Attack of the Rabid Skunk

Imagine you live in New York City. In Manhattan. You work for a major financial corporation. You epitomize urban, corporate America. At some point you decide to make a change. A change of pace, of scenery. You relocate to New England. New Hampshire. You accept a position as the associate director of Career Development for a small but renowned business school. You are successful.

And then one you take your dogs out for a morning jaunt and the four of you (3 dogs, one person) are attacked by… a rapid skunk.

Imagine the scene: you, running. Your dogs, barking, running. The skunk, charging. The house, in the distance. You, the dogs, and the rabid skunk reach the house at approximately the same moment. You’re there, in the vestibule and now the question is, how does one get a rabid skunk out of one’s house?

And this is when your friendly neighbor shows up and shoots the skunk with a 22.

So the rabid skunk is dead. Literally on the vestibule of your house. But this skunk did not go quietly into that good night. True the skunk was rapid, crazy, but not stupid. And so before he went he sprayed… over you, your dogs, and absolutely everything in your house.

Four gallons of bleach, three dogs baths, and two showers (not to mention the several hours of scrubbing, the vet appointments for your three dogs who now need rabies shots, and the killer skunk-smell-induced headache) later you cautiously venture into the office. You are wearing fresh clothes, ones sealed in plastic and hanging in your closet at the time of the attack. You think you’ve made it through the worst. You walk into your office to recount to your friends and coworkers your harrowing tale.

And one by one they wrinkle their noses because… you still stink.

This is a true story that happened to a woman I work with… this morning.

And that is life in New Hampshire. (Since this morning several of my coworkers have shared skunk-related tales.)

Funnily enough, moving here I was so concerned about the cold (and my inability to handle it,) I never thought of the wildlife. I never thought of the friendly neighbor with his gun collection (although seriously, he is the hero here, kind of.) The lesson here? Beware of rabid skunks, obviously. BUT, if you should happen to be sprayed… use tomato juice and vinegar and do not come into the office because the smell takes a week to really go all the way away.

BUT if you do come into the office it is likely that everyone will feel so sorry for you they will spontaneously decide to buy you a spa gift certificate. Because that is exactly what happened. If you had seen/smelled this woman you would agree: never has someone deserved it more.

(PS: I'm touched that the only comments I've received on this post, to date, are a commentary on typographical errors. Although, rereading the story... the skunk was pretty "rapid" in his movements. And rabid. Both.)

Further Adventures in New England-land

As this morning’s snow (see previous entry) heralds, in my personal opinion, the end of fall (or at least the end of fall where snow is not at any moment a real possibility,) I thought it appropriate to catalogue a few of our recent “fall” outings.

Last weekend we celebrated our anniversary at Simon Pearce, over in Queechee, Vermont. I have loved Simon Pearce since I was a little girl, though this was my (our) first experience actually dining there. I should mention that Simon Pearce is famous not only for its food but also for its exquisite glass and pottery. (Really, it is perhaps MAINLY famous for its glassware and pottery as the restaurant caters primarily to the Upper Valley and one can ship glass to anywhere. I’m guessing my horseradish-crusted Blue Cod served over mashed potatoes in a beure blanc sauce wouldn’t ship through the mail quite so well.)

As a little girl my parents would often bring me and my brothers to Simon Pearce to watch the glassblowing. So on Wednesday that is exactly what Dan and I did. The glass-blowing happens right there, on site. Behind the restaurant and below the gift shop. In maybe ten minutes we watched a glass artisan turn a shapeless mound of molten glass into a pristine vase that retails for $98 or so. (Sadly, not in our price range.) Watching him work was incredible. His movements were methodical, calculated, but even so he did everything by eye. When finished, he compared the new vase to an existing vase and it was a perfect match.

And I have to say, drinking water and wine from thick glass goblets made on site was pretty cool. Oh, and the food was amazing.

On Saturday, Dan and I spent the afternoon in Woodstock. The drive was gorgeous, the leaves – currently being pelted from their trees by murderous snowflakes – were at peak, or just past it. I think actual “peak” may have been last Wednesday, but close enough. Winding through hills, sloping mountains in the background and the blue sky peaking through and the trees all red and gold and orange and green… I made Dan pull over so we could take about twenty pictures.

Woodstock itself was fairly adorable. It has – like most New England towns, it seems – one Main Street, lined with shops and restaurants and ice creameries. We wandered through, stopping to take pictures off covered bridges, peeking in shops, checking out restaurants. We stopped to eat in Queechee (on the way) at a diner that was literally a dining car. And while I may have ordered the cheese fries, I should point out that they were covered in local Cabot cheddar, Vermont-cured bacon, and fresh scallions. And while I drank coke, it was out of a Mason jar. And yes, I realize none of this makes my meal any healthier. But it was delicious.

In the end, we left Vermont with one jug of Maple Syrup, one bottle of ice cider (like ice wine, but cider,) one bottle of Apple/Maple wine, one green-and-white flannel shirt, and one kazoo.

What can I say, I like kazoos?

We’re either super New Englanders these days or we’ve become one of those couples people mock. At least we didn’t actually stop at the pink-paneled, double-decker-porched Victorian-style B&B I thought was so adorable…

Also, on the way home we stopped at a roadside stand to buy pumpkins for outside our door. Only, we have them inside, for the moment. Because it's snowing.

Let it snow... just not in October.

It is 7:23 AM on October 13 and I just wanted to state for the record that it is snowing. Large, white flakes. Outside the window. Falling.

Welcome to New England.

Fall A Finished

So it's been quite a week. I had two in-class finals and a take-home final, all which wrapped up on Tuesday. After the stats final, we were directed to go into this one area of the campus and it turned out there were a bunch of second-years waiting with champagne to toast us for completing the first term at Tuck, which is a tradition that's been going on for some time. It was quite intimidating, walking into a room full of well dressed people cheering loudly while you ran down a gauntlet while being toasted.

After that was all done, a big group of us went out to Longtrail Brewery in Vermont for a very enjoyable afternoon. They have about seven different beers that they make there and an outdoor porch on a river. The Porter, Double Bag Strong Ale, and IPA were all tasty.

Yesterday was Kerry and my third anniversary and we hit up Simon Pearce which was fantastic. For those who don't know, Simon Pearce is a really cool glass and pottery manufacturer, which also holds a nice restaurant. We got to see them making some candleworks in-house before our dinner and I'm very excited to go back at some point.

Finally, today I got out on my bike and went on a great ride for about an hour and a half. I went up a road in NH and down a road in VT which followed the Connecticut River. Great few days and very glad to have a few days off.

So Brother Raise Another Pint...

Last Saturday, after taking a take-home final, I took off in a yellow schoolbus to the Killington Brewfest. For the next hour, I and 13 fellow beer fans had a wonderful tour of Vermont as we climbed the mountain up to the Killington lodge where the brewfest took place. Along the way, we saw a chili cookoff which looked delicious and a series of giant animals made using bales of hay. Quite a scene.

Once we got into the beer festival, we were taken aback with how many people were in the room. Downstairs was Harpoon, Shipyard, Budweiser, Otter Creek, and a bunch of other breweries. We skipped these for the time being and headed upstairs where we hoped the lines were shorter. Of course they weren't, but we waited in line for Dogfish, which was worth the wait. I found out that I actually like the Punkin Ale! First pumpkin related consumable I've ever liked. From there we headed off to another room in search of shorter lines one again.

After walking past some sort of an ompah band, we came to a room with Brasserie Unibroue, Allagash, Saranac, and a few others. Lines here were shorter and I had a couple octoberfests, a belgian triple, and a doppel of varying tastiness. To top it off, the UVA/UNC football game was on and as we were in line UVA scored a TD to go up by two scores! Huzzah!

After this, we headed back down to the Dogfish area and tried a whole bunch of different beers and ran into a bunch of other Tuck people so that was good to see. Eventually we made it back down to the first area and had a couple tasty stouts and watched while this dude on guitar played with his teeth. Very interesting.

Altogether, the day was pretty great. I got to hang out with a bunch of new people, I got a fancy new tasting glass, and had a bunch of new beers from all over the general New England area. Not a bad day