil Who?" (photo by hynkle)

Since Phil hasn’t returned our phone calls, we’ve made repeated attempts to approach some of his rodent-relatives. After all, it’s not much of a stretch to see how the groundhog could be mistaken for a large squirrel. The problem is, all of the Boston squirrels we’ve asked don’t have any Punxutawney connections– where’s facebook when you need it?

It’s looking, more and more, as if we’ll just have to wait for February 2nd and hope that Phil comes up with a workable solution. He always does! Good Luck, buddy.

Sunday Dog will return to this space, next week.

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Words: Ed Cherubino
Groundhog Photo: used under this creative commons license Some rights reserved by AlicePopkorn
Squirrel Photo: used under this creative commons license Some rights reserved by hynkle

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

January 29, 2012
A Bunch of History Tipping & Tilting

Inside the King's Chapel Burying Ground the stones tilt and lean into, and away from, one another. Like a group of people at a gathering, they stand in clusters of two, three, or more. Perhaps, this is what those they memorialize once did in life.

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King's Chapel

Tremont & Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts (map)

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We reserve the right to remove adverstising from comments.

January 28, 2012
NorthEndWaterfront’s New Look for 2012

Over at NorthEndWaterfront.com, Matt Conti has been working hard and is now ready to show the world his redesign of this great community resource. If you live, work, or play in Boston's North End or Waterfront neighborhoods, you should subscribe to this site.

During the last year, Matt has been adding more photography and video to the solid news coverage he has always supplied. We read it daily and highly recommend it. We're making this redesign our Friday Link today!

Thanks for all the great information Matt!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Screenshot courtesy of NorthEndWaterfront.com

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

January 27, 2012
Hearty, Herby Split Pea Soup

My favorite split pea soup recipe started out as the one in Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells. She takes a simple pea soup with ham recipe and adds lots of garlic herbs and spices– thyme, marjoram, parsley, and cloves. I took her recipe and added big pieces of carrot and a dose of cumin seed toasted and then ground.

I love Patrica Wells' cookbooks because the recipes always seem to work, and she has a very relaxed style that invites you, as a cook, to make changes and finish the dish in differnet ways. With this I took her up on not puréeing the soup but serving it in a rustic, chunky style.

If you would like to learn from a real pro and love little tips tucked into the pages of a cookbook, I highly recommend this one, Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells. I've learned a lot from this outstanding food writer.

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Words: Penny Cherubino
Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

January 26, 2012
Pecorino di Moliterno- Cheese from Sardinia

We always like to let you know when a great wheel of cheese, like this Pecorino di Moliterno, is being cut at one of the area's great cheese shops. We bought this one at Salumeria Italiana in the North End.

Pecorino means it's made with sheep's milk but, in this case, it may have a bit of goat's milk added. Some Moliternos do. Salumeria also had a second version of this cheese with truffles added.

As you can see, we paired this with Bosc pears. It was a great combination! Some vendors selling this cheese suggest following the Sardinian tradition of serving it with a smidge of hot pepper jelly.

Sheep's milk has a higher fat content than cow or goat milk. Therefore, the experts suggest you remove from refrigeration and bring to room temperature only what you want to eat immediately. As the cheese warms, some of the fat will come to the surface. That will never be reabsorbed if you have to put it back in the cooler.

Here are a few of our favorite books on cheese. But, click here for many more choices over at Amazon.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

January 25, 2012
Valentine’s Day Live Performances at Half Price

Here's the BosTix booth in Copley Square. There's a second one at Quincy Market.

Treat your Valentine to the serendipity of a live performance at half-price by strolling to one of the BosTix ticket booths and selecting from the available offerings. You could do it on the 14th, the weekend before, or you could present your sweetheart with a gift certifcate or promissory note to do it when the mood strikes!

Add a meal at one of the many inexpensive, ethnic restaurants around the city, and you have a great afternoon or evening at a reasonable price.

BosTix is a program of ArtsBoston. If your budget is flush, you can support the arts with a visit to their main site where you can see all the great entertainment available around the area.

Related Post with links to others:

Valentine's Day 2012 – Romantic Dining in Boston

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

January 24, 2012