Tag: a to z 2016

#atozchallenge | Reflections on my First Time

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I survived my first A to Z Blogging Challenge and I’m feeling pretty happy with myself. I was confident that I would finish as I’ve always had good follow through on projects, but the real question was would I scrape by and limp towards the finish line. While I feel like I did in fact finish strong, I had to step back and wait a week before tackling this reflections post so maybe there was a small bit of limping at the end.

Being new to blogging I had set some personal goals with participating in my first challenge.

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#atozchallenge | Z is for the Zombie Apocalypse and Why Maine is the Place to Be

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Being a long-time fan of the zombie genre, I feel pretty well versed in the skills needed to survive in a post apocalyptic world. I’ve even dreamed about my mad zombie skills. I was pretty impressive.

As my A-Z Blogging Challenge comes to an end, I felt I should take the opportunity to highlight why I’m confident that living in Maine will give me an advantage when the zombies come. And, they will come. It’s only a matter of time.

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#atozchallenge | Y is for Yelp and Best Happy Hour Destinations in Portland, Maine

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On a recent outing into Portland, and in an attempt to finish prepping my a-z blog challenge posts, we let Yelp be out guide for the night. It’s important to point out a few things before diving into this post:

  • You can get extremely different Yelp results just by making slight modifications to your search criteria. “Happy Hour Cheap” and “Happy Hour Fun”, not surprisingly, don’t give you the same results. This was helpful to us, as we could manipulate our searches to make sure we liked the results we were seeing. We had to maintain some control over the night.

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#atozchallenge | X is for Moose X-ing and a Visit to the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray, Maine

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I have never seen a moose in the wild. I know that probably surprises you. I’m from Maine and have lived here most of my life so you’d think I’d have had a few encounters, especially since I’m so friendly with the local deer population. I don’t even have to seek the deer out, they come to my house to visit all the time. They’re especially fond of my tulips. They enjoyed them for brunch one fine spring day a few years ago, so for obvious reasons, I haven’t tried to grow them since. I don’t mind. I like deer.

Moose are a little more stand-offish. When they do venture into neighborhoods, it usually makes the evening news and they never look comfortable. They always seem confused as to how all the buildings and people got in the way of their jaunt through the woods. I read Sarah Smiley’s new book for my blog post, R is for a Review of “Got Here As Soon As I Could” by Sarah Smiley, and one of the things she mentions frequently in her short stories is her lack of success with finding a moose in the wild.

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Wings Closeup

#atozchallenge | W is for Wings Made with Deer Camp Black Bear Chipotle BBQ Sauce

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Finding ourselves in Portland one late afternoon with a few hours to spare, my daughter and I decided to pick up a few groceries at Trader Joe’s. Since the trip was unplanned, we didn’t have a shopping list so instead spent time wandering the aisles. Shopping without a list can be a dangerous activity. You never know what you’ll bring home. On a whim, I grabbed a two-pound bag of frozen organic chicken wings. I love wings, but surprisingly have never actually made them at home. This seemed like a reasonable splurge.

During checkout, the cashier commented that he’d heard great things about the wings saying “You wouldn’t think wings would be anything special, but they’re supposed to be delicious”. Interesting observation. I was feeling pretty pleased with my purchase.

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